The anti-prophet speaks

JOBURG – Once South Africa’s enfant terrible of comedy, John Vlismas might no longer be enfant, but he’s still terribly funny.

The poster boy of controversial comedy spoke to this reporter about his new show, Revelations: Sacred Cow Apocalypse, which promises an all-out attack on the end of the world, family, friends, children, peace, hope, faith, charity, and Jacob Zuma.

Vlismas said part of the inspiration for the show was the need to “poke holes in accepted reality” and that we are “running out of time to point out the flaws in our… plot”.

“[It’s] the human condition, particularly our self-importance and aggrandizement of the mundane as some sort of mainstream shared experience,” he said.

“We allow the middle of the road to become excellence, and we generally burn, shoot or imprison the stand-out examples of humanity.”

Speaking about the ‘cardinal virtues’ of faith, hope and charity, Vlismas said, “Most of them are fraudulent non-profit fronts for money laundering. None of the money ends up in the mouths of the hungry or the veins of the sick… They are great concepts, rarely realised by society.”

In a variation on the themes of sacred and profane, Vlismas intends to voice his opinion on President Jacob Zuma or, as he referred to him, that “totally busted thief of an a**hole”.

“South African politics is at the next most exciting stage since democracy,” he said.

“Now we are being forced to look up the skirt of Freedom and see if she is wearing clean underwear.”

Surprisingly, when asked if any of his jokes have landed him in hot water with God or party-fearing members of the public, Vlismas said they hadn’t.

“We South Africans are big on Twitter or at writing letters, but we seldom take action. Anybody with a brain would know that there is no devil,” he said.

“We are humans; we are capable of terrible evil all on our own.”

Vlismas lives with his partner, daughter and cat in a flat, and when he’s not working on new material or multimedia production design, he spends time with family and friends, reads, watches TV or paints.

“I think it’s important to keep stimulating your mind,” he said.

Vlismas credited “the need to poke holes in authority, the aversion to having a boss, and [his] intimate relationship with the chaos fairy from a young age” for having put him on the comedy path.

Indulge in anarchy and irreverence at Revelation: Sacred Cow Apocalypse on 23 and 24 May at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City.

Details: www.computicket.com