Marc Lottering’s adventures with Aunty Merle
Marc Lottering is clearly having a ball as his hilarious alter ego takes the stage in her very own musical
HE’S a sight to behold as he sashays across the stage, his lanky frame clad in a dress and heels and his famous Afro hidden under a doek. And then he – or rather she – breaks into song and the audience goes wild. In short, it’s Aunty Merle in all her glory. The man playing her is of course Marc Lottering, one of SA’s most loved comedians and the creator and star of Aunty Merle – The Musical. Longtime fans of the Cape Town-based funnyman will be familiar with this auntie from Belgravia Road on the Cape Flats. For years she’s been making cameo appearances in Marc’s stand-up routine – but last year he decided it was “Merle’s time to shine” and, voila, a musical comedy was born. Boasting a 14-member cast and eight-man band, the show was nominated for four Fleur du Cap awards this year, including best original score and best male actor in a musical. “It was an incredible honour,” Marc says when we meet him at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre where the show has just returned for a second run after a sensational soldout season at the end of last year. Merle is very close to his heart, says Marc, who created her 20 years ago at the start of his stage career. So is she based on anyone in particular? “Merle is actually three women rolled into one, but they don’t know they’re Aunty Merle so I won’t mention them by name,” he says. “Although one is my mom, but she’s passed on.” Merle is struggling to cope with the demands of her modern-day family. Her daughter, Abigail, has just become engaged to Alan – “a good-looking white boy from
Bantry Bay” – and Merle has to arrange the wedding. But things get complicated when Abigail’s nasty ex rocks up from Joburg. Meanwhile Merle’s son, Carl, is spending way too much time listening to Beyoncé with his pal Siya – which has tongues wagging in the ’hood.
“At its heart it’s a love story everyone can relate to,” Marc says. “We’ve cut down on all the colloquialisms so even tourists can enjoy it.”
For a long time he’s wanted to branch out from writing stand-up material but knew it was risky. “It’s easy for me to write for a one-man show – I’ve been doing it for years. This was new territory for me, but I knew in my heart I had to do it.”
So he wrote the script and collaborated with well-known local actress and singer Tarryn Lamb (who also plays Abigail) on the music.
The show is his proudest achievement to date, he adds. “I was prepared to sell my flat, my car, whatever it took to pay the salaries of the cast. We didn’t have sponsors on board so there were no guarantees this was going to work. A lot of people see my name and immediately think stand-up, so the question was, would they come for a musical?”
The answer was a resounding yes. Tickets sold out within two weeks of going on sale and on opening night Marc had even more to celebrate. “We opened just before 4 December, which happened to be my 50th birthday. It was also 20 years to the night that I first walked on stage to do stand-up, and when I first introduced Aunty Merle to audiences. So it was a very special moment.”
ASK Marc where he gets his charisma from and he’ll tell you straight: his pastor dad. “Church is theatre, you know,” he says. “My father was of the old Pentecostal church school – he could command an audience just by making eye contact. There was a lot of singing, preaching and praying. So I think I just picked it up from there.”
But comedy would find him only later. After school he studied law at the University of Cape Town because “in my house you either had to become a teacher, a doctor or a lawyer”.
While studying he worked as an usher at the Baxter Theatre and watched hundreds of shows, including those of comedians such as Soli Philander, Mark Banks and Pieter-Dirk Uys. “I remember thinking, ‘I can do this’.”
He went on to work at an advertising agency in the Mother City where he “had to make words sound sexy and funny”. From there he started writing his own stories and in 1997 he made his stand-up debut with a show called After the Beep.
What followed is a highly successful career that shows no sign of slowing down. “People respond to honesty,” he says on why he believes he’s still so popular. “A story can be funny, but if it’s true and honest and it’s a good story, that’s what people love the most.”
He says turning the big five-O – “380 in gay years”, as he puts it – came as a bit of a shock but it’s also been a time of self-reflection. “I think if you go through life not questioning anything, it’s worrying.”
Marc’s a firm believer in karma. “If you believe you can have coffee with the Guptas and nothing is going to come back to you, then you’re in denial!” Keeping in shape is a priority for the comedian, who has a fitness trainer he works out with three times a week. “But I had to kick up the exercise for the show,” he says. “Audiences nowadays want to see you look healthy – the days where the funnyman had a boep is just not on anymore.” He says he’s fortunate that he doesn’t suffer from the common comedian curse of depression. “I’m generally a happy-going Sagittarian.”
IT PROBABLY helps that he’s been happily involved for the past 20 years with fellow Capetonian Anwar McKay (43), whom he married in 2010.
“I actually met him before I started telling jokes for a living,” Marc says. “Now he manages my brand and he’s also directed three of my one-man shows.”
In their free time they enjoy long, lazy lunches with friends but these days they’re also battling empty-nest syndrome after losing their beloved Dachshunds to old age.
“They were like our children. Anwar said let’s give it a break but I think we’re ready now to get more. I adore dogs.”
With the musical bug having bitten, Marc is keen to set his sights on doing more. So can we expect an Aunty Merle sequel? “Maybe,” he says. But right now this show occupies all his time.
Aunty Merle – The Musical is set to hit Joburg theatres in January 2019 so there’s plenty of life left in it yet.
“And when I get time I plan to read more, learn to play the guitar and make a good curry.” S
SThe show is on at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, until 28 April. Tickets available via Webtickets or at Pick n Pay.
‘There were no guarantees this was going to work’