NATIONAL NEWS - The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) has partnered SA's comedy industry to relaunch the South African Comedy Awards (SACA), which were previously held in 2006 and 2007. The relaunched awards, this year, will have a new look and an exciting structure.
The partnership (with Canadian Comedy Awards) is to ensure that the SA Comedy Awards is on par with then world’s premium comedy awards, like the British Comedy Awards, the American Comedy Awards, the Australian Comedy Awards and other leading world comedy awards.
The representative for SACA, Joe Parker, recently returned from Canada after sharing information with the Canadian counterparts on their awards structure and on how best to improve the standard of South African comedy.
The representative for SACA, Joe Parker, recently returned from Canada after sharing information with the Canadian counterparts on their awards structure and on how best to improve the standard of South African comedy.
The veteran comedian, who has been entertaining crowds for decades in Mzansi, was invited to Toronto for three days where he attended a series of workshops and meetings. Parker was consulting with the Canadian Comedy Network and producers of The Canadian Comedy Awards.
The workshops and meetings were facilitated by Tim Progrosh, chief executive of the CCA, who will also be actively assisting the SACA. The South African Comedy Awards will use the same model that The Canadian Comedy Awards is using with its ceremony.
To mention a few mechanics: each category will have its own judges and also comedy fans will be registered as SA Comedy Awards voters every year to avoid people who don’t follow comedy voting for comedians. The SA Comedy Awards team will go to comedy clubs and festivals and other comedy gatherings to register voters.
Still under development
Parker said that South African comedy is still under development stages, but it is up to speed in terms of progressing.
“I think that it is fair to say that we kind of mirror the ability of audiences to appreciate the work we do on stage. As we are still a little unsophisticated in terms of content, we lag behind the quality of content that is delivered on stages in the US and Canada.
Still under development
Parker said that South African comedy is still under development stages, but it is up to speed in terms of progressing.
“I think that it is fair to say that we kind of mirror the ability of audiences to appreciate the work we do on stage. As we are still a little unsophisticated in terms of content, we lag behind the quality of content that is delivered on stages in the US and Canada.
With some notable exceptions, we still rely quite a lot on stereotypes, colloquialisms and vulgarity to get laughter.”
SACA has invited comedians, comedy houses, promoters and fans to share thoughts on how they think the awards ceremony should be like when it comes to categories etc.
SACA has invited comedians, comedy houses, promoters and fans to share thoughts on how they think the awards ceremony should be like when it comes to categories etc.
According to a member of the SACA set-up team, Kedibone Mulaudzi, the one idea already suggested by comedians is to honour vernac comedians via 11 categories representing all our 11 official languages (Best isiZulu Comedian, seSotho, isiSwati, isiNdebele, tshiVenda, Afrikaans, xiTsonga, sePedi, isiXhosa, English, and seTswana).
On top of that other ideas are to honour Best Female, Best Comedy TV show, Best Live Comedy show, Best Filmed Comedy/DVD, Best Comedy Venue and Best Rest-of-Africa Comedian.
The awards launch will be held in SA’s main comedy hubs: Durban, Cape Town, and Joburg. The awards ceremony will rotate within all the three cities, the first one being in Gauteng.
