His alter ego is Evita Bezuidenhout. She's a well known Afrikaans woman that has lots to say about leaders and events. Pieter also does impressions of other people, including former presidents PW Botha, Kaglema Motlanthe, Nelson Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki (through a dummy). He also did a great Hillary impression. Below Evita is pictured with the new South African president, Jacob Zuma (risky business!). Of course, Zuma has a shower above his head to represent his famous comments about taking a shower after having sex with an HIV positive woman to reduce the likelihood of transmission.
Evita with Jacob Zuma.
It was definitely a crash course of the less obvious parts of the national narrative, but I was hanging on and understood most jokes. Steve said that I'm the only American he would bring to the show, which I'll take as a great compliment. My favorite part came when Pieter, without any impersonations, did a monologue about what it was like to live under apartheid in the 1960s. He described when he became a Democrat, no longer supporting the apartheid-promoting National Party, after having a sexual encounter with someone he legally could not: a coloured man. Except it wasn't only illegal because he was gay, obviously they both would have been in quite a bit of trouble just because they were of different races. He described the fear of living, and the fear of connecting with others.
Despite the widespread cynicism about the new president and the politics that it will usher in, he had quite a craft at making light of things and reminding people about the lighter side of politics. He must have... his show was sold out for a whole month. In the end though, I take a bit of comfort knowing that Zuma won't be my president. After feeling utterly marginalized and left out of the political discourse in the US, and worried for too long at how bad things were going to get, it feels good to know that I'll be going home to an Obama administration soon.
I found this drawn on a concrete wall, beneath a railway bridge here in Observatory:
Its a little bit over my head, but any comedy about politics, gay rights and apartheid lessen the fear, anger and resentment people have of these issues. And can only bring light to them with laughter which is all for the good. That is huge in itself. It was wonderful talking to you for so long yesterday and It really helped me. I love you!
ReplyDeleteNando's ad with Evita BezuidenhoutB.
ReplyDeleteI had never seen that video... but I love it. Nando's also recently did an ad with a puppet of Julius Malema, making fun of him in some way. Malema being the president of the ANC Youth League (Jacob Zuma's party). He's almost universally known in the country as a loud-mouthed imbecile, ridiculed from almost every corner that I've seen. And hardly defended by even his own party, since he sticks his foot in his mouth so often. This is the guy that recently said all white lecturers and administrators at UCT would be removed and replaced by black lecturers and administrators when Jacob Zuma is president. Very inflammatory.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Nando's came under quite a bit of fire for it. Risky.