Laughs, Gags and Cheers

Chippa Legodimo | Monday March 24, 2014 17:52

 

Desire Itani from Francistown opened the show with a slow build up, throwing a lukewarm performance mixed with some obvious concepts he was still able to pique the crowds’ intrigue.  Although he could not break the space into pieces, he attracted a cordial applause.

Perhaps his weakness was his predictability and over emphasis in his delivery of the gags.

But just when the crowd was starting to worry about how long the night would be, in came a slender fellow from Gabane, Oefile ‘Mawee’ Mokgare, who immediately brought back the passion and the funny stuff that sent the crowd bursting into loud laughter.

His introduction was just enough to jerk up the curious crowd.

“My name is Peter Mmolo, but do not reverse this name because it would then sound like ‘mmolopita’. I am the first person to send a ‘please call back’ to the police when I was attacked by thieves, and I have a P5,000 window shopping voucher at fashion world,” he cracked the crowd.

Within minutes the space was heating up, cutting off the cold air that had threatened to divert attention.

 He had effectively taken the show to its climax and thus those would come after him, including well-known Rib Cracker found it difficult to neither match him nor take it to another level.

His best moment came when he highlighted the devastating effects of lack of information.

“My girlfriend does not know how to read and they are very poor, so please do not laugh,” he said, to the excitement of the fans, “She once told me her father died of a plane crash and I thought they were rich but she told me no he was out looking for firewood when the plane crashed on him”.

Then came, Franco Rihlampfu, the streetwise actor from Pretoria with a good taste for pantsula style.  While he could not produce the same sparks, he still managed to keep the coals burning strong enough to keep going.

 Tackling various social issues in soft demeanor, ‘Tsala ya Mapantsula’ appeared overwhelmed by the occasion in the first few seconds on stage.

“I have tried various churches and failed. In one of them there was this Zulu interpreter who amazed me. A visiting pastor had just thanked the congregation for their hospitality and this Zulu fellow then said, ‘ngiyasibongela ipetlela sakho’,“ he said.

Rib Cracker closed the show with a humorous performance that castigated the current bogosi situation in Kgatleng.

“As you know Mascom had threatened to take their network from Mochudi so we put a contingency plan into place and started our own Sedibelo Networks.  So when you switch to this network there are four steps to follow.

A voice tells you, press one for ditlhapa, two for bogobe jwa ting, but when you press four which is for news about bogosi the voice says, mogala o o o sa ntse o seyo mo phefong,” one of Rib Cracker’s lines went.