Review: Piet Potgieter – Scheme Jy ek’s Kommin’

Afrikaans stand up comedy is a very small market at the moment. It is basically Casper de Vries and musicians who double as comedians like Robbie Wessels, Wikus van der Merwe and Kurt Darren. Okay... sorry, that last one was a cheap stab, you are right, I am better than that... Nicolus Louw.

Introduce Piet Potgieter, a self proclaimed Dutchman from the klein karoo who came to the cape to make us laugh, and laugh we did. Piet comes on stage with the only light coming from a table displaying any Dutchman’s bread and butter, brandy and coke. He pours himself a drink that will make any mom proud. The lights come on and he breaks the ice with his first joke. 

Piet makes no apologies for who or what he is. He is dressed in traditional Dutchman garb, an overall top with the sleeves cut off, shorts and vellies with rugby socks. This ‘costume’ works for him and helps to bring in some extra laughs from the crowd. Not that Piet needs them. He has an arsenal of jokes that come from animals running over the road dodging his Ford bakkie to wanting a nose hair transplanted to the tip of his penis to help stop that infernal last drop from making a stain on you khaki pants all the time. The man is a genius. Plastic surgeons take notes.

One can be forgiven to be a little weary of the show. A white Afrikaans guy who calls himself a Dutchman on stage with a mic? It could be done in a cringe worthy way. Luckily Piet does it with respect and style. He is the biggest punch line but not in a way that is offensive in anyway. He plays the character to perfection, sipping on his brandy and coke all the way through the show. Piet will throw some one-liners into the mix of storytelling so fast that you sometimes forget to laugh. There are a few Julius Malema jokes in there which I am not a fan off. But that is more because I think Julius jokes are over done by most comics today. It doesn’t make them any less funny though.

Like I previously mentioned, the whole show is in Afrikaans. But if Afrikaans is only your second language don’t be afraid. My fiancee, who speaks minimal Afrikaans, went with me and she was laughing louder than me at some points.  If, like me, you are Afrikaans with an English partner, Scheme jy Ek’s kommin is a great show to take them to. It will be an education.