By By Precious Manaka (3 mins read)
Comedy is commonly known for creating humour and then making people laugh, but it further shares lessons, experiences and motivations about life.
“When opportunity does not knock, create a door,” said one of the surprise acts, Loyiso Gola, at the Out The Box Comedy show held on Wednesday at UJ’s APB campus Con Cowen Theatre.
This was mentioned as students were being urged to be more creative because some graduates are not finding employment after varsity, consequently contributing to the 37% youth unemployment rate.
The comedians spoke and the crowd responded by laughing, which displayed a cheerful mood of being entertained.
Loyiso Madinga, who was the host for the night, started off the show by engaging with the audience in a hilarious ways. He asked their names, where they are from, what they do for a living and then made fun out of what they had to say.
Graced with some students from UJ’s campuses (APK, APB, SWC, and DFC), the crowd was a mixture of people from different ethnic origins and race groups: Black Zulus, Xhosas, Pedi and Whites.
The line-up of comedians – which included Troy Telsa, Thulani Ntlabati, Claudine Ullman, Prins and Robby Collins – relentlessly sprung the audience into laughter with jokes that touched on different topics of the land debate in South Africa, race, sexual innuendos, LGBT issues, life lessons and politics.
One particular joke that captured the audience was the land issue. “Everyone wants the land but some white people are not ready for poverty,” said Robby Collins.
The diversity of the jokes also touched on black foreign national stigma and illegal immigrants.
Chik Aljoy, a Zimbabwean comedian, jokingly mentioned that foreign individuals ‘jump’ into South Africa and never return back to their countries because of the misinterpretation of the words “Welcome to South Africa, have a pleasant stay”.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the three people interviewed, rated the show above 7. A potential reflection of how well they enjoyed the show.
“This is my second time coming here and I’m gonna’ give it an eleven out of ten. I always have fun,” said Mabel a UJ student from APK campus.
Although the comedians did their best to grab the attention of the audience, some the jokes shared were quite controversial and not received the same way.
Mohau a UJ student from APK campus felt like some of the jokes were offensive, and some comedians were spending too much time on one topic. She rated the show nine out of ten.
From one of the organiser’s point of view, the show was for the students and “it’s been very successful thus far. This one I would rate it an eight,” said Zandi from APK’s arts and culture department.
On improving the show, she added that they will try to adjust the time and make it early because some students commute with UJ’s inter campus transport service, which stops running at 10pm.
The comedy show was one of the many that have taken place at UJ and the next show will be later during the year in August. TOJ
Reporting by Precious Manaka. Editing by Kupakwashe Kambasha and Gaby Ndongo. Feature image accompanied by The Con Cowan theatre entrance which hosted the Out the Box comedy show. Image courtesy to Kupakwashe Kambasha.
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