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Trevor Noah Presents NationWild
Available on Showmax
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I can’t remember us being as proud and bragging quite as loudly about Charlize Theron’s Oscar win as we do about, well, just about anything Trevor Noah does.
I guess it’s because we sort of feel part of this young black man’s journey, having daily access to his big international break, The Daily Show. Watching Trevor Noah Presents NationWild evokes all of those feelings. With this comedy showcase, Noah and Showmax are giving Mzansi’s up-and-coming South African comedians a platform to show what they’ve got. Noah is using his brand to bring attention to colleagues we wouldn’t ordinarily come across, while he grows his bank account of course.
NationWild is a 13-part, 23-minute comedy showcase. In each episode you see one of South Africa’s youngest and funniest comedians – picked by Noah. Cool right? But what’s not so cool is that, of the 13 pretty hot comedic talents selected, only three are women.
Sure, over the years there have been small steady gains, but I don’t think we take the gender gap in comedy seriously enough. And I was really hoping Noah, one of the voices of conscience in global pop culture, would have done more to address it.
In the age of Tumi Morake, Celeste Ntuli and Thenjiwe Moseley, many audience members think there’s no longer a problem when it comes to men and women sharing the mic; some female comedians even say so themselves. But take a look at the big comedy shows, do the count and then let’s have an honest chat about fact and fiction.
So, for the purpose of this review, I’m going to focus very deliberately only on the three women you can see on NationWild – that’s Limpopo’s Noko Moswete on episode one, Joburger Gilli Apter on episode three and Capetonian Lindy Johnson on episode six.
Noko Moswete
This Tshwane University of Technology graduate with a national diploma in linguistics hails from Tibanefontein in Ga-Matlala, Limpopo. Noko is a former lecturer at a further education and training college and used humour to help her students understand their work better. She did well and they excelled. During her introduction on the show she describes getting invited as “the most beautiful day in my life after I broke my virginity. I’m joking; breaking your virginity is painful.”
Some of my favourite moments were her teasing Tsongas who pray in English, wondering why her ancestors picked a pig for their clan name animal, or pointing out common South African tautologies “that’s when you use two words that mean the same thing, for everyone without a linguistics degree”.
Noko is always funny – and, boy, is she honest. Because she’s used to performing in Pedi, Noko had to step outside her comfort zone and translate her set into English – I can guarantee you that nothing got lost in translation.
Gilli Apter
“Men struggle to find things. They don’t know where their keys are, their bank card, sunglasses, wallet, the G-spot. I tell you one thing they never have any trouble finding is your arsehole.”
Gilli’s set is filled with embarrassing and uncomfortable jokes – well if you’re old and male – but her comedy is interactive, smart and with strong feminist themes.
Lindy Johnson
Lindy is hilarious. She describes her comedy as a “narcissistic monologue that is funny”.
“Paarl is very Afrikaans and still very divided,” she says during her set. “There’s a river that runs through it, so there’s white people on the one side and coloured people on the other … Paarl is the kind of town white people move to when they miss apartheid – and can’t afford Australia.”
