Mass Hysteria

At over 3 hours, with 8 stand-up comedians, and ticket prices for only R180, Mass Hysteria was definitely one of the best value-for-money shows I have been to in the recent past. And when you consider the line-up, it was an absolute bargain. Themed around government minister (each comedian was a minster of something), it was a brilliant showcase of South African comedy touching all the usual points - race, sex, money, love, politics and general South African life.

The young, Mpho Pops (Minister of Da Youth), started of proceedings with one of the best routines of the evening - with some of the best jokes centred around the early integration of race in Model C schools, and township life. After Mpho, Joey Rashdien (Minister of Religion) was quite flat; and I think was the weakest set of the evening. Ndumiso Lindi (Roosta in Chief) continued the cultural focus, starting with the requirement of jackets for a traditional Xhosa gathering and ending with the complexities of kids with multi-racial friends. 

The best act of the evening was definitely John Vlismas (Minister of Offence, naturally); who did not care much about the line that can't be crossed in comedy. He announced that he was a vegetarian (and still a leather pants wearing hypocrite), took real exception to Gautengers' opposition to e-tolls after they were built (and not protesting during construction) and ended his set on why most miracles are actually rather mundane and not very fortunate in the first place. 

Despite attending many comedy shows over the past 10 plus years, I had not attended a live show featuring the soft spoken, and colourful Casper de Vries (Minister of Mini-series, Internet and other media). His take on the ANN7 bloopers while comparing it to early years of SABC was impressive, as was his various takes on TV shows. 

I have seen Conrad Koch and Chester Missing a few times in the past few months; and sadly there was no new material. While still a laugh, it just wasn't as impressive the first few times. Nik Rabinowitz, the Xhosa Jew (or is it the other way round?) used his multi-lingual skills to great effect - though for whatever reason, I didn't find his performance very memorable. For the final act, Tumi Morake (Minister of Women, Disabilities, Midgets, Aliens etc) showed Miley Cyrus how to twerk, explained the different interpretations of "getting a Brazilian" and explored the impact of non functioning contraceptives. 

It was a long show, and definitely one of the best comedy shows I have been to. Hoping that there are future iterations - with new content off course!