TATS NKONZO started his international comedy career last November, when he travelled to Switzerland for the Montreux International Comedy Festival. Not only did he end up winning, a judge on the panel, promoter Mick Perrin, signed him up and is taking him to Edinburgh in August.
The 30-year-old who hails from Mdatsane in the Eastern Cape has been calling Joburg home for a while now, but he will be in Cape Town to present a stand-up comedy show, The Clever Black, at the Baxter next month.
He thinks international audiences are more than ready welcome South African comedians onto the world stage: “There’s literally nothing new you can tell them, but our perspective is a drawcard.
“They’re short on any perspective other than First World US and UK acts, which are the predominant voices they hear, comedy-wise. So, in respect of making them laugh, it’s just ‘how quickly can you frame where you’re from so they understand’ and from there it’s about opening up their outlook,” said Nkonzo.
To his mind, Trevor Noah and Loyiso Gola are the only South African comedians actively cultivating an international market, and there is room for more.
Nkonzo figures now is his time because his progression as stand-up comedian has been an organic process which unfolded because of what he did on stage , rather than because a promoter was pushing his cause. This has afforded him the luxury to learn the craft and do only as much as he felt able.
It has been seven years since Nkonzo first picked up a microphone to tell a joke and even four years ago he would not have attempted an overseas performance.
“Now I’m more seasoned and more calculated, I know more about delivery and the science of comedy, even the history of comedy in terms of what has been done and who has done what.”
Eight years ago he was working as an advertising executive, but took a gap year in order to figure out if it was for him, in which case he needed to apply himself to the task more seriously.
He slept in, wrote stuff, attended things and tried new experiences, including getting onto television courtesy of So You Think You’re Funny. He made it to the last seven before being eliminated, but was invited onto the final programme by the judges.
That competition proved to be a baptism by fire because he learnt a lot in a very small space of time, but he is also adamant that he will never stop learning more about stand-up.
At the beginning of his career he incorporated singing into his act, but quickly toned it down.
“I was very adamant not to pitch myself as that guy who sings so well and is funny. I wanted to be that guy who is funny and can sing.”
He found the music changed the energy of the show: “I’d finish a song and people would be melting in their seats and I’d have to bring them back to laughing.”
Over the years he has learnt how to handle this and for the past two weeks has been doing some regular guitar-accompanied music shows at Joburg clubs. “It’s like I’m relearning it again. But, I’ve got the confidence now that if I do put down the guitar, I’ll still have your attention.”
So, he feels confident enough to pull out the guitar for The Clever Black.
While this is his first Cape Town stand-up gig, he has done two others – his first one in East London was called Can’t Touch This, while the second (Joburg and Durban) was called Second Base.
Nik Rabinowitz used Nkonzo as an opening act on You Can’t Be Serious and Stand and Deliver after catching his routine at Parker’s in Joburg.
Nkonzo’s material is a mix of stream-of- consciousness patter and emotional observation, but always follows the audience’s cues: “Sometimes I’m very silly, sometimes I’m political, cultural, irreverent, sometimes respectful. It’s an array of emotional humour. I write about whatever makes me feel something.”
The title of the show references the idea of being branded a clever black when you question elders or tradition: “I’m benefiting from a history of people fighting for freedom and freedom of speech and movement. But, the moment you start to enjoy it and use it, you are labelled as something else.
“So I’m saying: ‘I’m exactly what you made me’. At the end of the show someone will say: ‘There’s a glimpse of the monster we’ve created, the youngest who can just say and do anything’.
“Like a child who has been given new clothes coming to show the family, I’m saying: ‘Thanks guys, this is what you made. Do you like?’”
• The Clever Black is on at the Baxter’s Golden Arrow Studio from June 15 to 27. PG13. Tickets: R80 to R120 from Computicket