Kulani Nkuna

Aesthetically , the film Triple O is a joy to watch. The beauty not only lies in the visual textures provided by the natural beauty that is the Jozi landscape, but the colourful characters that inhabit the screen.

Tol Ass Mo, Thomas Gumede, Mpho Pops, Lihle Lindzy Msimang and King Flat all joined director Ernest “Easy” Nkosi in his wonderful ode to Jozi.

Using comedy as the vehicle to portray young Jozi, Nkosi set out to do a film about the young guns generating sheets of laughter on the comedy circuit. All five are great comedians and on a drizzling Jozi night on the tenterhooks of summer they all converged upon Bassline in Newtown to entertain a young, hip and eclectic crowd of Joburgers.

No comedian on the night disappointed and laughs were aplenty in the packed venue.

But the project, like many artistic pursuits, was borne out of a dark place.

“I was going through a really difficult time in my life,” says Nkosi. “It started in November when a whole lot of things were falling apart in my life and I just needed to laugh. That is how this film was born. I always liked comedy so I thought I should use my storytelling skills to tell a tale of four comedians at different points of their career on one big night.”

The opening sequence of Triple O features the garishly dressed and offbeat funny Toll Ass Mo and Gumede reminiscing about their early gigs when they were starting out in the industry to the backdrop of a Jozi night.

“Aesthetically, I wanted to present Joburg,” said Nkosi. “Joburg is the New York of Africa. If you can make it in Joburg you can make it in any part of Africa and for me, you can make it in any part of the world. My reference was Jay-Z’s Fade to Black, and how he sold out the Garden (Madison Square Garden). So we wanted to sell out Bassline after being told that a stand-up comedy show in Joburg could not sell out like that with relatively unknown young guys.

“With a marketing budget of R400 we sold out Bassline.”

The film is a triumph because, unlike most comedy DVDs on the local circuit, this one gives you a glimpse of the comedians offstage and cuts away during their performances to relevant outside references. It is a story opposed to most that consist of comedians on a stage with shoddy camera work and lighting.

Tol Ass Mo is invariably the star of the show both on and off the stage with his unique style of narrating his township stories with universal appeal and the ability to illicit finger snaps from his audience; Flava flava flava...

“We have a lot of comedy DVDs in the country but not of this nature. This one gives you insights into who we are, what goes on behind the scenes when we are about to go on stage and our interactions between each other as colleagues.”

Mo is very candid about his role as a comedian. He is definitely one of the few comedians who do not dwell on racial jokes and politics. He is the epitome of just being, of hustling in that quest for cash.

“I just talk sh*t. My comedy is about randomness, I wouldn’t want to lie to people and say that I am doing comedy to get kids off the streets. I’m doing comedy because that is the only thing I can do better than anything else.

“That is why I was never successful in my nine-to-five.

“But I was scared to leave because I was addicted to the greatest drug called a salary.

“It’s a very strong drug and I suffered from serious withdrawal symptoms after six months.”

The dame of the ensemble, Msimang, has mad energy on stage and brings a delicate if not a poignant touch to the film.

Growing up in Meadowlands, Soweto, and schooled in English comprehensive schools, she encompasses the multilingual, cultural and urban fusion that is Jozi.

She represents, like most of the cast, young folk who are at home sipping a quart in a township tavern or eating lunch at Tashas in Rosebank.

It is certainly not easy being a woman in comedy, because of the expectation for material to be sexual in nature.

“It is quite hard being a female comedian because there is this stigma that we don’t bring laughs, we bring giggles.

“And I feel that we always have to talk about sex and be dirty on stage so that we can bring a laugh.

“But I moved away from that and talk about my family and so on. Young female comedians feel that they have to dry hump the stage in order to please people.”

Triple O opens on September 30.

kulanin@thenewage.co.za