IN ADDITION to comic flair and fluent delivery, raconteur Lebogang Mogashoa has enviable equanimity which remains unruffled in the face of unwelcome audience participation: opening night had him fixing a turbulent theatre patron with a beady stare as he politely but firmly told her: “This show is not a two-way thing, okay?”
In the relative peace that followed, he proceeded to regale the audience with an eclectic collage of personal anecdotes, few of which one would readily share with acquaintances, let alone a roomful of total strangers.
The first moments of his monologue bring an in-your-face assertion of his sexual orientation; he describes himself as “not an African prince, but an African queen”. Thereafter the script is regularly punctuated by references to tests for STDs necessitated by the speaker’s appetite for adventure and experiences shared with persons of dubious ilk.
Brash? Yes, to some extent, but the mix of diffidence and boldness with which the recital is delivered counters the inherent vulgarity of the content.
Mogashoa has a very engaging personality combined with a deceptively artless style in his approach to his listeners, and attention is not likely to wander from the stage during the show’s 60-minute duration.
Among the diverse topics broached are brutal diets (he takes us through six days of hell before he capitulates to the lure of real food after a regime of lemons and water), life in South Korea where he spent six years (bomb threats from that country’s northern neighbour being commonplace), and his flirtation with Born-Again Christianity (sabotaged by his proclivity for sassy gay outbursts in prayer meetings). There is more, and the mélange is alarming.
Most memorable is Mogashoa’s account of his first kiss, a pivotal event which he wanted to be perfect. The build-up is carefully prepared, and… the reality is, in current parlance, an epic fail.
Throughout this excerpt, the narrator’s cheery self-mockery and contrived air of an ingénue not altogether sure of his story’s implications never wavers.
Nor does his eye-contact with the audience.
With quirky material and some wonderfully understated throw-away lines like: “I thought of indulging in an orgy, but I’m not good at multi-tasking,” Mogashoa makes optimal use of the Alexander Bar Theatre’s intimacy to offer an hour of adult entertainment for the broad-minded.
• When We Were Nearly Young will play at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown on July 7 and 12 at 10am and on July 9 at 12pm at Dicks. Please note the no person under 18 age restriction because of language.