South African comedy heavyweights, Marc Lottering and Alfred Adriaan are sharing their craft in their first upcoming stand-up comedy show.
Comedy fans are in for a treat as the funny men join forces to make you laugh your socks off.
In a rather blunt title, the show named Alfred & Marc will be playing in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with a possible show in Gqeberha.
The Weekend Argus caught up with the old friends, who shared the tea on how their brand-new show was birthed.
Dad-of-two Adriaan speaks excitedly, and pinches himself in disbelief, about the fact that he is doing a show with his comedy idol.
“To say that this is beyond what I could have imagined is an understatement because you have to remember that I grew up in Port Elizabeth and I saw Marc, and I can remember which seat I was in at the Opera House; it was seat number Q15.
“I watched him at the Opera House thinking to myself, ‘Wow’, you know, it was just magical and he was so good.
“He had the audience and I thought, somewhere inside of me, the seed was planted … that maybe I could do this one day, but living in Port Elizabeth was challenging at the time. There were no comedy rooms and so forth.
“I was studying to become a BCom grad but years later I got to open for Marc – and that was a massive dream come true.
“I couldn’t understand my fortune, and today me and him are doing a show together. It blows my mind.
“I look at the poster now and then I tell my wife, I say, ‘Me and Marc are doing this thing and people are buying tickets at a record rate.’ So it is a very big, humbling experience.
“I won’t lie to you; it’s also very nerve-racking.
“I have massive impostor syndrome. What am I doing on stage with a master of his craft who’s been at the top of the business for 30 years?”
Alfred said he approached Marc with the idea of doing a show together.
“One evening, I felt braver than normal so I texted Marc to ask if we could do a show, and then we put it together rather quickly.
“And it was a very organic feeling and lovely because our audiences overlap and we have similar lived experiences. It just felt like the right thing at the right time.
“We’re going to share some of those stories. For example, I’ve done shows for 12 years, and Marc has done shows for 26 years, and there are stories that the audience hasn’t heard for a while, and we want to tell the stories that we enjoy most.
“We’re going to be adding a couple of new things that we want to share and also there are intersections between me and Marc, but people have to come to see the show, to understand sort of how it’s all going to work because it’s not as simple as just that. So, it’s a very upbeat, very happy show and dare I say sometimes with conscious content.”
Lottering said the two-hour show would be split into two with both comedians to be seen in both halves.
“So in other words, people get to see 30 minutes of both of us in the first half and the second half,” he added.
He will be bringing along a few familiar faces from his previous shows.
Lottering said: “When I started my career in the late 1990s, my characters appeared on stage too, so it would only be right to have them pop into the show.
“I’m immediately thinking about Colleen the Cashier, Smiley and of course Aunty Merle. But, naturally, both Alfred and I will also be focusing heavily on our stand-up.
“Alfred is a hard worker. He’s focused, and I admire that greatly. He has a clear vision about his career path, and he does what he needs to to make it happen.”
The Cape Town show takes place at the Artscape Theatre on June 1, while the show opens in Johannesburg on May 16 and 17 at the Lyric Theatre.
Tickets cost R250 via Webtickets.