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Vlismas vs Rasdien


Freshly released at your local cinema, Outrageous!, one of SA’s first ever stand-up comedy films, is on everyone’s lips. Produced by Anant Singh, directed by Bevan Cullinan together with John Vlismas, Outrageous leaves nothing unsaid or untouched. Featuring some of SA’s top comedians like Barry Hilton, Mark Banks, Joey Rasdien, Loyiso Gola, Riaad Moosa and Krijay Govender the movie has done more for unifying South Africans of all colours, flavours and variants than the ANCYL's most recent efforts.

Inspired by a Spike Lee movie, Outrageous! brewed for a very long time before it reached maturity. “Anant phoned me about eight years ago after seeing the movie The Original Kings of Comedy asking me what the chances are of making a South African version of such a film. We’ve seen the movie, and while we thought it was brilliant and Spike Lee is a great director, we felt that there were maybe some things we could do to change it," says John.

An eight year gap between the initial idea and the end product, according to John, seems to be the reason why Outrageous! is such a successful stand-up comedy film. "In that time I think all of us learned more about comedy and grew up as people and stuff. And also, we’ve got a much better comedy sort of landscape to choose comics from."

Producers input, freelance comedians’ schedules and the entire mix were the main concerns according to John in producing the final line-up. "By mix I don’t mean the diversity, I mean the different kind of energies, different deliveries and different material. And ultimately what we ended up with, I think, is what I call like a 'Magic Mix', you know, I think it’s just like a great pool."

Confirming the busy schedule issue is Joburg born stand-up comedian Joey Rasdien who compromised to feature in most of the movie. "I couldn’t make time, because I was doing some other stuff, so ja, I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t do some of the stuff, but, uhm I did a bietjie. So I didn’t do the clubs, I just did the big gig."

One stage, one film and seven comedians must’ve been quite an experience. "Yeah well, I knew John since I started comedy, I know Bevan since I started comedy and I know Riaad for about eight years now and I’ve known Mark and Krijay for long. So the only other person that I didn’t really know that well was Barry. Loyiso stayed with me at my house, so we stayed together ja, we were like room mates, so it was normal, like we were all friends basically. It was brilliant," Joey explains.

John shares this sentiment and elaborates on the choice of comedians. “It was great, and you know a lot of them are my friends, 'cause I’ve been quite involved in trying to develop and build the comedy industry for quite a long time, and they each have aspects of them that I’m aware of. I knew Mark Banks would be one of the greatest people to catch off-camera, like off-stage, because he’s like that all the time and he’s crazy. And then people like Barry, who’s got an incredible physicality I kind of knew that the camera loves that. I also knew that Joey Rasdien would be like sunshine in like a bottle, he’s just the funniest."

On the Malema issue:
John: "The ANC should deal with him like the fat stupid baby that he is. He is doing great work for the DA, because he seems to be trimming ANC votes every day."
Joey: "He is like the proof that democracy in South Africa exists. When the leader of the youth league of the ruling party speaks so much shit that the ruling party is like 'look dude, can you keep your mouth shut now?' - that is the hallmark of democracy."

Best "Touch me on my studio" one-liner?
John: "I’ve never touched a man on his studio before, to be honest, but if someone had to touch me on my studio, I’d also be quite upset."
Joey: "My ma’t gese ek moet agter die huis kyk, mar toe breek hulle voor in."

Worst experience on stage?
John: "During a gig for about 1 200 senior golfers, I jumped on stage without reading the audience; I was so determined to tell the audience about how mad I was, they just weren’t interested at all. Eventually an old man came towards the front of the stage, making a cutting signal across his throat telling me to get off. That was quite embarrassing."
Joey: "I don’t have that hey, I do what I do because I want to do it and I do it with enjoyment, that’s my reward."

Future and current plans:
John: "We’ve got a tour called The Funny By Funny which starts in May at the Royal Albert Hall in London and ends in South Africa. I’m also producing at the moment and there’s already some talk about a follow-up to Outrageous! I also have other projects in the pipeline for later this year which has not been announced yet."
Joey: "I’m doing a one-man show at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City on the 21st and the 22nd of May called Mixed DNA. I also just completed an Afrikaans sitcom about myself, ‘n lekke autobiographical sitcom called Rasdien which will be aired on SABC 2 late October-early November. Then I am also working on a couple of movies like Blits Patrollie and Material together with Riaad Moosa."

* Outrageous! is currently on circuit countrywide. Watch the trailer and hilarious movie clips here.

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