Chester Missing and friends
|Published
Johannesburg - Chester Missing has fired Conrad Koch because he refuses to be a black puppet controlled by a white master. That is just one of the many issues that are dealt with in the Chester Missing Roadshow starting on April 30 at the Market Theatre.
Chester is also pretty peeved that he is playing the Market Theatre. “Chester believes he is bigger than Trevor Noah,” explained the ventriloquist. “Now imagine being Trevor Noah and having a white guy following you wherever you go and then he puts you in suitcase. Unfortunately for him he is contractually obliged to be on the show.”
However, Conrad concedes that Chester has a higher status than him: “He’s also cleverer than me. I’m just a white guy who went to Bishops and has a black puppet. On stage Chester has to deal with my liberalism. On the show he tells me that I am Helen Zille with a penis and that I am using a black puppet to mock the revolution.”Chester is just one of his three puppets to make the stage. The others are an ostrich called Hillary and a type of monster called Ronnie.
“Everyone believes in that monster hiding under your bed, well Ronnie is that monster. I try to convince people that monsters are not bad people, but of course, that never works out.
“Hillary is from my mother’s era, Rodean and all that. ‘Oh my lord, did you see that Nelson Mandela was in Shawshank Redemption’. White people can identify with Hillary because she is a showgirl kind of character and a bit of a vamp. She’s very OTT. She has a special piece in her gossip centre where she goes for everybody from Arno Carstens to Lady Gaga to Die Antwoord.”
The show is directed by Heinrich Riesenhoffer, the creator and director of Joe Barber. Conrad also started out with Stuart Taylor, one of the original actors in Joe Barber.
“As a child, Riaad Moosa, Stuart Taylor and I went to magic school together. It was a hobby of mine as a kid. I wasn’t a rugby kind of guy. Talking to puppets was not a way to be a cool kid. I was a ventriloquist who told snot jokes. What’s the difference between broccoli and snot? Children won’t eat broccoli.”
So why ventriloquism and not acting or normal stand-up comedy?
“I find acting boring. I love the child-like vibe of puppets There are millions of actors out there. I care about humans very deeply. I’m a sensitive guy. I’m caring because it makes me feel good or maybe I am just insecure. I am focused on comedy that doesn’t create harm. However, a white guy speaking about black people’s issues is a no-no from a Biko point of view.”
Conrad’s informed political comedy is backed up by a masters in anthropology.
“ I want to do comedy with anthropology behind it. Being a comedian is a continual policy of political decisions whether you are aware of it or not. When the black consciousness guys found out who I was they couldn’t believe that they agreed with a white guy. Some of them said that I shouldn’t tackle black issues which is what? Housing? Health?”
• The Chester Missing Roadshow runs for six weeks.