PRESS RELEASE
AND 'THE BANANA' GOES TO...
September 9, 2008
South Africa's funniest people walked off with their well-deserved South African Comedy Awards last night. This annual event which has been nicknamed "The Nana's", was held at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.
In its second year, the South African Comedy Awards honours the talents of comedians, playwrights, journalists and others by acknowledging the cultural contribution made by our funniest men and women across the spectrum of performance, print and broadcast media.
Interviewed after the successful event, organizer and CEO Sam Hendrikse said "We are witnessing a significant improvement across all the comedic disciplines within South Africa from standup, television, cartoons and columns to plays." said Hendrikse. "We are thrilled at the calibre of comedian nominated for this year's awards as well as the performances this evening."
Even Cape Town's mayor, Helen Zille, who presented 'on behalf of' Mark Lottering who 'was stuck' at OR Tambo International, made fun of the political headquarters of Cape Town being the real centre of the SA Comedy World, receiving a very warm welcome by the audience.
Jonathan Shapiro, who recently caused quite a media storm on Sunday with his highly controversial depiction of Jacob Zuma, walked off with the award for Outstanding Humorist Cartoon Zapiro (www.zapiro.com).
The other winners in the remaining nine categories were:
Best Television Performance: Shaeleen Tobin for her role as Patience in The Coconuts
Best SA Television Comedy: The Coconuts produced by ATTV for MNet
Best Comedic Play: The Insatiables written by Tim Plewman & Jonathan Rands and directed by Clare Stopford Plewmans Returns Insatiables
Best One Person Show: Rea Rangaka in "Bafana Republic: Extra Time" written by Mike van Graan and directed by Francios Toerien www.apm.co.za
Best Stand-up Comedian of the year: Nik Rabinowitz (profile)
Outstanding Humorist Columnist: James Clarke for Wild Page in Getaway Magazine
Best Breakthough Act: Trevor Noah www.trevornoah.co.za
Outstanding Contribution to South African Comedy
The grande finale of the evening was the announcement of Leon Schuster as the winner of the award for Outstanding Contribution to South African Comedy. South Africa’s beloved filmmaker, comedian and actor, this boy from Vereeniging began his career in radio, filming over eight feature films and is accredited with the highest grossing SA film ever plus a host of music albums to his name. The 2007 Outstanding Contribution Award was given to satirist Pieter Dirk-Uys who presented an award on the night for Best Breakthrough Act.
The SA Comedy Awards will be screened on SABC 2 on Saturday, 13th September at 20h00.
CONTACT PERSON
Lauren McGregor
Executive Producer
SOUTH AFRICAN COMEDY AWARDS
lauren@sacomedyawards.com
+27 83 522 8118
ISSUED BY
Claire Lockey
Public Relations Practitioner
On behalf of Hunta Entertainment
clairelockey@mweb.co.za
+27 82 598 9192
SA’S FUNNIEST AWARDS SHOW SEEKS SA’S FUNNIEST PROJECTS.
July 2008
The SA Comedy Awards enters its second year in 2008 on the back of widespread critical and industry acclaim for the 2007 Pilot Project.
The SA Comedy Awards is the only national awards show that recognises the talents of comedians, playwrights, journalists and others by acknowledging the cultural contribution made by our funniest men and women across the spectrum of performance, print and broadcast media.
The 2007 Awards show featured SA’s most beloved entertainers, celebrities and theatre personalities who turned out to honour the country’s funniest people at the first SA Comedy Awards ceremony in Cape Town. Outrageous acceptance speeches and hilarious award announcements made the Live Show a comedy roller-coaster in its own right.
The SABC 2 Broadcast of the Awards Show outshone its Saturday prime-time competition and entertained like no other award show on the South African Broadcast landscape.
The 2008 Awards ceremony will take place on Monday the 8th September at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town and will once again be hosted by a glittering array of local and international comedians and celebrities. The ceremony be filmed and broadcast prime time Saturday the 13 September 2008 on SABC2.
There are four categories of awards, namely television, live comedy, print media and a general category. In one of the most hotly contested categories the public will exercise their democratic right to vote for the TV commercial which they consider to be the funniest.
The 2008 Awards will acknowledge creative comedy work that has debuted in the period between September 2007 and August 2008.
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