By BRUCE DENNILL Comedian, actor and director Alan Committie has, for the last several years, staged an annual solo show at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre (either prior to or following a run of the same piece at the Theatre…
By JOHN ELLIS It’s a sign of our ever-deepening cultural poverty that I’d have to explain what I mean by ‘The Goons’. I’m talking, of course, of the one-and-only, groundbreaking, anarchic, pioneering, standard-setting Goon Show. The BBC radio comedy…
By BRUCE DENNILL The Award-Winning Podcast / Starring Warren Robertson and guests / Rim & Rubber, Greenside, Johannesburg Professional comics don’t have much scope in terms of the way they can present their wit and delivery. Outside of…
By BRUCE DENNILL El Blanco: Tales Of The Mariachi / Starring James Cairns / Auto & General Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg There’s an art to making a one-man show really fly. If it is a pure…
By BRUCE DENNILL Pay Back The Curry / Directed by Rob Van Vuuren / Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg Satirical revues, especially those that deal in the clichés of whatever agenda is currently being pushed in newscasts,…
By BRUCE DENNILL Savanna Comics’ Choice Awards 2016 / Directed by Rob Van Vuuren / Teatro, Fourways, Johannesburg This showcase for South African (and soon to be African, according to a recent announcement) comedy, has, in six years,…
By BRUCE DENNILL The Grilling of a Lifetime: Casper de Vries / Grillmaster – John Vlismas / Parker’s Comedy & Jive, Montecasino, Johannesburg A roast (or grill, if the name must be changed to satisfy some puerile pettiness)…
By BRUCE DENNILL I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change / Directed by Elizma Badenhorst / Pieter Torien’s Montecasino Theatre, Fourways, Johannesburg Versions of the men-versus-women, Mars-Venus, defense of the caveman story have filled the pages of literature,…
By BRUCE DENNILL 6 Characters In Search Of An Author / Directed by Sibusiso Mamba / Mannie Manim Theatre, Market Theatre, Newtown, Johannesburg It was a strange strategy in 1921, when Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello wrote and first…
By BRUCE DENNILL Johannesburg International Comedy Festival: Live From The 13th Floor / Thirteen, Braamfontein, Johannesburg That the line-up for the Live From The 13th Floor show featured only comediennes is slightly problematic. Not because there is a…
By BRUCE DENNILL The Jittery Citizens / Kippies, Market Theatre, Johannesburg / 22 March Attending a show at Kippies, the ex jazz club that is now a tiny remnant of what used to be among the high-rise development…