S01E29 Schalk Bezuidenhout, Afrikaans / English speaker - From Kempton Park, South Africa 🇿🇦

Schalk Bezuidenhout was tour support for Trevor Noah and won South African Comics' Choice Awards' Newcomer and Break Through Act of the Year. This episode was recorded in May when the South African star brought his show to Soho Theatre in London for a 5-day run, filling the room with South African expats and local Brits alike.

Schalk explains the stereotypes attached to Afrikaans and talks about how Afrikaans speakers are often on the receiving end of jokes in South Africa, how the Afrikaans accent can be made fun of, Nevertheless, comedy serves as the unifying factor for the multi-racial post-Apartheid South Africa by creating a shared experience

When gigging abroad, the white South African label used to lead the audience to automatically assume the comic has got to be racist, so much so that a disclaimer is required. Schalk explains how things are changing and why he would always identify himself as an Afrikaans South African rather than just a South African.

*Apologies from your host in this episode as he mispronounced Afrikaans by omitting the "S" at the end on a few occasions.

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Follow Schalk on Instagram and his website

Schalk will be in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival this August! See Schalk in EdFringe

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

Your host Kuan-wen will be in Edinburgh in August, too!

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00:50 Intro

02:28 Afrikaans as a language (vs. Modern Dutch)

05:54 Schalk prefers performing in English

08:05 Languages in South Africa

09:28 South Africans’ less privileged passports

12:30 Schalk’s accent / comedy being one of the unifying factors in South Africa

16:11 Schalk performing in front of other ethnicities in South Africa

18:07 How Schalk was “forced” into learning English

19:29 Picking on English South Africans

19:59 Needing to warm up to switch to English

22:04 A party for South Africans (other guests welcome)

23:50 Changing words and slangs in the comedy set

25:39 Different approaches for gigging in different cities

28:36 A Public school is a Private school in the UK

29:34 People tend to ask “where’s your accent from?”

32:45 Afrikaans as oppressed (Anglo-Boer war) or oppressor (Apartheid)?

33:24 Comedy audience automatically assumed white South African comedians to be racist

36:30 The Afrikaans South African performer rather than just South African

38:41 South Africans in the UK more homesick than those in Australia

41:21 How many South Africans there are in the UK

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe