Stand-up comedy is enjoying an international renaissance — and South Africans are getting in on the act, as DAVID LE PAGE
MOST evenings at the moment, the Johannesburg Civic Theatre foyer is bustling with theatregoers missing a great opportunity: that of going to see — totally free of charge – — the Swopping Comics crowd in action in the Pianola Bar.
In a slightly more formal incarnation, Swopping Comics inhabits the Youth Theatre. It’s a pool of nearly 30 actors and actresses who take turns appearing in a nightly show of six stand-up routines, and a knot of perversity called Natural Born Kidders: the bastard, but happy, child of Theatre Sports and Comedy Games.
Swopping Comics, directed by Maralin Vanrenen, echoes in its emergence here an international trend of growing interest in stand-up. Comedy Clubs have long been institutions in the United States, where they have produced performers like Lilly Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Roseanne Barr and Billy Crystal. In Europe, the Billy Connollys of the world are attracting competition from performers like Eddie Izzard, a transvestite who avoids the label as strenuously as he does television.
Stand-up should not be confused with the tradition of the working-men’s club — raconteurs who recite a few jokes before a lunchtime stripshow. Stand-up routines are more thematic and personal. Vanrenen observes as well that the comics tend to steer away from impersonations. Well-worn cliches of South African comedy, like the kugel and the “dof oke”, are avoided.
In Vanrenen’s view, until very recently times were not right for the medium in South Africa. Protest theatre spoke of the concerns of the majority, with a collective voice that left little space for the individual. Thus stand-up is a luxury South Africans haven’t yet accustomed themselves to — the luxury of being able to talk about individual experience without fear of perceived self-indulgence. Comedy is now free to “unspook” things, to ease the anxiety around society’s pressure
Vanrenen designed the show to take the pressure of providing a whole evening’s entertainment off one person. The result allows participants to try out original material, assess audience reactions, and to constantly develop their acts. Stand-up is a far cheaper way of getting exposure than theatre; when the shows ends, all the comics will have had the opportunity to develop enough material for individual shows.
The line-up includes well-known names like Gaby Lomberg and Joanna Weinberg, but most are unfamiliar to audiences. Barbara Rubin, a participant as well as the show’s assistant director, returned recently from a seven-month stint in New York. Her experiences there form the basis for one of her routines, the joy of which is its demonstration of painfully typical South African traits, and how they emerge overseas.
Though Rubin’s personal passion is Shakespeare, she feels actors can hone many skills in the hothouse of a stand-up routine: timing, sensitivity to the audience and the moment. In her view, success demands that one is at ease with oneself. For actors, stand-up is different to conventional theatre; one reacts to the audience rather than to other members of a cast. Rubin believes losing touch with one’s audience, perhaps failing to acknowledge a heckler, can spell death for any particular performance.
Alyn Adams is a cheerful, self-confessed egomaniac, who clearly gets an enormous kick out of stand-up. Yet, though he enjoys “hogging the limelight”, it’s not an opportunity he abuses, saying he wants to “get people into my head, to take them on my journey”, and indeed his style coaxes people into seeing things from his perspective as he shows up the absurdities and contradictions that society takes for granted — like attitudes to drugs, and advertising.
Using material that one relates to, rather than what one thinks will elicit a laugh, is crucial to getting an audience on one’s side, as Adams points out, and most of the Swopping Comics have chosen this route. Nana Stapelberg talks about life with a baby, Pamela Power of Catholicism, Bob Fridjhon about cricket, Hustler and ProNutro …
Which leads to the issue of what people consider to be obscene and what will offend people. Obviously this depends on who you are; as Vanrenen observes, comedy is like sex, different for everyone.
Certain American stand-up routines have attracted much notoriety in recent years. Lobbyists who have pilloried gangsta rap have also condemned notorious comedians like Andrew Dice Clay, who was interpreted as being racist, misogynist and obscene. Clay succumbed to the pressure, and has toned down, even altering his stage-name to Andrew Clay.
Fridjhon’s act is informative here. His more risque material is not gratuitous — but, while entertaining, it just doesn’t approach the hilarity of his earnest discussion of the properties of ProNutro.
A constantly evolving show, Swopping Comics has a certain lively energy that more than compensates for inevitable awkwardnesses. The comics are learning fast; may the public be similarly blessed.
Swopping Comics runs nightly at the Johannesburg Civic until January 20. You can also catch the comics in action (free of charge) at the Pianola Bar, Wednesdays to Fridays between 5pm and 6pm, until February 17