It started with Casper De Vries, dressed as his slow man-child character Blertsie, wandering from the casino floor onto the stage of Monte Casino’s Teatro theatre. In front of a packed audience he proceeded to dance to music in his head while his “mother” berated him as being “kak”. Then John Vlismas appeared on stage behind a ridiculously oversized podium, dressed as Charlie Chaplin’s dictator, and delivered a speech that was brilliant, nonsensical, crude, offensive and filled with in-jokes aimed at the country’s comedians. Both acts had the audience in stitches and set the tone for the second Comic’s Choice Awards.

In true South African stand-up style it was one of the the crudest, most offensive and funniest events of the year. On its serious side it aimed to celebrate the talent of the industry. Six awards were given out, covering a range of categories from Best Newcomer to a Lifetime Achievement award. Dillan Oliphant nabbed the Newcomer statue and, as is now tradition, gave his acceptance speech through a short stand-up performance – explaining how his dad won their hide-and-seek match with a record of 18 years.

Tats Nkozo picked up the Blackberry Breakthrough Award for a comedian who has transcended from newcomer to established act. He celebrated his win with a funny explanation of struggle music and then presented South African whites with their own struggle song – a reworking of Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger (“We got to mooooooooove to Australia!).

Sifiso Nene, who took home the statue for the Audience Choice Award, gave an explanation around how he would approach polygamy (“Line all the wives up and then start in the middle”), while the Times Comic Pen Award was won by Alyn Adams. He mused on how the award statue, dubbed Waldo, should have been called Yorick, the dead jester from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It demonstrated his tremendous talent that this droll topic had the audience in stitches.

Industry veteran Joe Parker accepted the Lifetime Achievement award and spent some of his speech thanking his children and explaining that growing up in the Fifties there were no pedophiles with bags of sweets. The bad news was that you had to buy your own sweets.

The big win of the evening was Trevor Noah, who beat out some of the country’s major talent by scooping the Comic Of The Year Award. Sadly he was not available to accept the accolade and his acceptance speech was a clip from his Daywalker DVD. It was funny, but still served as the evening’s low point when compared to the numerous live acts.

The ceremony was rounded by numerous short skits and performances from the country’s top comedians. Casper De Vries appeared again in a video gag called District 69, while Brendan Jack, who handed out the Times Comic Pen award, preceded his appearance with his own recorded acceptance speech (and subsequent on-camera tantrum when he learned he wasn’t even nominated) for that very statue.

A short video tipped its hat to the late Al Debbo, while an ongoing joke involving a colonial couple, their ‘trophy’ black child and a quartet of ballerinas performing snippets of Swan Lake kept the audience entertained. There was even a short ‘seminar’ by Dave Levinsohn on how to become SA’s top Comedian. It mainly came down to “What would Riaad Moosa do?”.

Comedians such as Melt Sieberhagen and Mpho Modikoane kept spirits high with their performances. A naked pianist accompanied a sultry song about getting laid and South Africa wore its racial diversity on its sleeve with a terribly politically-incorrect ‘game show’. The evening ended with a performance by numerous comedians and choirs, where Tats Nkozo singing his famous song about how to make friends. A big hit and fantastic show, the Comic’s Choice Awards have raised the bar for itself, the industry and what you can expect when you next see our country’s jesters in action.

By James Francis