Laugh your troubles away

EVIL Racoon Comedy is planning another show after a successful event held in May to raise funds for the All Saints Anglican church in Sarnia Road.
Organiser, Curt Wilson, a Queensburgh based graphic artist and comedian, said the Evil Racoon has developed organically from its first impromptu show at Queensburgh’s Musketeer’s Pub and Grill.

“I just asked the band if I could borrow their mic while they take a break. The people liked it so I came back the next week,” explained Wilson. 

Following the popularity of these appearances, Wilson got some extra acts to join him.

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Wilson describes the kind of humour, as being aimed at “people who can take a joke regardless of how politically incorrect the comedy is. I created the show to appeal to a niche market,” he explained.

“Dirty jokes! People like them,” he said. “If you like Jim Jeffries, Louis CK or Chris Rock then this show is for you.”
Wilson said he usually starts off his shows with a standard disclaimer about how racism is the greatest idea for a joke but the worst idea for a lifestyle choice.”That’s what I think,” he said. “Every time I write a joke it is with the intent of satirical depicting social issues that affect me and us as a society.”

He said he had received a lot of flack in the past for his humour having been called “a racist, sexist, homophobic, satanic and the most insulting of all, vegan!”
“I thought I’d take the time to clear things up. Why do I do comedy? Because I genuinely believe laughter is the best medicine. Think about it. What else numbs pain as universally as comedy? Anaesthetic for the body, anti-depressants for the mind but what numbs your history? What pill do you take to make the past go away, even for a minute?”

“There’s no racism pill, no misogyny injection or rape suppository to make all the hurt go away. The only thing we have is comedy.

A lot of social injustices have vanished in the last century but many more still exist and the worst part of them is that most of the oppressed won’t live long enough to see a brighter world. All we can do to get by until then is laugh it off. When we laugh at something, for a brief time we become more powerful than it. We rise above it. And that is the healing power of laughter I hope to provide,” he said.

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He does also admit he will always have detractors who dislike what he does. “Yes, I’m going to offend people because some people are simply too far gone to ever be happy. Yes, my jokes are racist, they are bigoted in many ways and I will continue to tell them because when we laugh at all the horrors in the world, for a brief time in our lives, we’re more powerful than them. I won’t make the world a better place, but I will make you laugh until it is.”

The increasing audience has shown Wilson and his collaborators that there is a market for their brand of humour in Durban. He said they soon needed a more suitable venue and so started putting on shows a TG4Fridays with even bigger lineups.

“We stopped that because the venue was becoming too small for the size of the audience,” he said. “So now it’s at the 031 distillery, which is a much larger venue and more cable of hosting the increasing size of the audience.”

Evil Racoon Comedy is a stand-up comedy show featuring Neil Green, Daryl Nqobile Williams, Spencer Spesk Govender, Thami M Dlamini, Matt Armstrong and “Manga Some-Black Guy”.  Hosted by Wilson, the show takes place at 031 Distillery on Saturday, 25 August. Tickets are on sale at R100 per ticket. No under 18s.

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