An internationally acclaimed comedian is performing in his home hood, Westridge, where he says the best audience resides.
Kurt Schoonraad will be doing stand-up comedy at Westridge High School hall on Friday March 10 and Saturday March 11 at 7.30pm.
He introduced his buddy comedian Alfred Adriaan, from Port Elizabeth, to his show Alfred Adriaan Live in Mitchell’s Plain in July last year.
“I had such a great time there. Mitchell’s Plain is the best audience in the world as far as I’m concerned. They get everything. Not only are they comedy savvy. They don’t laugh, they explode,” he said.
The almost quinquagenarian said there was a thin line between comedy and pain, which the community of Mitchell’s Plain gets.
“It is just a space where everyone gets it. They have an extreme understanding of comedy. You are allowed to hit the person on the shoulder sitting next to you, if you’re having a good time. You can get up, laugh and dance and just sit back in your seat if you feel like it,” he told the Plainsman on Monday February 27.
He said Mitchell’s Plain had the technical ability and talent to host the event, which is in tandem with the objectives of his club Cape Town Comedy Club, who lost its home in the Waterfront during the national Covid-19 lockdown.
They are now taking their shows to audiences.
Kurt was a member of the Creative School of Speech and Drama at age of ten.
He said while his audition to the Smirnoff Comedy Festival’s New Faces search in 1999, when he was one of two people chosen out of a hundred audition hopefuls to perform, was just a bucket list item, he now wanted to support budding comedians.
“It changed a lot for me. I never got a real job after that. I became a headliner and travelled to many parts of the world,” he said.
A year later he joined the Cape Comedy Collective at The Armchair, in Observatory, where he met his partner Katrin Bohlender.
They went on to start Jou ma se Comedy Club, which became the Cape Town Comedy Club, drawing an international audience.
Hip hop artist D’Louw, from Lentegeur, will be performing a track or two.
Kurt said D’Louw was a “responsible custodian of the humanity in Mitchell’s Plain” who runs a feeding scheme and launched the Deen Louw Foundation Music Academy in November.
“He is a great example of what Mitchell’s Plain can and should be,” said Kurt, who is looking to host a comedy workshop in Mitchell’s Plain.
“There is a crap load of raw comedy, which needs access to a commercial space. I would like to hone that comedy skill, put it on stage, and it can be showcased and developed over the next 15-years,” he said.
“Give them the tools they need to develop into something like open mic sessions, where many talents were discovered,” he said.
• The Plainsman, in association with Kurt Schoonraad, has five double tickets to give away for Kurt Schoonraad Live on Friday March 10 and Saturday March 11 at 7.30pm. To enter, email your name, surname, phone number and ID number to entertain.ccn@acm.co.za by midnight on Sunday March 5. Kurt Schoonraad will ensure that the winners receive their tickets.
