2012 has arrived. The New Year has began… the time has come. For what, you may ask, well it is time for me to kick my career into gear. I have always been talented in entertainment (and yes, I am blowing my own bloody horn) but I have had a tendency of being a specialist in procrastination. I think the basis for my procrastination was fear. I had always been over shadowed by my oldest brother Fana Mokoena who is one of South Africa’s top actors (He won Best Actor at the SAFTAs). He has been in so many movies, theatre productions and television shows both in South Africa and abroad. His most prolific characters to date in motion pictures includes General Augustin Bizumungu in 2004′s Hotel Rwanda and his role as John Garang in Machine Gun Preacher (which opens at Nu Metro cinemas on the 20th January 2012) but now he will act opposite Brad Pitt in the 2012 motion picture World War Z. Check out all the trailers below:
World War Z
Machine Gun Preacher
Hotel Rwanda
Although I had a good jump start to my entertainment career at the age of 11 when I was a main anchor on the teen continuity program on SABC 2 Kidz Can. The show was on air for about two years and my involement in the series gave me the confidence to get more involved in drama at school. I auditioned and performed in every school play I could be involved in from final productions, house plays and the 2003 Wits Raps Festival (where myself and Ryan Smit won Drama Honours at Redhill High School for winning Best Original Script at the festival). My love for the stage pushed me towards stand up comedy. My passion for stand up comedy was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that it allowed me to still be able to perform on stage, while being able to maintain a day job but a curse in the sense that I love the comedy industry so much that I began running comedy gigs, booking other comedians for shows and corporate functions and in a sense, I helped a lot of other comedians with their career rather than focusing on my own.
In the time that I was doing stand up comedy, my cousin, Lehasa Moloi, started his acting career. In a very short period of time, Lehasa was in Isidingo and just recently had the role of PJ Luthuli in the movie Spud. It is amazing that in such a short period of time, my cousin landed such cool roles in the South African film and television industry, but I must admit, with the amount of talent in our family, I was not surprised. I was really lucky to have spent some time with him this past holiday here in Cape Town. It was interesting to see how people recognized him from his role in Spud and how people recognized me from the current Castle Lite Yeti advert that is flighting at the moment, but in all honesty, he did get more attention and deservedly so; I thought Spud was awesome, relatable and well produced.
So, this year holds a lot of promise for me, but it will require me to get off my ass and show the world what I can do. The hardest thing about the transition from school into the real world is that if you are talented at school, everyone knows and people will approach you with ideas and opportunities, in the real world no-one knows what you can do, so you need to show them how talented you are, prove to them that you are worth investing in, supporting and celebrating. This year I have to do just that… keep your eyes open and watch this space…
For over 6 years, Zula Bar has been known for supporting and hosting comedy every Monday evening. On the 7th November 2011, Zula Bar introduces Comedy on Long – weekly comedy nights held every Monday featuring Cape Town and South Africa’s best comedic talent.
Each evening will comprise of a host, support act, headline act and an open mic act. The comedy will start at 9pm sharp but Zula Bar’s doors are open from 7pm where you and your friends can enjoy some dinner at Zula Bar before enjoying some great comedy.
Comedy on Long is a collaboration between Zula Bar (www.zulabar.co.za) and Mumz The Word (www.mumz-the-word.com). R50 gets you in. It is R40 for all Comedy on Long members. To become a member, please fill out the form below:
As a member of the Comedy on Long database you will be entitled to competition giveaways, you will get R10 discount for any comedy shows that you attend at Zula Bar every Monday and you will be informed via e-mail of all monthly line-ups so that you never miss out on your favourite comedians.
Check out the November line-ups below:
7th November 2011: Martin Evans (Host), Mum-z (support), Paul Snodgrass (Headliner) and open mics
14th November 2011: Tracy Klass (Host), Peter Sserwanga (support), Mark palmer (Headliner) and open mics
21st November 2011: Dugald Pieterse (Host), KG (support), Martin Evans (Headliner) and open mics
28th November 2011: Tracy Klass (Host), Carl Webber (support), Dylan Skews (Headliner) and open mics
So it’s that time of the year where men all over the world do not have to hide their appreciation of titties. In fact, today, tittie-appreciation is encouraged. Why? Because it’s National Boob Day. Yes, I said it. Today is a great day because we don’t have to pretend that we are looking at the necklace’s around a woman’s neck. No, no no. Today, we can STARE. That’s right. All you spectacle wearing mother fuckers need to up the voltage on your glasses prescription and if you are short sighted, just be careful not to motorboat the lovely lady whose cleavage you are trying to appreciate. (That image is actually making me laugh right now, as I type this sentence. Good times)
But before I start ranting and raving about the spledifurous nature of the bulge that is created by two ripe breast fight for space in a wonderbra, we need to understand the reason behind National (Nay) World Cleavage Day. According to Wikipedia, “National Cleavage Day (abbreviated NCD) is an annual celebration in South Africa held in either March or April and sponsored by the brassiere marketer Wonderbra. National Cleavage Day was started in 2002 and held at the beginning of April every year.” NCD is supposed to be in support of Breast Cancer, which is an admirable cause, but that does pose some very interesting questions:
When are they going to create National Bulge Day in support of testicular cancer?
Isn’t supporting Breast Cancer through National Cleavage Day much like supporting Polio through National Riverdance Day?
I am not trying to devalue the concept, au contraire… I think that it is ingenious. In fact, there is a really cool World Cleavage Day App that you can use on Facebook. CLICK THIS LINK TOP CHECK IT OUT:
So to show my support for National / World Cleavage Day, I have posted up some cool boob-a-liscious content below. ENJOY!
I am vaguely familiar with the concept – LOVE. You see I have – through my years – been trying to figure the whole thing out. It began with warm fuzzy feelings in prep school. Everyone was doing it. We all started playing games like kissing-catchers and spin the bottle. The girls were far keener in these games than the guys were. Or in reality we just did not want to admit that we enjoyed the occasional mouth wrestle because we feared being labeled as wimps by our friends. It was never too difficult to guess who liked who. Whenever the girls had to catch a guy, they would run tirelessly after the one they loved. The guys who did not feel the same way felt no shame in moving their small legs, as fast as possible, away from the “attacker” without caring about sparing the girls’ feelings. That for me was rejection at its most brutal. There were the okes that went straight for their ‘dream flossie’, but it always seemed that she had like 10 okies trying to get at her. I always felt sorry for those babes. They had to suck face with whomever was the fastest and sometimes it worked out in their favour, but at times it was whichever guy lived through the stampede, and the result of that was far more hilarious to watch. The survivor of those stampedes was almost always the strongest guy, and in those days, that meant the fattest. Ahhh… the days when we were first introduced to the opposite sex.
I would play it cool. I was the cute motor mouth (if I do say so myself), so I would not lower myself to mindless chasing as I had other tactics. Yes, I was a dog on heat like everyone else, but I always operated during the quiet after the storm. And by zooming in on the girls that tried to catch me during the game, I would seek and destroy throughout the course of the remainder of the night. Oh how they went down. Those were the good old days when “making out with multiple maidens made sense” (say that ten times fast). As time progressed we began to fool ourselves into believing that everybody has a soul-mate, that there is one individual for everybody somewhere out there. My personal belief was that it was all nonsense. In fact, excuse my ignorance in using the past tense as I still do believe that it is complete hogwash. I remember my first official “long termer”. Her honest belief was that she was in love with me. How sweet was that? I was 13 years old, and so was she, which begs the question “what on earth was this chick thinking?” I mean it was really sweet that she had all these astonishing emotions for me, but to translate that into love was a gross miscalculation on her part. But perhaps I was confused. Who was I to rain on her parade, or try dissuading her of her own personal feelings? True we were young, but perhaps she had begun a process of trial and error that would ultimately unite her with her true love.
As time moved on, these young girls blossomed into divine teens. There were the occasional few that were casualties of the acne wars, but most grew bumps in appropriate, and oh so perfect places. I, on the other hand began maturing into a man, or bastard, whichever you will prefer to use after reading on.
There was fierce competition in the change rooms about who was more of a man, by seeing whose pubic region had the most hair, and being black I never really fared well (I made up for this factor due to what lay beneath the pubic area). If anyone had a smart comment I was there with a quick retort, so I was always safe. I was always a jock in school so I never feared being picked on as it was me who was handing out the unhygienic bog washes and the life-altering wedgies. The headmaster called it bullying and punished us accordingly. After suspension we came back and redefined the word bullying. No principal has ever been so hated for punishing the cockroaches of a school. At this stage I considered the possibility of making one of those new and improved girls my girlfriend, but it was my duty as a cool guy to have many girlfriends, and I didn’t complain.
The girls began to drive themselves further into hopeless despair and misery by seeking this inanimate “love”. Some claimed they found it. Funnily enough, this love that was going to carry them through to marriage was found with plenty of okes. This is something that I know because I was fairly loose back in the days. I felt no shame in telling some sweet little Flossie I loved her because I knew she would reward me handsomely in exchange. All I had to say was those three simple words (I love you) in exchange for home base. YEAH!! It seemed like a perfectly good exchange. One I never passed up on. “I promised to save myself for someone I love and who loves me too”. That statement was a turning point in my life. Ironically the number of times I said “I love you” were directly proportional to the amount of times that I had sex. Coincidence? Hmm…
So was I the bad guy? I was crushing these girls’ dreams of finding everlasting love because I wanted to get action. There is a school of thought that says that I was helping them realise that there is no such thing as love. Unfortunately I am the principal of this school of thought, and my pupils are usually guys who have track records similar to mine when it comes to the opposite sex and relationships. The other school of thought condemns my actions and labels me as a reckless heart–breaker who will soon get his when he eventually falls in love. Those are usually the chicks whose tears I’ve seen far too many times. To them I say “Sorry, I was young and stupid and I was just seeking some sexual adventure.”
Well, as luck and irony would have it, the tables did turn. I was fresh out of high school. Here I was the perfect player. I hit varsity thinking I was cooler than a frozen lake. I was about to find out that life can come back to bite you in your behind. I had always been to school with a far more privileged bunch of youngsters. We had to fence during PE while other guys tackled the life out of each other, like uncouth hooligans. Besides the fact that this was the reason why most of my peers were to be considered poofters in later life, we were also gentlemen. And the girls that went to school with me came out as prim and proper ladies. Sure I had been exposed to sexual escapades, but I think I had only enjoyed the sexual encounters of the prude kind. Them varsity honies were in another league all together. A league that got me to fall in love, and I fell HARD.
Of course I was swiftly replaced by another and far more, experienced guy. The reality that I may not be the king of the sheets was made clear to me after being with this chick after a few months. I was heart–broken for the first time in my life. I went on a rampage of fierce boozing, but that loose goose had left a hole in my heart. Of all the girls I could have fallen for, I fell for the worst of them all. It was as if justice had been served. In fact, justice had been served. I swore to respect all women and treat them as gems. I swore to respect whatever others think they feel for their partners. I learnt never to say “I Love You” unless I, like my ladies from the past, actually believe it (whether it be true or not). And I have also learnt a whole lot of tricks in bed that I realised not all women like. (Sorry Susan, I didn’t know that you wouldn’t like me sticking my finger in there).
Myself and Jo-Anne King (Heat Magazine) at the Comics Choice Awards
On Saturday 22 January 2011, a flock of South African comedy royalty made their way to the Teatro at Montecasino for the first ever annual Comics Choices Awards. The event was highly anticipated by the registered comedians and the public so it was no surprise to see the venue packed like Durban beach in December or Pamela Anderson’s bra. The Comics Choice Awards was a brain child of John Vlismas, who has earned the respect of comedy newbies and legends alike.
The evening was very well put together with performances by Tumi Morake, Shimmy Isaacs, Alyn Adams and Alan Committee. Those were not the only performances of the evening because the winning comedians themselves had to perform a 5-10 minutes set rather than an acceptance speech. Deep Fried Man (Daniel Friedman) had a fantastic set. It was very impressive that a young comedian like Daniel could take a jab at Trevor Noah through musical comedy. Trevor Noah had not registered for Comics Choice nor did he attend the awards ceremony, so there was some speculation and a lot of buzz about his absence.
It seems that musical comedians love taking jabs at other comedians because another highlight of the evening was hearing Alyn Adams take a jab at David Newton with a song of which the first line was “Jesus don’t like racists”. For those of you reading this, feeling a bit confused, let me keep you up to speed. David Newton posted the following image on Facebook which sparked off a very lengthy, heated racial debate:
So, scandal seemed to be the blood that coursed through the veins of the awards evening, but then again, the South African comedy industry is quite a scandalous industry. (Most industries are) Then again, comedians are forever taking jabs at the rest of the world, so why not have a go at each other -- it is the next logical step in comedy evolution.
The winners for the various awards included Mel Miller, Deep Fried Man, Rob Van Vuuren, Bevan Cullinan and Riaad Moosa -- whose acceptance speech also raised eyebrows. Riaad had said “and also Joey Rasdien, we are actually doing a movie later in the year. We too have a lot in common, both of us are doing my material” which got a big laugh from the audience, but in actual fact “My Material” is the name of the movie they are shooting together. (Click the image below for the full article by Times Live)
A very special lifetime achievement award was given to Al Debbo, who was born in 1924. Although I had never had the privilege of watching him perform live, but thanks to YouTube I found something from his prime years:
But amidst all the tension, the scandal and the excitement, the highlight of the evening had to be Alan Committee’s comedic set of interpretive dance. Alan Committee combined comedy, interpretive dance, abstract humour, live music and sheer courage to perform a set that can only be described as “brilliant”. At one point of his set there were 8 real interpretive dancers on stage dancing around him, a violist playing what sounded like a very sad Russian tune while another man stood on the right hand side of the stage reading out names of members of parliament. (I know it sounds crazy and unclear, and my description of it is not JRRTolkien-esque but it was amazing).
The finale of the show was a little person singing opera. And then there was the afterparty. It was good to have so many comedians, agents, managers and comedy industry vets all in the same room. It’s not very often that you can get all the comedy industry people together in one room celebrating the accomplishments of the industry in the country.
Having relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town, it was really good for me to reconnect with the Joburg comics and to see what the industry is like up there. I will definitely be at the next Comics Choice Awards, in fact, I can’t wait.
Funny Bones Comedy Nights have been happening every Tuesday since February 2010, which means that Funny Bones has graced Cape Town with a regular Tuesday comedy evening for close to a year now. The success of the show has spread throughout Cape Town and the comedy industry, that another Cape Town Comedy Club has opened on Tuesday – Trinity Comedy Nights.
Trinity Comedy Nights started two months ago. Trinity is a super club that has a very large capacity and have just recently delved into stand-up comedy on Tuesday nights. Although the venue itself is very young, the comedy nights at Trinity have already had some great acts perform at their stage including Rob Van Vuuren, Martin Davis and Paul Snodgrass – all of which have already graced the Funny Bones Comedy stage at Purple Turtle.
We can now add Trinity Comedy Nights to the list of regular venues hosting comedy in Cape Town and if you haven’t seen that list CLICK THIS LINK and for a review of some of the other comedy clubs in Cape Town CLICK HERE
Thank you for the fantastic response that we received for the J&B Met Ticket Giveaway competition. We received over 500 entries (and still counting… but unfortunately competition is over). Mumz The Word would like to congratulate the following winners who have won double tickets to the J&B Met:
William Yates
Thabang Mputla
Nompilo Sambo
Cindy Howburg
As we have realised how much you guys love competition giveaways, Mumz The Word will make sure that we alsways have great competition giveaways for you… speaking of which, if you haven’t entered the Comedy Wine Experience in Tulbagh competition, you should click on THIS LINK and write a comment on the wall. Nothing in particular, just whatever you feel like saying. Full details are included in the link.
Welcome to Mumz The Word (and no, this is not a real Facebook page). Let this site be your comedy playground. I will post articles of interest to the comedy industry and articles that are just generally funny. I would also like to encourage you guys to send through jokes that tickled you or made you hurl with unadulterated laughter.
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Welcome to Mumz The Word (and no, this is not a real Facebook page). Let this site be your comedy playground. I will post articles of interest to the comedy industry and articles that are just generally funny. I would also like to encourage you guys to send through jokes that tickled you or made you hurl with unadulterated laughter.
