I still don’t understand why South Africa or even our African continent don’t have a late-night comedy show despite its growth, where issues would be dissected in a comedic way. it’s a mystery to me and I hope someone can explain to me. Truth to be told, this situation drives me mad. I don’t want to blame anyone but I and fellow comedians should take the responsibility because we’re the ones who play in this space, the sooner we realise that the better.
One can ask, what’s lacking to make this a reality? the answer is nothing. There’s no excuse, we have the talent, tools, capabilities and good media infrastructures such as DStv and digital media to pull this off and make it happen. For some no reason, there’s no willingness to get this done and shame to all of us who are playing in this space. I’m aware that some comics and producers are doing what they can to change the situation such as comedy legend Kagiso Lediga with ‘The Bantu Hour and The Late Nite News. With that being said, KG and his team can’t do the job alone they need support.
We can’t continue making excuses because we have all the tools, resources, and platforms to distribute such content. Here in South Africa, we have several local tv stations hopefully they need content. We also have cable TVs such as DSTV, Comedy Central Africa and digital platforms such as Showmax and Netflix to carry the show. At the moment no one is raising a hand or taking an initiative to make it happen and that’s worrying factor for me and something has to be done.
It makes me feel sad that some comedians are just waiting for someone to safe their lives and that is not right. We need to make sh!t happen now not tomorrow to move our culture of comedy forward. No messiah’s coming to save us, we need to save ourselves from ourselves if you know what I mean! No disrespect to anyone but we need to get rid of the chip off our shoulder and do the right thing and grow our industry.
There’s a great opportunity out there waiting for us to grab straight up and run with it. It can be done, some people have done it before outside our culture and I believe we can replicate the same business model or create our spin. We can do it provided our comedians stop procrastinating and start doing the right things to move the comedy space to another level. If you like to talk further with me, here is my email address and lets talk at Rethabile@NoJokesComedy.co.za.
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