A double dose of awards shows to honour our funniest comedians
|||Helen Herimbi
This year, Mzansi is getting a double dose of laughter as there will be two comedy award ceremonies. The Savanna Comics’ Choice Awards (CCA) will return for the sixth consecutive year. Having taken a hiatus since 2007, the South African Comedy Awards (SACA) also make a comeback with a new team at the helm.
The brainchild of John Vlismas and Taffia Keight of Whacked Management, the CCA have always been well supported by comedians, media and fans because they are for the comedy industry, by the comedy industry. The awards will be held at Montecasino on September 3.
SACA took place in 2006 and 2007 with Sam Hendricks as the organiser. Now, the name stays the same but the vision and the board members have changed. The face of the awards is Joe Parker and he organises with steering committee members, Kedibone Mulaudzi and Kurt Schoonraad, among others.
Tim Progosh from the Canadian Comedy Awards has been an integral part of the return as the two awards bodies have partnered to bring back the SACAs. The awards already presented the concept to members of the industry and the media in Joburg and Cape Town and will now put together a team that will oversee the awards that are likely to take place in the summer.
Parker, who also owns the popular venue Parker’s Comedy and Jive in Montecasino, said: “I think that it is fair to say that we kind of mirror the ability of audiences to appreciate the work we do on stage.
“As we are still a little unsophisticated in terms of content, we lag behind the quality of content that is delivered on stages in the USA and Canada. With some notable exceptions, we still rely quite a lot on stereotypes, colloquialisms and vulgarity to get laughter.”
The SACAs have quite a few categories ranging from general ones – like Best Female, Best Comedy DVD and Best Religious Comedian – as well as regional categories that include Joburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. There is also a focus on non-English comedians with categories including the 11 official languages represented.
These SACAs have an emphasis on stand-up comedy and television while the previous incarnation included avenues like theatre. What’s also different is that the categories will task judges as well as comedy fans to vote for winners. But fans must be registered on the website in order to be eligible to vote.
Through Waldo, who is the imaginary custodian of the CCAs and the name of the statuette one wins, the organisers came up with a simple but really rad idea: the country’s First Laughter Bank.
They asked people – famous and not – to record videos of themselves and their friends laughing and upload them to the awards’ Facebook page. That would count as a deposit. Laughter is infectious and even if you are feeling down, seeing someone else cackle can lift your spirits.
With people from all over the nation depositing, it means there is a wad of laughs to withdraw. As Waldo said: “Imagine a bank where no matter how little you put in, you could take out as much as you like. In fact, they encourage you to take more than you ask for… A happiness chain-reaction is triggered and we change the world.”
Last year, the CCA introduced the Best Friend of Comedy award which applauds someone or an organisation that supports the industry even though they may not be on stage. Goliath & Goliath took the inaugural award. The awards also introduced the long overdue Non-English Comic Award, which was rightfully won by Mashabela.
This year, they have added a brand new category: the Breakthrough Award to honour “any act in any category who has made a breakthrough during the course of the last 12 months”. That brings the total number of categories to 10, which is just enough to pepper the ceremony with funny skits and performances. Last year, Alan Committie hosted the show.
This year, Rob van Vuuren will be the director, so I think the hilarity of the sketches is going to be taken up a notch.
The date of the South African Comedy Awards will be announced at a later stage. The Savanna Comics’ Choice Awards return to the Teatro in Montecasino on September 3.