While some jokes went over their heads, Chester Missing’s performance at the hands of South Africa’s best ventriloquist, Conrad Koch , was well-received at the National Arts Festival.
Missing, the country’s favourite puppet, performed to a sold-out venue at the Thomas Pringle Hall at Settlers’ Monument on Thursday and joked about everything under the sun, including the cover of this year’s National Arts Festival programme.
He gave a guide to colonialism explaining he could have never taken Jan van Riebeek seriously when he first arrived in Cape Town, because of his hair. “Just look at him, he looks like he’s doing an ad for Loreal.”
He joked about the cellphone game Candy Crush; ISIS tried to recruit him after he reached high levels in the game, he quipped. But the crowd did not get that. They also did not get his Kim Kardarshian joke that her eldest child is named North West and that possibly the next one could be named Mpumalanga.
Missing said white South Africans were worried because “Rhodes is gone, Helen Zille is gone, now they are scared that Barker Haines from Isidingo is also going.”
“Can someone explain why there is a Rhodes University in South Africa? Does Germany have a Hitler University?”
Koch ’s other puppets, Hilary, the ostrich, a “snooty, out-of-touch cougar”, and Ronnie, a green monster and rebellious reprobate, also put in an appearance.
Throughout the show Missing targeted two audience members, Terry Acres whose hair and eyebrows were not the same colour – “I never realised” – and Paul Bannister for his wavy, long white hair.
The cover of this year’s National Arts Festival programme features Chester Missing and Tannie Evita.
Missing said it was odd that the programme of such a large festival featured the images of “two white men pretending to be something they are not”.
The show would have been incomplete without a jab at President Jacob Zuma. “Zuma speaks so slowly you can catch soccer highlights between words. His head has its own external hard drive and Baleka Mbethe is his Chester Missing.”
After the puppets were packed away Acres and Bannister were called up to the stage where Koch used them as puppets. They were great sports.
After the show Acres said: “I was not offended, it was all great fun.”
And Bannister, who happens to be a director of the National Arts Festival, joked: “Audience members must be careful when they sit in the front row.”— siyab@dispatch.co.za
Caption for image:
Koch ’s puppets rock audience
Missing, the country’s favourite puppet, performed to a sold-out venue at the Thomas Pringle Hall at Settlers’ Monument on Thursday and joked about everything under the sun, including the cover of this year’s National Arts Festival programme.
He gave a guide to colonialism explaining he could have never taken Jan van Riebeek seriously when he first arrived in Cape Town, because of his hair. “Just look at him, he looks like he’s doing an ad for Loreal.”
He joked about the cellphone game Candy Crush; ISIS tried to recruit him after he reached high levels in the game, he quipped. But the crowd did not get that. They also did not get his Kim Kardarshian joke that her eldest child is named North West and that possibly the next one could be named Mpumalanga.
Missing said white South Africans were worried because “Rhodes is gone, Helen Zille is gone, now they are scared that Barker Haines from Isidingo is also going.”
“Can someone explain why there is a Rhodes University in South Africa? Does Germany have a Hitler University?”
Koch ’s other puppets, Hilary, the ostrich, a “snooty, out-of-touch cougar”, and Ronnie, a green monster and rebellious reprobate, also put in an appearance.
Throughout the show Missing targeted two audience members, Terry Acres whose hair and eyebrows were not the same colour – “I never realised” – and Paul Bannister for his wavy, long white hair.
The cover of this year’s National Arts Festival programme features Chester Missing and Tannie Evita.
Missing said it was odd that the programme of such a large festival featured the images of “two white men pretending to be something they are not”.
The show would have been incomplete without a jab at President Jacob Zuma. “Zuma speaks so slowly you can catch soccer highlights between words. His head has its own external hard drive and Baleka Mbethe is his Chester Missing.”
After the puppets were packed away Acres and Bannister were called up to the stage where Koch used them as puppets. They were great sports.
After the show Acres said: “I was not offended, it was all great fun.”
And Bannister, who happens to be a director of the National Arts Festival, joked: “Audience members must be careful when they sit in the front row.”— siyab@dispatch.co.za
Caption for image:
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