Comedy is alive and well, even in Sandton

Johannesburg - South Africa’s comics came out to play at the Sandton Convention Centre on Friday night, performing in the fifth annual Kings and Queens of Comedy show.

Trevor Gumbi, who hosts the popular SABC1 game show, Friends Like These, kicked the night off with a decent set. At one point, though, he joked about dating 19-year-old university students. Let’s hope he’s a little beyond the blesser thing.

Joey Rasdien was a brilliant emcee. Expressing anger at the overseas ratings agencies’ downgrading of the country to “junk” status, he said he just couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of foreigners arriving here and telling us we’re junk – to loads of applause.

Tumi Morake, who was looking slim and gorgeous, took her time to make sure that everyone was aware of her new body. Her set was going really well until she had a bit of a tumble on stage. But she seamlessly went on with the gig, explaining that she agreed to co-host the breakfast show on Jacaranda FM because “white people don’t listen to YFM guys”. She was a definite crowd pleaser.

Then an elderly Indian auntie interrupted Rasdien with an announcement to the audience that she was looking for her cheating husband. This turned out to be comedian Krijay Govender. What an entrance! Hers was a very funny, short set with jokes that sounded a little like primary school disses – remember those? It worked, though. Her content was refreshing and her approach unique.

Mpho Popps came out guns blazing, saying: “Things are not going MiWay” – referring to the racist email doing the rounds on social media. He won over the room instantly, especially since he has appeared in a series of the insurance brand’s commercials. He proceeded to deliver the best set of the evening and should have been the headline act, but that honour was reserved for Ndumiso Lindi who was also outstanding.

The ever-impressive Khanyisa Bunu tailored her jokes to the audience rather well. Her set is usually delivered in vernacular, but she flipped some of her jokes for a predominantly English-speaking crowd and they still worked well – except when she touched on Mshoza. Clearly, Sandton folk don’t do kwaito legends.

The event was well supported and rather long, but was still relaxing and enjoyable. Our comedians are getting better with every edition of this show.