Oh, schuks! It’s Don and Leon again
DURING 20 years of collaboration, Durban-born and now Howick-based musiciansongwriter Don Clarke and South Africa’s most famous big-screen funnyman, Leon Schuster, have worked together on some of the country’s biggest film successes.
And the fun continues with Schuster’s latest, another candid camera caper titled Schuks! Your Country Needs You, directed by Gray Hofmeyr and scheduled for release on November 29.
The film has Schuster disguised as eight different characters, making use of silicone appliances for his nose, ears, under-eye area and cheeks to alter his appearance.
These appliances were paired with wigs, false teeth, facial hair and body suits to transform Schuster into someone who could hoodwink and make fun of members of the public and various celebrities.
He is joined in these pranks by longtime comic sidekick Alfred Ntombela and popular actorcomedian Rob van Vuuren.
Clarke, who in the 1980s ran a Westville recording studio and was responsible for writing most of the original songs used in dance revues at Durban’s now-defunct Millionaires and Ruby Tuesday clubs on the beachfront, has penned the theme songs and a varied score for the new film.
“This movie didn’t require as many theme songs as others I have done, but 92 pieces of my music were used in the final production,” says Clarke.
“I tried to give the arrangements of my score a more contemporary feel by using modern samples, dubstep and the like, instead of the tired old banjo, bucket and bass-drum arrangements.”
Clarke wrote the big 1986 PJ Powers hit Sanbonani and has also written songs for Laurika Rauch, Danie Niehaus, Kevin Leo and Thuys Die Bosvelklog.
His 2008 song, Hey Na Splashy, was the winner of the Song for Splashy songwriting competition to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Splashy Fen Music Festival near Underberg.
He also recorded three albums with his band Adult Art.
Clarke continues to write songs regularly, on his own and in collaboration with Kalla Bremer and Mike Valentine.
“I am a member of an American organisation called Taxi which represents producers looking for original songs for their artists. It is never easy to get one’s songs covered by major acts, but I continue to submit works to them in the hope that this will happen. At which time I will buy a Lexus.”
Not unexpectedly, Clarke has also produced and written most of the music for three of Schuster’s many hit albums.
He first collaborated with Schuster on his Oh Schuks, It’s Schuster! in the early 90s.
“At the time, a lyric-writing colleague said he had a client from Gauteng who needed a theme song for a movie, and this client, who I had never heard of, turned out to be Leon Schuster,” he recalls.
“He arrived at my Westville studio for the recording, and over the past two decades has become not only one of my steadiest clients, but a dear friend as well.”
Clarke gives a hearty thumbsup to Schuks! Your Country Needs You, which has Schuster and sidekicks taking the mickey out of people in locations varying from Gauteng golf clubs and restaurants to the D’Oreale Hotel at Emperor’s Palace, Melrose Arch, Trader’s Square in Boksburg, a vehicle service centre in Blackheath, the Fourways View shopping centre, a store in Bergbron, a business park in Strydom Park, a rugby club in Hopetown and at Gold Reef City theme park in Joburg.
Says Clarke: “I am delighted to say this film marks a return to the classic Schuster candid-camera format, and is really very funny.
“I have had rough cuts of most of the scenes for months, and despite the fact that I’m a grumpy old cynic, I have had some good laughs. Of course, this movie also features Rob van Vuuren, who is an excellent comic actor.
“Leon, who really suffers for his work, phones me regularly and asks: “Ag Donny, do you REALLY think this movie is good enough?’”
“So I’ll tell you what I tell him. I’m positive that it will be a smash Christmas hit.”
Clarke says Schuster’s onscreen persona does not always do him favours.
“Like so many successful entertainers producing masspleasing, overtly commercial work, Leon comes in for a lot of unfair criticism. Despite the fact that he is the most successful film maker in South Africa.
“Unfortunately his on-screen persona does him no favours in that it completely derails his real character. He is, in fact, a warm, sensitive, caring individual who suffers tremendously for his work.
“He is also a highly intelligent man who started out as an English teacher before getting into broadcasting. He dotes on his 90year-old-mother and nothing is more important to him than his children.
“He can be great fun, but the depth of this man is allayed by his happy-go-lucky films. And yes, he has become a dear friend over the years. I am terribly fond of him.
“I can tell you that he is the only friend I have who ends every telephone conversation to me with the words ‘I love you Donny’. That alone says a lot about the man.”
When he is not writing or recording in his private studio, Monkeyshine Studios, which moved to Howick after three locations in Underberg and one in Dargle, Clarke likes to paint and write a column for his wife Wendy’s tabloid, The Drakonteur.