Jacobs’ wit thrills comedy devotees

message that ran through top South African stand-up comedian Grant Jacobs’ play, “Paperboy” that was staged at the Standard Theatre on the second day of the ongoing Harare International Festival of the Arts.
The Durban-born artiste enthralled a full house of comedy lovers with his engrossing one-man performance that proved why he is one of the most sought-after stand-up comedians in that country.
Grant – who also wrote the play – had three performances at the festival and judging by the way the first show was sold out, the one-man production is without doubt one of the major draw-cards.
Directed by award-winning artiste, Liam Magner, “Paperboy” is an action-filled and hilarious play about a simple newspaper delivery boy, Bobby Jones, who harbours the ambition of becoming a professional detective after having been inspired by British secret agent James Bond.
But apart from this talent, Bobby also leads a very checkered life characterised by family as well as social friction, confusion and tension.
Bobby is so desperate to meet his famous mother who is something of a celebrity, but does not have the means and ways to do so.
His father – a wheel-chair bound senile old man – spends most of his time confined within the walls of the family home and does not like the way his son lives.
Bobby spends most of his time on the road on his delivery bike while turning the whole neighbourhood upside down with his pranks.
During his delivery errands, Bobby also abuses his detective skills by breaking into people’s homes.
All comes to a head when Bobby has the chance of a lifetime to meet his mother who is having a public event somewhere.
“I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to meet my mother,” he declares when he sneaks into the venue of the event held in his mother’s honour.
But his hopes are dashed when his plan to meet her are thwarted after he is dragged out of the venue.
“All I could see was a sea of hands trying to push me away from her . . . I saw her looking at me and then they took her away from me,” laments Bobby.
It is the way that Grant manages to switch roles from one character to another as well as change costumes to fit the particular character that makes the play interesting.
He also manages to change tones in a way that reveals a high level of finesse and artistry.
The play however, ends on a positive note, with Bobby asserting that whatever people face in life, they should still move on with their lives and never say die in the face of challenges.
“I am starting afresh, no more lies, no more restrictions. I’ve quit my job and I want to study, study acting,” he says to peels of laughter from the audience.
Positively, the play attracted people from all walks of life who turned up in the spirit of engaging one another through theatre.
They should come on time to avoid disappointments of being turned away once the show starts since it is attracting a capacity crowd.
Elsewhere, First Street Mall – usually associated with activities by airtime and mobile phone line vendors – yesterday afternoon belonged to Irrwisch Theatre who treated the crowd to a variety of free performances. The Austria-based Irrwisch Theatre Group displayed some eye-catching juggling skills while playing music using a combination of rattles, drums and vocals.
Irrwisch is made up of the trio of Stefan Grassl, Stefan Novak and Manfred Unterluggaver who displayed exceptional music skills fused with comedy that left the crowd in stitches.
Dressed in tattered costumes, they provided classic comedian skills similar to those of Kapfupi, Paraffin and Mukadota.
The group also exhibited their acrobatic skills using ropes.