David Kau has been consistent with his complaints against government support for comedy

The Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie might have felt personally attacked by David Kau when the comedian called him out for the lack of support to the country’s comedy industry.

But Kau has for a number of years lamented the paucity of formal state financial backing.

In an interview the veteran comedian had with The Citizen about a year ago that was never published, the comic expressed his frustration.

Through the trenches

The Kroonstad-born Kau began his career as the first black stand-up comedian in the 1998 Smirnoff Comedy Festival in Cape Town, the only comic of colour on stage out of 44 comics.

“I moved to Joburg in 2003, my first show was at Gallagher estate, there were 3600 white people, just white people. Alex Jay use to host the Heavyweight Comedy Jams and I was the only black comedian there” avers Kau.

The mention of race is quite significant and not an attempt at being crass.

When the likes of Kau and Kagiso Lediga started out their careers, they only performed in front of white audiences because there was a serious paucity of platforms for black South African comics in the noughties.

“It’s good that you’ve got guys like Sfiso Nene, Celeste Ntuli that can literally fill up venues and 99 percent perform in Zulu.”

The latter is currently on tour with her show Celeste & Da Big Dudes, which is at Kempton Park’s Emperor’s Palace this weekend.

Kau mentions comedians such as Ndumiso Lindi who can have an all-Xhosa line-up and still manage to sell out a venue, something you couldn’t fathom 25 years ago.

“But I think that’s a true reflection of South Africa. For me, I’ve always said the numbers have to reflect the population,” says Kau.

ALSO READ: ‘I can’t have you insinuating that I don’t care about comedians’ – Gayton McKenzie tells David Kau

Blacks Only

Kau did a show called Comedy Blackout for about four years before launching Black Only.

“The idea was to try get black people to come to stand-up comedy. I’ve always tried to push line-ups of black comedians. By then it was just me, Kagiso, Ronnie Modimola and Tshepo Mogale.”

Blacks Only was launched in 2004. 

“You just needed a platform for black comedians to perform in whatever language they want. But the show was still primarily English.”

When he came up with the name for the show, he didn’t receive any backlash from media but it was from a handful of white comedians.

“The idea was always ripping of the old African apartheid laws; ‘Net Blankes’. The first poster we did for Black Only we shot it at Zoo Lake where we found this toilet that still had the whole sign that says ‘no blacks’ allowed.”

The show has grown to become an institution, being a platform that’s given so many comedians a chance.

The likes of Trevor Noah, Eugene Khoza and Skhumba are a handful of comics who’ve graced the Blacks Only stage.

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Funny with the money

Kau’s recent remarks on social media echo what he told this publication, long before McKenzie became minister.

He spoke with a mixture of sombreness and frustration about the little to nothing financial support they receive from both Government and corporate.

“It’s a pity sponsorship and the money in the businesses is skewed,” the comedian said.

“Obviously, a lot of sponsorship money generally in South Africa still goes to the white community whether it’s music or dancing, soccer or rugby. So equally then you have very little sponsorship, actually almost zero sponsorship, for black stand-up comedy.”

This is despite Blacks Only shows always attracting big numbers.

“But I was funding all these things, behind the scenes. For some, buying them cars, singing a lease for them to stay somewhere,” he explains some of the bills he’s had to foot for comedians because of the lack of funding in the industry.

He says government has also done zero in trying to alleviate the pressure and help develop the art form. “It’s not like we haven’t had these conversations, we have. But at the end of the day whether it’s sports or comedy, it costs money to develop talent.”

“I don’t understand why if someone is in a position where they charge of Arts and Culture, they don’t understand that if it costs money to develop soccer and rugby, it’s going to cost money to develop comedy or acting.”

ALSO READ: Celeste: ‘Inspired by the late Brenda & The Big Dudes but it is still a normal comedy’

No support

His point is further emphasized when he speaks about the time when he launched comedy TV show, So You Think You’re Funny that ran for two seasons on SABC 1.

The reality TV show was a talent search program which unearthed some of the country’s biggest comedians today. 

“Without it [the show] I don’t think you’d have your Celeste, Tats Nkonzo, Mpho Popps…there are so many guys, about 10 guys I can count who have careers now, who come from So You Think You’re Funny.”

The last season of the show was more than a decade ago, but due to little sponsorship, the show got canned.

If in two seasons if churned out talent that’s still in the industry today, one wonders how much more talent it would’ve unearthed had it stayed on air.

Juxtapose this to Saturday Night Live in the US which has been running for many years and produces great talent, Kau’s point hits home.

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