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Published Oct 21, 2014

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This Is Captain Lottering Speaking

VENUE: Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino

UNTIL: November 9

RATING: ****

MARC Lottering delivers stand-up and sketch in flying colours.

Fresh from a run in Cape Town, Lottering has brought his new show, This is Captain Lottering Speaking, to Joburg. He unpacks his beloved characters in situations that force them to interact with the airport on some level. In between those sketches, he performs stand-up comedy that is relevant to a topic that came up in the sketch.

For instance, when he transforms into Smiley, “the gaartjie that’s sweeter than a naartjie,” Lottering conveys the concerns of taxi operators and drivers with regards to the MyCiTi bus (or My Sh*tty bus, as Smiley calls it) transporting their clientele to the airport in Cape Town. Strike action briefly comes up. Then right after taking Smiley off, Lottering gives his gags about strike action in South Africa.

Smiley isn’t the only character to make an appearance. Galatia, an aspiring singer who’s been on Idols many times, but believes she’s never picked because she doesn’t have a messed up family story that can be milked for sympathy and ratings, is on her way to Joburg to cut a demo with a producer she met at a curry take-away spot.

Colleen the cashier is awaiting a disciplinary hearing at work so she gets a temp job at the airport. Pastor Brandon is flying to the US with his family after a sex scandal threatens to break up his family and dry up his source of income. Travis also shows up. He’s on his way overseas and chats up an uninterested air hostess when he can’t sleep on the long flight. When she suggests he get drunk so he can sleep, he retorts: “Those Alsatians [at Customs] can smell Mitchell’s Plain a mile away.”

What would a Lottering show be without Aunty Merle from Belgravia Road? An audience member excitedly shouted out her name as Lottering brought her to life. It’s almost as if she has more fans than he does. He wears her well. The only thing that is puzzling about Merle is why her velour clutch bag is so empty. Sure, she’s not the richest woman in the world, but it’s distracting to see it be folded and crumpled as she uses her hands a lot to gossip. But that’s just a wardrobe issue.

The other thing that lets the play down is that it is billed as an 80 minute-long show, but the media night was just under 100 minutes. Otherwise, Lottering brought a fresh concept to the stage and executed it in small but significant ways.

For instance, his staging was minimal. He had a piano to the right – on which he performed a very funny ditty about being a star – a “Scan-O-Tron” to the left which resembled an airport scanner, but was used as a changing station where only Lottering’s silhouette was visible as he transformed into the characters.

He also had a bin which was marked “New security guide for liquids and hand baggage” in which he disposed of the previous character’s garb. In the middle of the stage, there was a multi-purpose chair. On one side, a frame slid up which became a Quantum taxi door. The front of the chair turned into a duty-free teller machine. And it was also a regular seat in an airplane. Those details were a nice touch.

The lighting wasn’t too elaborate, he had a constant follow spot as well as solid colours changing to signify the change in characters. The music for these transitions was impressive because not only was it modern, but it was relevant for the particular characters. Smiley was introduced to Drake’s Started From the Bottom, Galatia had Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda and so on. After Lottering’s final bow, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake belted out Love Never Felt So Good – apt because Lottering received and returned a lot of love to the packed audience.

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