I have recently been in the eye-opening position of seeing the “backstage” workings of South African comedy productions. Comedy is such a powerful and fascinating tool, able to unite or divide an audience with just the slightest inflection.
In South Africa especially, we are all rather sensitive about our personal idiosyncrasies that form our cultures in this magical rainbow nation, but take a small step back and what an “potjie kos” of entertaining and cross purpose cultures we are! And despite what the daily “news” will have you believe we are actually progressing and learning more about each other each day.
For local comedians, they have the edge – the inside lingo that will appeal to their community and often translates comically when viewed from a different perspective. For foreign comedians in South Africa – they cannot believe their luck at all the colourful varieties and perspectives we have on almost everything in our beautiful country. Our comedy scene holds incredibly international appeal and we are fortunate enough to have some of the highest rated international comedians on our stages.
I would hate to have to tread this very thin line between celebrating and uniting in laughter to celebrate our uniqueness, and the very real and constant threat of offending possibly anyone, at any stage. From my limited exposure it seems some people attend comedy looking for a reason to be offended! In addition, of course, we further complicate our diversity by having to adapt your act to which province you are in – as even each province has different flairs!
However there are an impressive amount of talented, energetic, positive comedians who manage to pull this off seemingly easily and frequently. It is a fascinating talent not to be taken lightly - could you attempt it?Take a break from the dreadful, poorly researched, hate mongering news outlets to join a fun night out with your fantastic fellow South Africans, share a drink and a laugh and remind yourself of all we have to be celebrate and embrace. What better platform to face our complexities then a comedic perspective.