THE INTERVIEW: We asked Trevor Noah what makes SA comedy special — here’s what he said

As captain of Bafunny Bafunny, Trevor Noah is championing local comedy at the first-of-its-kind Festival of Comedy. Daily Maverick caught up with the comedian for an exclusive interview about the festival and the cultural value of comedy.

Bestselling author, award show host, media producer, world-touring comedian. These are just a few of the hats Trevor Noah wears in his career. Now, back on home soil, Noah has stepped into the role of lead curator for the South African Festival of Comedy.

The festival is the first of its kind, taking live comedy on tour from Pretoria to Cape Town. Framing stand-up as a sports event, it has brought together a “Bafunny Bafunny” team captained by Noah, vice-captained by Eugene Khoza and coached by Ntosh Madlingozi.

Ahead of the tour’s Cape Town leg at the GrandWest Grand Arena on 25 and 26 September , we quickly caught up with Noah about the local comedy scene and what he hopes to bring about through the Festival of Comedy.

When putting together the show’s line-up, Noah says he was looking for funny acts that can surprise audiences.

“We went out [and] found performers we felt hadn’t been seen locally by big-enough audiences and wanted to share them with Mzansi,” he explains.

“It’s the job of shows like this to highlight talent that hasn’t been highlighted before. So many shows did the same for comics like Eugene and myself, too.”

Alongside Noah, Khoza and Madlingozi, the festival features Lindy Johnson, Panch Gasela and Learnmore Jonasi – you might recognise Jonasi from his “translation” of the opening vocals in The Lion King’s Circle of Life that not only went ultraviral online but also landed him a lawsuit from the South African composer of the vocals, Lebo M .

“One of the main things we wanted to focus on is getting South Africans used to the idea that the funniest comedians are in this country,” Noah says in a press conference for the festival . “I think in South Africa, sometimes we only assign value to something when it has an international touch to it, and that’s when we think it deserves more respect.”

So, with Noah’s international experience in mind, we asked him what it is about South African comedy that he believes distinguishes itself from the rest of the world.

“South African audiences are much more diverse than other audiences,” Noah explains. “In most countries I perform in, the audiences generally speak the same language as the group, but in South Africa we have a real melting pot of languages, beliefs, styles of humour, etc. So, South African audiences require comedy that can change forms and satisfy everyone.”

Diversity of local audiences is also what he admits to missing the most while working abroad. “We’re a special bunch!” he says.

At the event’s press conference, Noah described the significance of a festival of this scale: “[We’re] putting on a show in a country that needs to laugh, at a time when the world needs to laugh”.