With a unique take on all that is happening in and around South Africa, Mark Banks has always been a firm favourite on the comedy circuits.
His latest venture, Banksrupt, takes a side-splitting look at how bankrupt. Mixing up-to-the-minute stand-up comedy with zany characters, video, visual effects and comedy sketches, Banksrupt is a quick-fire laugh-a-minute, rip-roaring one-man show from a seasoned comedy legend at the top of his game. Prepare to meet characters and situations from everyday life in South Africa, from classically trained car guards to the Jewish Women’s Guild of Yemen performing extracts from The Beginner’s Guide To Protesting.
Banks feels laughter is definitely the secret ingredient to life and is working in close collaboration with the Department of Health, SANRAL and a Presidential spokesperson.
So … Banksrupt. What can you say about your own show?
It’s a present day hilarious look at how bankrupt we truly have become, not just financially, but morally, spiritually, politically – in fact any word you can put “ally”on the end of!
Is it fair to say that we are living in a time that may be awful for some, but is pretty useful for comedians, if you take Trump, Zuma and other factors into account?
It is a comedian’s veritable harvestime! I don’t know what “veritable” means, but it sounds right.
But is there anything, or anybody, that you absolutely would not slander in your shows? Something that is deemed “going too far”?
Setting a fairly dangerous animal on a member of the audience probably. I do a lot of animal rescue work and sometimes have to bring the injured animal to the theatre. I had a bit of trouble the other night in Port Elizabeth with a Barn Owl that got out of the dressing room cage and went for seat D7. A woman from Uitenhage.
You’ve been named a Comics Choice Awards Lifetime Achiever – how does it feel to be honoured by your peers in such a competitive sector?
Very flattering. I bring the award out at the slightest provocation. Sometimes without provocation.
That said – is it nice to be called “the Grand Dowager uncle of the South African comedy underground”?
That sounds like something (John) Vlismas would come out with! He had a club called The Underground, and whenever he can he dubs anything The Underground. So subliminally he is actually pushing himself. No. It’s not nice.
You’re a boy from Bergvliet, but you’re spend lots of time in Jo’burg and ‘tis rumoured you have a farm in Swellendam. Where does the real Mark Banks like to hang out?
Calitzdorp! Not Swellendam. NEVER SWELLENDAM!!!! The best kept secret in the world is Calitzdorp on the magnificent Route 62. Minutes away from Cape Town in the jet. Ja!
What do you like to do to relax?
Nothing. I do nothing so well people don’t always know I’m doing nothing.
Could you please tell us something about yourself that most people would not know/suspect?
I have compiled the first ever Roberts’ Comedians of South Africa. Like the bird book, this one tells you how to spot them, where, their feeding habits and what they do for laughs.
Where and when: Theatre on the Bay, January 31 – February 11
Book: Computicket
WS
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