Warm, Wonderful, Whiteboy (Now there's an ambiguous title).

Whiteboy Shebeen is in the heart of Sandton, tucked away next to a hotel just off Katherine drive. I had heard of it, but never been there when I pulled in for a gig on Friday night with Laz Gola, Dale Amler, Ariel Kagan and Martin Davis. The place is exactly what it claims to be, Shebeen style tables with Sandton style prices. I had been expecting an older crowd, but the people who filled the venue were young, and not overtly moneyed. There was a distinct air of laid-back relaxation and a total lack of pretention. It was great.

The stage is placed in the middle of the small room, actually facing the stairwell with the crowd on either side. It's not ideal and host Martin Davis was a bit worried as he stepped up onto stage. It turned out he needn't have been as his manic energy quickly charged up the room and the wonderfully warm people were quickly into the show.

Ariel was up first. He is beginning to perfect his short set, and while some of the material was definitely darker than people were prepared to go for this early in the show, he came off after having gotten some good laughs.

Dale Amler followed with a set largely made up of material that will be in his Grahamstown show "You Sit, I'll Stand". He continues to rapidly improve as a comedian and if this show is any indication his show will be one of the must see events at the Festival.

The second half started on the low key silliness of Laz Gola. Laz started as if he could do no wrong. Every little punchline caused laughter to ripple through the crowd, but then sadly he seemed to lose his way a bit. The last few minutes didn't live up to the hype of the first half and he came off after a period of literal head-scratching, as he searched for bits to do. It was overall a good set though and there was little doubt the crowd appreciated it.

I came on to a room that was really working thanks to the heroic efforts of Martin Davis, whose every word was greeted with howls of laughter, and the funny people before me, so the credit for my response definitely doesn't all go to me. The crowd chuckled together as I did new material from my upcoming one man Spamily, and errupted when I concluded on the older stuff. Early on I swallowed one or two punchlines during the new stuff and my timing was sometimes not 100% as I was doing things the first time, but there was a steady stream of laughter. It was on the older material though that things really took off. One lady fell off her chair on a huge punchline, though whether it was from laughing or drunkeness I can't really say. Dale Amler will argue with me and say he had the set of the night (cause arguing's what he does), but I still hold that the cheering and sheer percentage of the crowd that thanked me afterwards, indicates that honour goes elsewhere. (And besides, it's my blog). I left the gig that night feeling amazing.

Tiring at TSG

I'll admit it, I am not the biggest fan of Tony D King's comedy. I find it tired, racist and often reliant on showmanship rather than content. That said he does seem to have the ability to get a crowd revved up, even when there's absolutely nothing to get excited about. This was not the case on Wednesday when Tony died harder than anyone I have ever seen die, and he did it when opening for me at TSG.

I was called in to do TSG at the last minute for the legendary Mel Miller, and as such didn't have much time to think about the gig before I was running up the stairs to the mezzanine level where the comedy takes place. Tony was already there, and I figured I would have a solid half an hour to scope out the venue and work over the new material I wanted to try for the first time. TSG's managers had other plans though as they changed the starting time from 20h30 to, "right this very minute". Tony played his voice recorder intro and leapt in front of the crowd with the eager abandon of a buck about to cross a busy road in front of a logging truck.

He started, perhaps unwisely, on his racist material, tearing into an Indian couple with his bits on The Moodley Blues and Miriah Curry. They left. This didn't deter Tony who kept pushing the racial buttons, not getting a single laugh, until three more tables had departed. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't have his guitar to back him up, but Tony was left with nowhere to go material wise after that as he floundered in homophobic material until two more tables left. The seventh table departed somewhere in the middle of his Elvis impersonation. What had been a packed room just 20 minutes earlier was not reduced to six tables and when Tony called me up he had yet to get one person laughing out loud.

I went up and as a first question asked the crowd how many of them had known about the comedy before we started. One elderly couple timidly put up a hand. One table out of the six. "Well then lets all get through this next 30 minutes together" I joked and they laughed. Over the next 30, which seemed very much like two hours, I got four of the six tables to laugh regularly while the other two remained stonily silent. One of the tables even sent Jaegermesiters up to me where I performed in the middle of the room. It was grinding and tough, but as I came off I took huge pleasure in  the fact that two bits, I had never done before both got laughs. If they could get laughs there, then I suspect when it comes time to do them at Spamily in Grahamstown they will be roaring.

Tony and I left just after 9pm and I was home, in bed, by 9h30. It hadn't been easy, but it had been quick, and for that, at least, I was grateful.

Kings of Catch-phrase Comedy

SNL's unaired sketch, "Kings of Catchphrase Comedy Tour" takes a shot at "comics" whose sets are made up of catch phrases:

Cartel in the Independent

The Joburg Comedy Cartel was featured in the Sunday Independent this past weekend in an article by the lovely Lesley Stones who came to interview us at the most recent gig at the Foxwood. For those who missed it, here it is (clicking on the image will allow you to read it):

Easy Way to Win Tickets

The Joburg Comedy Cartel performs on the first Friday of every month at the Foxwood theatre in Houghton, along with some of our favourite comedians. The next gig on Friday June 1st will see JCC members Alyn Adams and myself share the stage with John Vlismas and Tats Nkonzo. You can win tickets to this show simply by becoming a member of the Joburg Comedy Cartel group on Facebook, or you can buy them for just R100 each by calling the Foxwood theatre on (0)11 486 0935. We look forward to seeing you there.

Great Gig in the Making

For only the second month Comedy Rocks hosted comedy at Picolinos in Fourways and the crowds are already arriving. With over 140 bookings the entire stage area was packed as I took to the stage hosting a line up of great comedians. Dale Amler was set to go on first, with Melt Sieberhagen and Chris Forrest each closing a half, and two open mics Alfred Adrian and Ariel Kagan filling in too. It was set to be a big evening, but it was making me nervous as the one aspect that had proved itself hard the month before was when Malcolm Ferreira had to settle down a fairly rowdy audience.

In the end it was relatively easy. One or two groups who had never been to comedy before had to actively be teased till they settled in, but most were raring to go. One guy who had loudly been talking actually whined, "but I brought the largest table", when he was mocked into submission. It took me about 10 minutes to get everyone in hand and facing the stage before a few big laughs in a row allowed me to bring up Dale.

Dale has been improving rapidly this year and whereas he was till quite recently, a comedian with one or two huge highlights in a generally mediocre set, his new material is all of his best level. His presentation too is getting better with each performance and his low key delivery kept the crowd entranced and laughing throughout.

My job after that was to return the energy to the room, which I did before bringing up Alfred whose five minutes of explosive high energy rudeness got the whole room laughing. This allowed me a quick change over to Melt to end the first half, which had gone a little long for my liking to that point.

Melt was a star closer and like with the last Picolinos event the end of the first half ushered in some of the biggest, regular laughs of the night.

After the break the show progressed quickly. The new material practiced in the first half I got to do some working material and the crowd responded well. By the time I called on Ariel the room was cooking. Ariel however struggled a bit. Largely this was down to the unnecessary swearing that has become his nervous tic. The material is clever, but the filler harshness rubbed the crowd, which had, until minutes earlier, included children, the wrong way. He still got some good laughs based on his stuff, but it definitely could have received a better response.

I filled the time in between acts with some of my best stuff before I called up a very low key Chris Forrest to headline. Chris' strength on this night was definitely his audience interaction. His asides and banter with various members of the audience got huge applause and laughs, whereas the material was getting a slightly more muted one. Chris did his time and came off to a nice round of applause, before I wrapped up and brought the evening to a close. It was a great night and judging by the line up at the next one (Deep Fried Man, Jason Goliath and John Vlismas) that venue is only going to get better and better.

Troopers and Tractor Beams

College Humor's Troopers video series is always pretty funny. This one is great: 

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