Suzy Bell On stage in Durban
Five years ago a young lad called John was living in London. He woke up one freezing winter’s morning and decided to come home and promised himself that if he was not touring his country as a stand-up comedian by the age of 25, he’d become a panel beater on the Bluff.
Thankfully, Vlismas represented South Africa at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal in July 1997 – and now at 25, he is whizzing around the country with his sell-out stand-up show, Man in Black. He’s a Durban boy who grew bigger than Durban, a satirical social commentator who now follows in the fine footprints of stand-up comedian greats like Mark Banks and master satirist Pieter Dirk Uys.
But Vlismas chides that he is merely a comedian at the end of the world, “the last line of defence between the innocent open-minded and the scum of the earth”. And he’s not one to pander to what the people want, “you can’t pander to 200 people. They all want different things.” Vlismas now writes material that blisters with pre-millennium psychosis, conspiracy theories, the notion of legalising dope, the stupidity of drinking and driving and the harsh realities of domestic violence. “Nothing about aliens really, I just always wear black. I’ve grown up to believe it’s the men who wear black who always know the truth.”
His publicists gush that his show is “bigger than Latoyah Jackson, funnier than the JSE and louder than Boney M”. According to them it is called Man in Black because “It’s about the aliens that have already landed – Marthinus van Schalkwyk, George Michael, Patricia Lewis and people who enjoy the Spice Girls.” But that’s a load of bollocks and Vlismas is the first to agree.
Vlismas successfully manages to meld sillyness with stark seriousness. He is a fine one for spiking his routine with heavy statistics that can chill the room in a nano-second. He spouts, “Do you know we have the worst rates of domestic violence?”, and he back-slaps you again just as you were feeling warm and happy with belly-laughter. There are times when you certainly won’t feel comfortable in your chair, but then he lightly froths you up – heating you up for what he slickly dubs, your “next journey”.
Vlismas admits that a lot of his 90- minute show is “fluff, but the spikes are there, so be aware, be fucking aware!” He puts everything into his show to the point that he has very little energy left for “real life”. “My work is my therapy. But people expect me to be all hysterical off-stage. My show may be a bit mad, and I do this unconscious river-dance with each character in the show, but once I’m off-stage I just sit quietly and enjoy a cup of tea.”
Man in Black by John Vlismas is on at the Playhouse in Durban until May 30