Comedians promise night of diverse, but hilarious gags at festival
THE CAST of the 11th Jive Cape Town Funny Festival yesterday promised audiences a show that would be enlightening and entertaining.
The comedians, –Shimmy Isaacs, Carl Wastie, Dylan Skews, Carl Weber and Tracy Klass – will wow audiences at the Baxter Theatre from July 20 to August 16.
Internationally acclaimed singer and producer Alistair Izobell will be hosting the show.
Klass said the show would be multicultural, featuring gags that were as diverse as they were hilarious. “We bring different elements of society. Someone from Sea Point will have a different experience when compared to the person from Worcester.
Isaacs said the cast had based their gags on personal experience that originate from an “honest” place.
“Where I am in my life I like knowing that I have been given certain opportunities that my parents have not.
“Going to the Waterfront with my mother is an experience because I am always dumbfounded when she would tell me, ‘You know black people are doing well’ but the funny thing is that it is not strange seeing black people doing well.”
Wastie joined in on the conversation, proclaiming that he would make an intelligent contribution.
“I think that at every single turn of our country we have been met with a particular moment of adversity and I feel that the therapy has always been comedy.
“That is how South Africa digests the problems within society by going to a show and taking a load-off.”
Skews’s brand of comedy was described as “fresh” by his colleagues.
His former lecturer and colleague, Isaacs, said: “He takes ‘white issues’ that the white audience feels uncomfortable with, he pokes fun at it but also leaves us with a reality check – we are all the same.”
The comedians left the Cape Argus with some serious food for thought by saying there was a fine line between what was considered funny compared to “ugly” jokes.
“There is a huge difference between a Jewish joke and an anti-Semitic joke. There is a difference between a homophobic joke and a gay joke,” said Klass.
Tickets to the festival are available through Computicket.