The Almost Perfect Podcast

Angela de Klerk is a musician. She started singing for Japan and I as a teenager after a successful night of karaoke and hasn't looked back. Since then, she's been a part of the folk-punk collective Rambling Bones and the jazz duo West of the Moon. Oh, and she just got back from a European tour with The Shabs. Unfortunately, being a life-long musician in South Africa isn't exactly a recipe for financial stability, so Angela made the daunting choice of becoming a yacht stewardess in her 30s to supplement her music career.

In this episode we discuss the difficulties of trying to sustain a music career through the decline of media, the joys of making music and going on tour with your friends, and finding the balance between having fun and being professional. Enjoy.

Keagan Bennewith is a musician and event organiser. He's the bassist for Poster Boy and one of the guys behind Reverberate. If you're part of the Durban alt scene, you've definitely seen Poster Boy play as they performed about 100 shows in their first year together. You've also probably been to a Reverberate gig as they filled in the gap left after COVID and have put on some of Durban's best gigs in the last few years.

In this episode, we chat about the joys and struggles of being in a band in Durban, how a house party lead to an events company, and what it's like to work with legendary producer David Birch. Enjoy.

Akhil Maharaj is a comedian. He's sardonic, awkward, and depressive, which makes him a perfect fit for the Not Quite Right Comedy crew. He also drives to Durban from Richards Bay almost every Wednesday for our open mic, which is an unreal level of commitment to the craft.

In this episode, we chat about Akhil's love of Norm Macdonald, how he used Reddit to find a vape in India, and his experiences with depression and therapy. Enjoy.

Catherine Grenfell is a DJ, and executive producer at Audio Militia. You probably know her from her 15 years in radio as a producer and presenter at 5FM. Life these days is quite different from the chaos of her youth, with water shots, pottery, and yoga replacing the hangovers, junk food, and saying "yes" to everything.

In this episode, we chat about transitioning from life in the public eye, the importance of making time for hobbies, and what she's learned from being a sober cobra. Enjoy.

Aaron Peters is a cultural curator. That's a fancy way of saying he does a whole lot behind the scenes of Cape Town's music community. Aaron has been a pivotal force behind CT's music scene for most of his adult life. He started out as a manager, booking agent, and promoter, leading to him working at Black Major, before starting up The Other Records and The Other Radio. He's also responsible for booking the lineup for the Search Festival, amongst many other projects.

In this episode, we get into the hustle of making money from underground music in South Africa, how working at the CT Jazz Festival as a teen laid the foundations for his career, and what it's like to fall asleep with the sounds of Alice Phoebe Lou writing songs next door. Enjoy.

Spoek Mathambo/Nthato Mokgata is a musician and filmmaker. He's a master of collaboration, with roots tracing all the way back to the seminal The Fantastic Kill with Watkin Tudor Jones and Sibot, which lead to projects like Sweat.X, Playdoe, Moleke Mbembe, Fantasma, Batuk, and his most recent collaborations with Laliboi. I'm definitely leaving some stuff out, and that's not even to mention his personal catalogue of albums, but the point is that the man has kept himself busy.

Not just with making music. In 2014, he worked on a documentary called Future Sound of Mzansi that is, to this day, one of the best explorations of South African electronic music. He's worked on a number of documentaries before and since, and has delved into a number of facets of filmmaking. Most recently, he was a writer and director for the "Surf Sangoma" episode of Disney's Kizazi Moto animated anthology series. We get into all of the above as well as learn about some of the pitfalls of working with international labels, explore the benefits and hurdles of modern music distribution, and discuss why he feels like there are still musical magic tricks from SA music history that haven't been explored fully. Enjoy.

Kamaney is a comedian. Growing up, Kamaney didn't know stand-up comedy was an option for her. The only funny women she saw were on sitcoms, so she set out on that path by studying Drama at UKZN. She hated it, but she got a masters degree to not disappoint her mother. Thankfully, it eventually lead to her doing stand-up comedy, which she'll explain on the podcast.

In this episode we get into internal motivation vs external validation, her struggles with finding purpose, and some of the hassles of being a woman new to a scene dominated by men. Enjoy.

Vincent Joseph is a comedian and cinematographer. He's also part of the Not Quite Right team, so we've been spending a lot of time together this year. Whether behind the camera or on the stage, Vinnie is infectiously enthusiastic.

In this episode we laugh at a lot of dark shit. We also hear about the struggles of starting comedy just before the pandemic, how he got into cinematography despite studying IT, and why he feels restricted by always having to play it safe. Enjoy.

Ambrose Uren is a comedian although he grew up spinning on his head as a b-boy. It turns out the two artforms have quite a few similarities. We reflect on a youth spent breakdancing, the 11 year journey to being a full-time comedian, and what he learned from doing 4 shows a day at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Sold out shows. Imposter syndrome. The ever-changing nature of friendships and relationships.

Enjoy.

Candice Chirwa is the Minister of Menstruation. While not an official government position, Candice is more productive in enacting change than most politicians. Through her NGO, QRATE, Candice educates the youth on menstrual health, and campaigns against period poverty.

In this episode, we hear how Candice utilised her academic background to become an activist, and how she's used the power of social media to actually do some good. We discuss the multi-layered issue of period poverty. We also hear how Candice grew into her role as an activist and educator, and discuss the challenges she faces while trying to enact real change. Oh, and we discuss period sex. Enjoy.

Liam Whitcher is a filmmaker and comedian. He comes from the Robert Rodriguez school of filmmaking (even though he studied at UCT) in that he's a rebel with a very small crew, and not much budget, but still manages to create feature films that win awards and get picked up by film festivals.

We share early memories of watching films we were far too young for, we find out what Liam's mom learned from Wolf of Wall Street, and we discuss how to approach talking about butt stuff on stage. It gets pretty explicit, so take this as your heads up. Enjoy.

Robby Collins is a comedian and actor. One of the most well-known and well-loved acts in SA comedy, Robby has recently been focusing his efforts on breaking into America through consistent trips to New York. When he's not in New York or travelling around SA for gigs, Robby calls Durban home once again.

In this episode, we hear why he's returned home to Durban, how the pandemic made him re-evaluate himself and what matters to him, we discuss the effects of cancel culture, and we hear what he's learned from working with Dave Chappelle and Trevor Noah. Enjoy.

Andy Mkosi is a musician, photographer, filmmaker and cultural practitioner. She's someone who is obsessed with documenting the world around her through a multitude of mediums, and has been instrumental in adding to South Africa's cultural archives.

We chat about her upcoming live album, the nuances of access as a documentary photographer, and the balance between documenting a moment and living in it. Enjoy.

A moan about awards, the "industry", and rejection. Enjoy.

Henk van der Schyf is a booker, promoter, venue owner, restaurateur, and there are probably quite a few titles I'm leaving out. Point is: the man keeps busy. He's been hella instrumental behind the scenes of SA's music scene, first through the legendary Hotbox Studios (They never recorded a single song but knew how to throw a party) and now through festivals like Park Acoustics and Mieliepop.

We hear how Henk has managed to carve out a sustainable career in an incredibly difficult industry to have any sort of longevity. And we get a lot of actionable advice on how to put together your own events. Enjoy.

Sonny Phiri aka Sonny the Jobber is a YouTuber and wrestler. If you're a member of the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) you've probably come across Sonny's videos on YouTube. He's racked up over a million views just by sharing his passion for wrestling, although that success is a double-edged sword. We get into how he found his niche, creator burnout, copyright strikes, and why he wants to go to Japan to further his wrestling career. Oh, and we talk about wrestling, a LOT.

It's another "Bob rants about social media" episode. Enjoy.

We started a co-op.

Oh, and a certain comedy festival is coming back. It's hot stuff.

Twitter discourse over Jenna Ortega smoking cigarettes (gasp).

Not Quite Right Comedy.

"Are we exclusive?"

It's another solo episode where Bob waxes nonsensical.

Cobus van Rensburg is a comedian, filmmaker, and actor. Growing up in an Afrikaans family of physicists, Cobus was always going to grow up to be a unique snowflake. Something he's learned to embrace. His comedy career started in high school, being asked to tell jokes to the other kids, which is where he developed both a clean and a dirty set before ever setting foot in a club. We get into the minutia of joke writing and wax philosophical about the role of the comedian. We also hear what it was like to tour the country doing comedy whilst studying. Enjoy.

Sophie Joans is an actor, playwriter, comedian, and clown. Her debut solo play 'Île' (Baxter Theatre, 2-6 May) has earned awards and much critical acclaim. As an independent producer of her own work though, putting on an award-winning play still comes with its difficulties. We get into the struggles and triumphs Sophie has experienced taking 'Île' across the country. We also hear how her burlesque clown act came about (seriously), and why you shouldn't eat curry before going on the slides at uShaka (seriously). Enjoy.

Incoherent ramblings on:

Metaphors.

My upcoming show 'It's Not The End of the World'.

Mistakes made in my career.

The importance of blocking your ex.

Part comedy tour, part Eat, Pray, Love, this last week in Cape Town was a rather special experience.

It started with Craig Robinson saying I look like "an alcoholic Ryan Gosling," and ended with me doing karaoke at midnight on my own.

This is basically just a long af mondeling tbh. Enjoy.

Zama Dlamini is an artist, designer, and DJ. Her colourful creations adorn clothing across the country and her eclectic track selections get booties popping and dropping. We chat about her love of cartoons, the new Jackie Extreme album, and writing poetry from the perspective of a snake. Well, that and how she maintains her childlike wonder and joy. Enjoy. 

Justin McGee aka Sweatface is a photographer. If you were a joller in the 2000s and early 2010s, Justin probably smashed his flash in your face at some point. The man was ubiquitous in party scenes throughout the country. We hear about the come up and come down of earning your reputation as a party photographer who likes the party a bit too much. Justin shares some of the sketchy situations always saying "yes" got him into. We also hear how life has mellowed out since and how Justin has found confidence in himself and his work. Enjoy. 

Mo Vawda is a comedian and statistician. When he's not making people laugh on stage or online he's lecturing the youth about stats. We get into the intricacies of being a Muslim comedian in a scene of degenerates, we hear how his father's passing lead to him starting comedy, and we share tales of terrible gigs. Enjoy.

Khensani Mohlatlole is a fashion writer and youtuber, and sewist. Khensani is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about fashion, with particular interests in sustainability and fashion history. In the episode, we get into some of the difficulties of covering fashion history in South Africa and why she chooses to document local fashion the way she does. We also chat about the politics of what we wear, get some tips on what to look for in quality clothing, and uncover the simple motivation behind her distinct style. Enjoy.

Cayleigh Bright is a writer, editor, and co-founder of the writing agency Letterhead. Hear how a youth as a library monitor and drama kid lead to a fruitful career slinging words for the likes of Mail & Guardian, GQ, Glamour, and a number of high-profile glossy and online magazines, as well as being the person responsible for all those damn Superbalist newsletters. We learn about the origins of Letterhead and how it's grown into a massive collective of writers servicing a broad range of clients. And we get into the current shape of the media landscape whilst looking back at how we got here. Enjoy. 

Tibs Dumi is a comedian, actor, writer, and director. After a youth spent people pleasing, Tibs has finally learned to just do things for himself. It's lead to him having a fantastic year on stage and having the confidence to pursue his own creative projects. We get into the lasting impact of private school education, the limitations of the Durban comedy scene, and, uh, sharing with friends. 

Funniest week in the history of Twitter, hands down. 

We made a short film in a weekend. 

Blink-182 are back together with their original line-up.

The electricity situation is Durban is pretty fucked. 

Brb, making a movie for the 48 Hour Film Challenge.