Kenny Kunene before being roasted, with Jen Su.
Schleps came out to watch Sushi King Kenny Kunene get roasted at a glitzy, bling-filled Lyric Theater at Gold Reef City on Thursday night (3 April). The event was sponsored by Comedy Central SA and Nandos. The roasters - brave souls - were PJ Powers, Riaan Van Heerden, Somizi Mhlongo, Tumi Morake, Jack Parow, Dineo Morake and John Vlismas.
Red Carpet
The roast was well-attended by schlepville but they were camera-shy and avoided the Red Carpet except for Somizi, David Kau, the roastmaster Jimmy Carr and Kenny Kunene who were willing to give their take on the event and hyped the media about what to expect.
The schleps sneaked in behind the media, therefore behind the red carpet, straight to the VIP lounge.Spotted from a distance: Azania and Nothemba Madumo.
Trying to manoeuvre your way into that lounge was
not pleasant - too many people, aircon not coping, too little space to move, overcrowded bar. The waiters were struggling to get the mini pizza slices they were serving to the guests. I wonder if Nandos is starting a pizza servings option on their menu?! As the sponsor for the Roast, I kind of expected lots of chicken and mini-burgers with all their wonderful flavours to be served.
Jimmy Carr
The show
Jimmy Carr fired up the show once everyone eventually sat down at 21:00 - half an hour after the scheduled time. We were all stuck at the full bars trying to get drinks so it took a while to get to our seats.
He introduced Deep Fried Man as the opening act who really warmed us up by poking fun at the roasters and pointing out that they could do nothing as payback. He was also in charge of the ground-rules for the audience and the audience was encouraged to tweet and share their views on twitter.
The roasters came on stage with gusto and sweet nervous smiles. I think at this point they were worried about whether or not their lines were good enough or what the esteemed writers had handed them would not get them into hot water.
The jokes or roast lines were prepared by South Africa's and Britain's finest comedy writers. These talented comedians are Steven Francis, Gus Silber, Elmir Arnautovic, Kagiso Lediga, Camilo Salojee, Christopher Steenkamp and Daniel Friedman.
Delivering those lines requires courage as you should be able to give it as you take it. The jokes were hardcore fierce and downright dirty.
To be honest, I felt that Khanyi Mbau's reproductive organs were more on roast than Kenny. Every second or third joke was about how she had shagged her way to "retirement".
The next best victim was Dineo Ranaka's alleged drug/alcohol past and meltdowns. Tumi Morake's weight came third on the jokes list.
Current and social issues such as Thuli Madonsela's report, GedleyeGuptisa's homestead woes, Julius Malema's tax battles, Oscar Pistorius's murder trial, Shrien Dewani's trial and Kenny's party campaign trail were also high on the laugh-a-second show.
A close-up on the set.
Twitter was abuzz about the jokes, to some tweeps annoyance ... well, the sponsors encouraged it, so deal with it! Also, not all the jokes were tweeted and seeing the delivery makes it even better so watch the show when it is aired.
The show was closed by Khanyi Mbau killing all the roasters with her wit and delivery of her jokes. She was really good. As she dropped her punchline and walked away, Kenny could not help but squeeze her buns. Kenny's response was funnily "presidential".
As we left the lyric theater, we were given chopsticks as a thank you/goodie bag gifts. #dontJudge
The After Party
Back of the Moon was the next spot for the event. Most schleps had left. Kenny and the roasters were there to mingle, talk and take questions. Everyone was happy and jolly, nobody was looking upset at anybody.
The booze was flowing, the sushi and Nandos were available everywhere and the music was on point! I just wondered when the bodies would digest the food consumed at 1am in the morning. Shuuuu!
The show will air on Comedy Central across sub-saharan Africa on Monday, 28th April 2014 at 21:00 CAT. Comedy Central will also be available on the Compact bouquet for the duration of the show.