Publications
Partners
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
Mzansi's great comedian is back with a brand-new comedy showcase featuring up-and-coming South African comedians and the stories behind their success.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Trevor Noah Presents Nationwild showcases some of South Africa’s up and coming young comedians.
From across the country Noah has handpicked some of the funniest people in the country and most of them had me in stitches.
Comedy is so subjective, what I find funny could miss the mark with someone else. The amount of times my husband barely cracks a smile while I laugh like a drain is a lot. But what I do love about comedy is that it makes us laugh despite the dire state of the world. It also shows us just how similar human beings are by highlighting our shared behaviours despite the obvious physical differences people tend to focus on.
Some of the comedians like Gilly Apter fell flat for me, her anorexia jokes were a bit uncomfortable and I couldn’t bring myself to laugh at that, but maybe I just couldn’t relate to her. Lindsay Johnson was so delightful to watch with her self-deprecating humour but also the accuracy of growing up coloured was spot on. Then there were others like Phil de Lange and Gavin Kelly who had me rolling with laughter. Eric Jansen, Tsitsi Chiumya and Mo Mothebe were also a delight to watch.
I didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did for Gavin Kelly but he plays so well on preconceived prejudices and flips them on the head.
Each comedian has his or her own brand of comedy and it was great to see that showcased on such a big scale.
The format of the show could be tweaked a bit though. It starts with a six-minute introduction of the featured comedian telling us about their life growing up and how they got into comedy. It’s a nice showcase for them but to be honest we’re here for the comedy and this could have been cut down by half giving them a bit more time with their acts. I found myself skipping these intros after the first minute or two and just moving on to the comedy. But this is probably the only critique I can fault the show with.
Trevor then does a 2 minute bit before introducing the comedian of the night, which is just enough time to warm up the crowd but also not to take away from the reason we’re here, which is to be introduced to new comedians.
Trevor has picked some brilliant new comedians to give a platform to and what’s cool about this is that despite his fame and success in America, he is still focused on helping out in Mzansi.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
