Top SA comedian performs at the G-Sun tonight

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday July 30, 2010 00:00

After unprecedented success in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa's multi award-winning actor and playwright, Aldo Brincat, will tonight be thrilling comedy lovers at the Gaborone Sun International (Friday) with his hilarious comedy, Defending The Cavebrats.

The show starts at 7pm.

Brincat, now head of theatre at Maru-A-Pula since 2005, grew up in a family of stage magicians.

From an early age he was taught the art of slight-of-hand, according to his website.  Winning two placement awards for his performances as a junior magician, his love for drama grew only to be frustrated under the restraints of the magician's medium.

A talented ballet dancer and mime artist in the making and after studying in Paris, France, under the legendary Jacque le Coq, in 1989/90 Brincat performed and taught all over the world with the International Swedish Company Eternia Dans Theater.

Upon his return to South Africa, he fused the often opposing worlds of physical theatre and the spoken word, forging a collection of thrilling and entertaining productions.

He is a skilled, dancer, mime, magician, and circus performer (juggling five balls and unicycle).  His musical skills are basic and limited to the eccentric Irish fiddle, the harmonica and the recorder. Brincat also plays the Saw.His specialty and focus is as a writer, performer, and mask authority and youth worker.

Arts & Culture interviewed the comedian about his show at the Gaborone Sun International and this is what he had to say:  'First there was the American smash hit by Rob Becker, Defending The Caveman. Then Vanessa Frost in Johannesburg wrote a scandalous counter jab in the battle of the sexes, Defending The Cavewoman. I reckoned it was only a matter of time before someone completed the picture by writing about the final relational frontier.Kids!' says Brincat.

Five award nominations later (including Best Performance in a Comedy and Best New South African Script), and almost 350 performances later; Brincat is still into something good.

Brincat's Defending The Cavebrats also holds the record in Durban, KwaZulu Natal (his Homeland) for the biggest grossing one-man show, performing his own original work.

'I've been blessed since I first staged this production, having been asked to perform all over Southern Africa and now, a season in Australia is also a possibility.'

Mmegi: What makes the piece such a success?

Brincat:  I guess the charm of this piece is three-fold. Firstly, it is very well performed. If this is your first visit to a one-man show of this nature, you will be amazed by the energy and skill I bring to the performance of the piece.Secondly, it is cleverly scripted. On the surface it seems innocent and simplistic, but the range of topics and insight covered by the text will also impress. And thirdly if not most importantly, it is the good will that audiences have brought to each and every performance.

Most of us have children and we were all someone's child; so as an audience member, the play has a wonderful, inescapable resonance.'

Mmegi: So what can we expect?

Brincat: 100 percent genuine good time! No tricks, no imports, no fancy lighting or banal musical tribute.  Skill, energy and hilarious entertainment.

Brincat says he spends at least a third of his year teaching students from all walks of life and not necessarily in a classroom situation.  Working with scholars or corporate professionals, his emphasis is on self-confidence and articulate communication through the medium of self discovery and physical intelligence.

These classes are highly participative and look deceptively easy. Brincat has taught these classes in Scandinavia and other European countries and South Africa.  For more mature and adult students, his workshops are centred on basic physical expression, placement and spiritual rejuvenation.

In 2004, Brincat had the honour of being the first theatre practitioner to be invited to fulfill the role of Artist in Residence at the prestigious Kearsney College for Boys in Botha's Hill, KwaZulu-Natal.

Within the year, Brincat collaborated with the students on four one-act plays, and a major school production entitled Extreme Sports Circus, all of which were remarkable in their own rights.

It is hoped that the four one-act plays will be bound and published alongside Brincat's other original play script.Brincat also says he loves nurturing and developing young performance-focused talent.

His annual youth project for senior school students has been an enormous success, according to him.It involves auditioning students who would later once accepted are offered a professional work experience that lasts for close to three months.  During this time a unique script is conceived and scripted, he explains..