I’m not dead and it’s not funny – Leon Schuster

Filmmaker and prank puller Leon Schuster (70) says it is starting to feel like someone wants him dead after another rumour of his death has been doing the rounds.

One of Schuster’s friends tried to phone him several times on Monday while he was caught up in a meeting. When Schuster returned the call, his worried friend asked whether he was okay.

He says that people even phoned from Namibia just to hear his voice, as they’d heard that he had passed away.

Schuster – famous for movies like You Must Be Joking and Oh Shucks It’s Schuster – says the ‘joke’ of his death is a bitter pill to swallow and that death is not something he takes lightly.

“I think I have died 13 or 15 deaths by now.”

“Why do they do it? I don’t know why they target me,” he told Netwerk24.

He says that this kind of news places him in a very uncomfortable position, especially when people corner him in public, saying that they thought he was dead.

“Can you imagine how your heart would feel if they said it to you? It’s not a nice thing to hear. The word ‘death’ doesn’t sit well with me.”

Schuster can’t help but wonder if people would believe that he has passed away when that day really comes. He says the rumours make him mad because you don’t joke about death. He also says that there is a God in heaven who knows that the people spreading these rumours are doing him wrong.

“They may not do it, but for them it is just sensation.”

READ: It’s not over yet – one last Schuster film

Leon Schuster says that no clear-thinking person would ever do something like this.

“It is absolute reprehensible behaviour that you would want to hurt someone or get revenge” he comments, adding that to mock death goes against what God stands for.

“It’s a blatant infringement of a person’s humanity; I also have a heart and soul, and I also get flippen hurt.”

He might be a comedian, but joking about death is clearly not something he takes lightly, and he says that those partaking in the distasteful prank can continue with it, but no one will believe them anymore because he has now died too many times.