The mother of all comedy festivals is back with more than 35 comedians taking part in over 30 shows between January 31 and February 5.
Scheduled to take place at the Wave Theatre in Cape Town’s iconic Long Street, the Mother City Comedy Festival is produced by Stuart Taylor and Siv Ngesi, and it is fast becoming an annual event in the Mother City.
The festival, which strives to create access to theatre spaces for performers, was launched in 2019 with much praise and interest from the industry. In 2020, it grew bigger, allowing the organisers to include more than 45 comics who performed in 40 different shows.
“The Covid-19 pandemic meant that this annual festival could not take place in 2021. We returned in 2022 albeit to socially distanced shows at Artscape,” said the organisers.
Annually, the festival provides a platform for a diverse range of comedy styles, this year is no different. With five different shows taking place every day, comedy lovers will be spoilt for choice.
Audiences can expect stand-up performance by Chris Mapane, Kagiso Mokgadi and Vafa Naraghi, among many other comics.
Mapane said: “I am on tour performing my one-man show, Chris Mapane Live, and celebrating 17 years in the comedy industry. Cape Town has always showed me love every time I am booked there.”
“I am looking forward to finally bring my solo show to Cape Town, and I will be spending an hour with my Cape Town people. With everything that’s happening in our country and the world, it is rewarding to be engineering a structure that makes people’s hearts conceive joy and happiness. I deliver the best therapy this country needs right now.”
Kagiso Mokgadi, also known as KG, shared: “I have been doing comedy for 12 years now. [The Mother City Comedy Festival] is a unique festival in that it’s made of comedians doing one-man shows versus line-up shows, which are also great. But in this space, I get to be with the audience for an hour instead of 20 minutes.
“This gives me more time to work and engage with the audience, seeing people laugh is beyond rewarding. We’re in the job that makes people happy. This is the best reward.”
Naraghi explained: “I have been doing stand-up comedy for just over four years now and this festival offers us an opportunity to perform. We can do so in a space that is conducive to learning, surrounded by fellow artists and those who appreciate the arts.
“The most rewarding experience of my job is that I have the perpetual opportunity to relate to people.”
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