Top variety acts on Funny Fest line-up

One of the unique selling points of The Jive Cape Town Funny Festival is that it presents some of the country’s top comedians alongside some great international variety acts.

For the first time, this year Cape Community Media – which publishes this and a number of other local news sites and their affiliated community newspapers – has come on board as the festival’s print media partner.

Many of the past variety performers who worked on the Funny Festival stage have gone on to great things on both America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent. Among them are ventriloquist, Paul Zerdin, who went from The Funny Festival to win America’s Got Talent in 2015. A year later, Boy with Tape on his Face, followed the same path to the finals of the same competition. Since then, both have their own shows on the Las Vegas strip.

This year three major variety acts make up the international contingent of the Funny Festival which takes place at The Baxter Theatre from Monday June 6 to Sunday July 3.

Graeme Mathews comes straight from the Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals to Cape Town. A children’s magician by trade, Graeme specialises in simple children’s magic for adults.

Yosuke Ikeda, from Japan, is a specialist mime artist. Originally a street performer, he was quickly spotted by festival directors and has since travelled the world from one festival to the next, showing off his artistry.

His Cape Town routine is a clever mime to The Beatles song, Hello, Goodbye, using props to clever effect.

Cabaret Decadence from Montreal is a master puppeteer group who have created simple puppets with huge personalities. They are multi-award winning performers who won a Laurence Olivier Award for their involvement in the celebrated cabaret, La Soiree on London’s West End, a few years ago. Their characters will have you rolling in the aisles with laughter and amazement.

Also on the line-up are top local comics, Sifiso Nene, Tats Nkonzo, Carl Weber and Cape Town’s ow Ismael Moses and Arlene Petersen. The show is MC’ed by local comic Alan Committie.

Tickets are available from Webtickets, with discounts available for group bookings of 10 or more.

For more information go to funnyfestival.co.za