A Spykos of African Kings of comedy

18 September 2014 - 11:56 By Bonginkosi Tiwane
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“I like the concept of having Africans on one stage,” says comedian and organizer of the African Kings and Queens of Comedy show Tshepo ‘Spykos’ Mogale.

The show takes place next week, the day before Heritage Day at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park which will feature some of the biggest names from the continent.

It will be the first the first time the show takes place, which includes established and internationally recognised comics such as Nigeria’s Basketmouth, locals Kagiso Lediga and Tumi Morake, Malawi’s Daliso Chaponda, Uganda’s  Pablo Kimuli amongst many others. 

“We’d like to do it annually,” says Mogale who reiterates that the line-up is made-up of seasoned comedians who will not struggle to bring out laughs from the audience.

Mogale, who fans will know from the popular satirical television programme The Pure Monate Show, says people still recognise him as Spykos- name of a character he portrayed on the show, pretending to be a Kwaito artist. “People still request the Birthday Yam' song when they see me,” he says.

After the hype around the song, which saw him perform at different music festivals across the country, subsided “I took break and did some travelling around the world,” says the 31 year-old who’s been in the local comedy industry for more than decade now.

Over the years the comedian has gone in and out of business ventures, but has stuck to his logistics company he started a few months ago. “But when the comedy bug has bitten you, you can never get away from it,” he says. He sometimes does special appearances on the Late Night News with Loyiso Gola.

He never really took a seat from doing stand-up comedy “I’ve just been doing a lot of corporate gigs”-hence a lot of people aren’t able to see a lot of him.

The Africa Kings and Queens of Comedy will present an opportunity for people to see him live on stage, as he will be one of the acts on the night- although he admits he still hasn’t decided on what material to use. This mixture of African comedy will be completed by Khuli Roberts who will be hosting the show.

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