Matthew Krouse
Anyone who was around in the Sixties couldn’t possibly forget the local variety stage show called Wait a Minim that played to packed houses at Johannesburg’s Intimate theatre before touring abroad. It kick- started a trend of self-serving pathos in indigenous white humour.
One would be hard-pressed to find a South African over 30 who doesn’t remember the show’s star, Jeremy Taylor, or his mega-hit of the era, Ag Pleez Daddy, sung from the point of view of a kid begging his father to take his family of 10 to the drive-in. The point was that middle-lower class whites had bad taste and no money.
It was a sort of musical version of the cartoon Flip Foster that once poked fun at suburbia, nudging whites off their pedestals, and it seems to have set a precedent from which local comedy has never quite recovered.
More than a decade later, with the advent of television in the late Seventies, came another major comedy moment – Biltong and Pot Roast – a studio competition that harped on the cultural differences between English and Afrikaans-speakers.
Today, it seems that we have come full circle. A live-comedy boom is currently taking the suburbs by storm. Comedy venues seem to be springing up in all the comfort zones – places like Randburg’s Funny Farm, Hurricanes in the Fourways Mall and Stars Studio in Pretoria’s Sheraton Hotel.
Last Saturday saw an exemplary gathering of the cream of the current comedy crop at the Sun City Superbowl called Laughter Blaster. It included both newcomers and a smattering of old names who have risen from some hysterical oblivion.
Packed with over a thousand spectators, South Africa once again giggled and guffawed at Mel Miller, Eddie Eckstein and Cyril Green, gentlemen now more portly, but no less vociferous than they were when they graced the small screen of the old SABC.
The re-emergence of these stalwarts brings the development of the local sense of humour into sharp focus. Today, these old boks seem to reek of some hectic disenchantment. And this has left them stoning some very old cows. Eckstein, for example, seems to never have recovered from the problems that affected the health sector under Minister Nkosazana Zuma. Zuma, he said, stands for “Zero understanding of medical affairs,” and that the minister now does the work of two men: Laurel and Hardy.
That is the basic tone of what our comedy veterans have to offer – that, and an inevitable lambasting of the petty criminals on the city streets. It combines with pessimism about the state of the country in general, leading Miller to comment: “What a country – we’ve got the greatest Constitution in the world. You can do anything you want to as long as you’re not smoking when you’re doing it.”
As far as the new comedy troopers go, the coming of fresh blood hasn’t necessarily brought with it new attitudes. However sexy, brash and rude these guys may be, they’re borderline sexists – fortunate for them because in comedy it’s considered healthy to break down taboos. The word “poes” gets used with abandon. John Vlismas suggested dropping a panty-liner on flooded Mozambique, Al Prodgers said bras come in four sizes: “Small, medium, large and hallelujah!”
In my opinion, the current comedy road show has only two barrier-breaking acts in it. The one is the The House Boys who do a lip-sync and mime routine that could challenge contemporary performance practitioners anywhere in the world. Their act is off-beat and surreal, they don’t objectify women or come across as maladjusted whites unable to come to terms with a country that has changed.
The other is Ronnie Modimola, one of the few black voices in stand-up comedy, whose work seems to invert all the stereotypes currently gracing the stage today. As Modimola says, he’s not into comedy because he’s trying to be white: “Why would I want to use a penis enlarger for the rest of my life?”
See veteran comedian Joe Parker’s comedy hurricane at Stars Studio Exclusive Supper Club every Wednesday night from 8.30pm. Comedians include Parker, Martin Jonas, Magic Man, Alyn Adams, The House Boys, Trevor Sturgess, Robert Fridjohn, Cyril Green, John Vlismas, Chris Forrest, Ronnie Modimola, Ryan Whittal and Mel Miller. For information Tel: (012) 342-3313