Gola breath of foul-mouthed fresh air
LOYISO GOLA IS UNLEARNING, at the Thomas Pringle Hall until Saturday.
PRESENTED by Siv Ngesi’s ExploSIV Productions, double Emmy nominated and Comic’s Choice award winner Loyiso Gola opened his new show at the Monument to a happy audience who lapped up his humour.
Seeing as festival comedy can often be a barrage of cheap shots copied and pasted from politicians’ stupid sayings, the intelligent humour of the tall, dark and handsome Gola is a breath of foul-mouthed fresh air.
He says in the show that at the ripe old age of 34, he has to “unlearn” much of what has taken to be true.
“I am going through this process in my life where I am unlearning a lot of stuff, like my approach to masculinity and religion. A lot of what I have learnt is absolute bullsh*t.”
And, although he pays a passing nod to President Jacob Zuma’s dodge friends, on the whole Gola avoids the glib references to current affairs which makes his laid-back approach rather refreshing.
“There is zero comedy in this, but it will make you think,” he said of one insert.
However, there are laughs aplenty as whether he is meandering through the mysteries of London hipsters wanting to collect scratchy vinyl records, why Lesotho really irritates him and how the audience is full of future oppressors, he really is funny.
And as for that comedy blight of latecomers shuffling in after an artist has started, well, Gola has a few witty retorts for them also.
Last year comedy accounted for nearly half of the ticket sales at the National Arts Festival with ExploSIV Productions among the most successful. This year ExploSIV has brought shows like Pay Back The Curry, State Fracture, Life, The Dark Ages, Best of Rob Van Vuuren, Tats Nkonzo is Privileged and Heavier so don’t be surprised if Ngesi-power will dominate once again.