A review of Race Card at the Baxter

Siv Ngesi's hilarious "racially active" comedy show, inspired by Simon Kilpatrick's best-selling book.

Comedian Siv Ngesi  kicked off the national tour of his one-man show “Race Card” at the Baxter’s Golden Arrow Studio on the 3rd October and you can still catch it there until the 13th October 2012. The show is directed and co-written by Brent Palmer, and based on the tongue-in-cheek - and thoroughly unscientific - coffee table book, “The Racist’s Guide to the People of South Africa” by Simon Kilpatrick.

"Race Card" good-naturedly pokes fun at all of us [South Africans] and lays bare our preconceived ideas about each other. Siv animates the well-worn stereotypes and clichés - no racial grouping is spared - and we get to do what South Africans are so good at: laugh with each other about ourselves. Despite being based on a book that deals in broad generalisations, the show is peppered with hilarious impersonations and anecdotes about Siv’s own mother and his childhood friends, which keeps the material fresh and full of life. In fact, the show opens with a recorded message by the performer’s mother, and Mama Ngesi’s subsequent appearances are some of the most entertaining performance moments, as she is the only character to recur in different situations.

While many of the quips and jokes will be familiar to South Africans, what makes this show stand out is not so much the what, but the how.  Siv’s physical comedy is a joy to behold as he takes on the accents and (stereotypical) physical traits of members of each race. His metamorphosis is so convincing that his own skin colour seems to change before our eyes. For example, in a sequence about different races’ typical beach behaviour, he smoothly transitions from one portrayal to another and back again: a white woman and her dog, a black man’s reaction to the dog, his mother swimming in the sea, a car full of coloured youths parking near the beach, a group of black youths playing soccer on the sand, back to the coloured youngsters strolling across the beach and so on and so forth. 

The dance sequence is a stroke of genius, and this reviewer’s personal highlight. Without giving too much away, Siv shows us how the various members of the rainbow nation dance, as if they were being shot at. The results are screamingly funny and quite on the money.

Even if you think you’ve heard it all before, if you haven’t heard and seen the very talented Siv’s version, you’re in for a treat. This energetic comedy gives us an opportunity to enjoy our common humanity, whilst recognising and appreciating our different tastes and quirks.

Tickets to Race Card at the Baxter Theatre

Race Card starts at 8:15pm, Monday to Saturday and is 1 hour and 15 minutes long. Tickets can be purchased at Computicket or at the Baxter’s box office. Ticket prices range from R80 on weekdays to R100 on Friday and Saturday. During the week, students, senior citizens and block bookings of 10 or more are entitled to a 10% discount.