There are tired words out there, tired ideas, alternative has long lost its punch. It’s a tedious reminder that we’re sloppy ideologues and careless. Anarchy can have the same tinge to it, a predictable and sometimes uncomfortable feeling associates itself with it. If I consider how I think about the world, the rules of engagement [...]
the beautiful newBy Christopher Steenkamp, May 9.
I judged the screening of The Jive International Comedy Festival that’s happening around the corner. Brent Palmer, Kurt Schoonraad, Dylan Skews, Carl Weber, Mel Jones and myself joined forces to consider our city’s next wave of comedic talent. What an incredible evening it turned out to be. Two brilliant surprises, the level of talent [...]
looking for moreBy Christopher Steenkamp, April 17.
There’s far too much chaos. A helicopter crash, really? I think we should cut down entirely, we just don’t need this kind of stress in our lives. I’ve become addicted to sharing the daily caffeine infused ritual where we taser each other’s consciousness with daily offerings from our media outlets until our sensibility is left [...]
Comedy is important. It matters. A society without jesters or fools or some kind of sanctioned ‘say what you really think but funny’ quickly turns into a place where everyone takes themselves too seriously and end up going full retard. Maybe if somebody had been allowed to make fun of his ridiculous mustache Mr Mugabe [...]
I remember Martin Evans bitching about how backward our civilisation is concerning fundamentals, how reliant we are on this system of food distribution and the proxy technology that fills the gap between our hunger and knowing how to actually make bread. Louis CK also has a bit about god coming down and shitting all over [...]
breathe smokeBy Christopher Steenkamp, March 29.
Anarchy’s principle objections are that it promotes violence and is impractical. I can’t think of a better description for our current democracy. Prolific police brutality and MP’s pissing our money against over priced walls, money meant to swallow our economic divide, money meant for feeding & educating the poor’s children. Money, money, money. A tedious [...]
the vanguard’s protagonistsBy Christopher Steenkamp, March 25.
I’ve been thinking long & hard about character when it comes to stand up, not the pretend to be an ‘Indian oke’ school of characterisation, but rather the straight man stuff we, as comics, exhibit on stage. I’ve been thinking about this because apart from being a stand up, I’m also a director, writer and [...]
Hi Marty, just thought to write you a quick note, there’s something I need to mention to you. It’s a personal problem, but it seems like I’m not the only one suffering from it, we don’t really talk about it that much, as a people, but maybe this letter will open up the dialogue a little. There’s [...]
the yawning classBy Christopher Steenkamp, March 20.
Sitting in the cool evening air of late summer, Kirstenbosch wafting past and the merry wine fuelled chatter humming all around me, I came to a crisp conclusion, we’re bored. Tedium has found us, collectively. So much so that we’ll take this strange edifice up on its offer to watch a film outside. I call [...]
where there’s smokeBy Christopher Steenkamp, March 14.
Watching over paid, well, over everything’d, uncharming people piss our money against the wall is infuriating. I feel like taking that National Key Point and applying it lubelessly to every lying hole I can find. What joy to take a break from the odious spend thrift bastardly upper echelon, for but another wave of equally [...]
Born Again Atheists?By Christopher Steenkamp, March 8.
On opening my news feed this morning, coffee in hand & soul still orientating, I found a tweet that helped the process along. ‘Comedians launch atheist church in London’. What bliss, how beauteous. I immediately retweeted the links with all round high virtual fives. Then I went a sniffing, I had a look at their [...]
An Open Letter to Piers MorganBy Christopher Steenkamp, February 15.
Hi Pierce, hope I can call you by your first name, you’re a bit posh after all. I’m also aware that’s not how you spell youre name, but I thought you should give it a go, it has more ummpfh that way. I know things aren’t going so well at the moment between you [...]
exit strategy of a dope fiend diaryBy Christopher Steenkamp, December 18.
I’m not sure what ideas support her, make her tick. For someone who spends so much time writing about herself she reveals little actual information. She likes drugs and fucking, not entirely rare obsessions. The thing is, I don’t think she should stop her column. Whenever I read a confessional columnist I like looking for [...]
Bohemia’s suit radiusBy Christopher Steenkamp, December 16.
I’ve just read No More Live Music in Durban on Rollingstone.co.za by Roger Young and feel my irritation fuelled by a similar situation in Observatory. Being a resident of Lower Main, quite literally (I live on it), I can’t help but admit to a slanted pro-noise predisposition, and what’s more, it’s unfair. Cut off’s before [...]
Dream on, Dreamer.By Cameron Olivier, December 9.
It’s seven fourteen and I’m standing on the platform waiting for the 7am train. Its late. Again. Next to me the platform is teeming with people of all ages, all in varying states of agitation at the prospect of having to explain with the same old excuses the reason for their tardiness. Finally the train [...]
Finding joy in the small things.By Cameron Olivier, November 22.
We don’t celebrate the small things enough anymore. There’s an unspoken hurriedness that envelopes us. A desperateness that drives us. We are busy and that busy-ness blinkers us, closing us off to the subtleties that surround us every day. I sometimes wonder at what drives this numbness. Could it be a fear of failure, of [...]
hackity mainstream derivative what whatBy Tilt Staff Writer, November 7.
Thinking about comedy and what mainstream versus indie or underground means has my mind a little tangled. First off mainstream means anything that has reached popular view, something most of the regularly consuming public have taken a shining to. Now this shouldn’t be a reflection on the quality of the work, the fact that Radio [...]
a quick scribbleBy Christopher Steenkamp, October 4.
I’m in one of those strange moods where I feel like writing but couldn’t be asked to get out of bed. So I’m writing this in bed, on my blackberry. I don’t know if Thompson or Wilde or Self ever punched out literary genius on a cellular device, perhaps if they left their laptop at [...]
In the eye of the beholder.By Cameron Olivier, October 1.
Whenever I think of beauty, I’m reminded of that scene from FightClub where Edward Norton fucks up that guy, (Jay Leno? – I think he’s in a band), because he felt like destroying something beautiful. Strangely, the visual impact of that iconic fight left me not able to look at Jared again in the [...]
A heavy altercation in a drive throughBy Christopher Steenkamp, May 17.
I’ve been thinking about writing a series for some time, linked thematically, something both interesting and entertaining. An illustrated history of something or other, perhaps a pop up book exploring ‘the medical implications of sodomy’ or ‘a rant comics guide to fuck you’,not sure, but I wanted something a little heady and applicable. My [...]