Emily Gambade Opens Up Pieter-Dirk Uys’ “World of Paradoxes”

by Amanda on Sep 16th, 2011

Emily Gambade interviewed ever-optimistic Pieter-Dirk Uys, the comedian provocateur behind creations like Evita Bezuidenhout and Bambi Kellerman (whose biography Never too Naked was recently published). In the interview, Uys proves that it’s possible to be optimistic about the future of South Africa while remaining critical. He says the formula for his work requires 49% anger and 51% entertainment.

Uys also weighs in on another provocateur, Julius Malema, whom he says is likely to become our next president. Uys hesitantly utters a warning that history repeats itself: “Julius Malema says: ‘We must control the economy – it’s in the hands of the whites.’ Hitler said: ‘We must control the economy – it’s in the hand of the Jews’”:

Tremble, politicians: Pieter-Dirk Uys is on stage. Darling in his furrow, he brings Evita, Mother Theresa, Winnie and other hysterically disparate ladies at the Baxter Theatre until 1 October, turning any current political drama into a festive, funny, fabulous moment.

Don’t be fooled, for under the unbearable lightness of laughing, Pieter-Dirk Uys opens a world of paradoxes. South Africa is a beautiful country albeit in trouble. Our democracy is alive albeit clearly at risk. The peaceful transition is yesterday’s news and the honeymoon lasted too long. The show is a firework of laughter, gnashing, wonder and inconvenient truths. And the man behind the women, make-up and fake eyelashes, is a rather improbable teacher.

“I need my audience to come there and to leave as optimistic as the characters. But I also need them to be aware of the problems. Once you are aware of the problems, you can solve them. If you are just negative and angry, it gets worse and worse. We are an extraordinary country. We have so many generous people in this country, considering what we did to the majority of our people for so long with apartheid, they had all the reasons in the world to take revenge themselves, and tell us, get out or die, but they didn’t.