A Fresh Punchline Parade Takes the Stage

If homegrown hilarity is your thing, Savanna Comedy Hour is the hot new ticket.

Building on the success of Comedy Hour’s multiple-year run at Vinyls, the monthly stand-up comedy show recently announced its partnership with Savanna Premium Cider.

During the platform’s April edition at Et Cetera, a scattering of lemon trees, an abundance of yellow, the pointed brand name-dropping and some obligatory merch distribution underscored Savanna’s sustained support of the local comedy scene.

In the building and coming in hot were comedians Jonathan Sasha, Funny Jones and Mark Kariahuua. Hosting fell to veteran comedian Slick, and the musical interlude was courtesy of Kevo Maro.

Half master of ceremonies and half performer, Slick took the Comedy Hour stage propelled by his signature whirlwind of limbs.

Marrying physical comedy with anecdotes about the struggles of unemployment, the resulting increase in masturbation and the inevitability of consuming testicle-flavoured kapana, Slick punctuated each performance with a short, funny and easy set that set him apart as one of the pros.

Following Slick’s opener was intermittent comedian Jonathan Sasha, who made his way to the Comedy Hour stage after being mistaken for a civilian.

“I’m the only perfomer with a tag.”

Randomly humbled and with being humbled as a running gag, Jonathan gave us dark social commentary, some light queer activism and some truly poignant points to ponder in his set about local characters with sketchy pasts, being coloured in Cape Town and the origin of the word “p**s”.

Presenting an inconsistent comedy set that sometimes stumbled around the punchline, if there was one at all, Jonathan’s deadpan, self-deprecating humour shone in its linguistic ruminations and in a yarn about being the Nelson Mandela of homeless people, but needed focus when trying to find the joke about suspected paedophiles and his own awkward erections.

Next on the bill was Funny Jones, an organically amusing character, blessed with a mischievous grin and a knack for storytelling. Plagued by mic issues, some of his set got lost in technical letdowns, but a lot of it was about women.

Dating them, not dating the smart ones, lusting over his stepmom as well as a lazy and frankly dated little quip about some guy choosing to beat his wife with a beer bottle rather than a whisky one.

Lacklustre jokes about gender-based violence aside, Funny Jones is a funny guy who would do well to ditch some of the clichés and hone in on his anecdotes about men’s mental health, modern dating without the indolent sexism, his two weeks of celibacy and his goal to learn Afrikaans.

A promising young talent really enjoyed by the crowd, Funny Jones has the charisma and the cadence, but needs to work on substance.
From Funny Jones to the self-proclaimed Prince of Okakarara, next to grace the stage was Mark Kariahuua.

A seasoned pro with an easy flow, Mark was the evening’s closer and began his set by complimenting the ladies, greeting coloured people and millennials, and assuring Gen Z they were in a safe space. All protocol observed, mos.

Never lingering very long on one topic, Mark’s set ranged from Namibians’ abuse of new words and concepts like “sue” and “defamation of character” to the rigours of adulting as well as the trials and tribulations of working in Namibia’s creative sector.

The latter prompting Mark to give some thought into starting a Herero OnlyFans, a niche platform where elements of romance include omaere and meat as opposed to champagne and strawberries.

Crowd-pleasing, observational and locally lekker, Mark could kick his set up a notch by really living in the scenarios he so expressively animates.

Stay a little longer in that awkward moment with the colleague who asks what they can do to help with genocide reparations, expand on why the creative sector is such a ‘botch industry’, and tell us more about Herero OnlyFans and the escapades of Spicy Tjiramue.

Though this edition was particularly testosterone-heavy and I felt I would have enjoyed a woman comic to even out the vibes, Savanna Comedy Hour has recently featured Hildegard and Cara the Great, so I guess there’s that.

A madcap ride all around featuring a good mix of more established and newer talent, Savanna Comedy Hour is a funny night out and a solid new ticket for anyone eager to half laugh/half cry about the state of society, the world and the nation.

Keep an eye on their socials for next month’s line-up. Comedy Hour has a sponsor, they’re exploring new venues and they’ve got jokes.