Review by Steve Bennett

With Trevor Noah about to take over the Daily Show, could South Africa be propelled into the international comedy spotlight? If so, Tats Nkonzo would be well-placed to take advantage.

Charismatic, playful and with useful musical talents, he's got a broad appeal that sugars the pill of whatever he wants to talk about. 'We did good,' he tells his audience a few minutes in. 'We laughed at niggers and Aids.’

The fact he goes for the silly rather than the edgy means we'd barely been aware until he’d mentioned it just how controversial the topics could have been. In his words, the trick is to be comfortable about uncomfortable subjects, a fact of life back home where uncomfortable subjects are not in short supply.

But he gently teases the West's over-simplified picture of a continent of 1.1billion, tickling our ingrained prejudices rather than assaulting them, just gently reminding us how biased our thinking is. And he also shows that mocking Michael McIntyre is a sport without national boundaries.

He loses his way a bit in the second half of the show, though his charm goes a long way. Starting with a valid point about the ebola panic, he envisages a 'disease of the year' ceremony that he milks for a bit too long. It's followed by some song parodies that are a bit too hit and miss, though at least he places his lyric swaps into some sort of context, to give the illusion of weight. And finally a speech he imagines President Jacob Zuma making plods a heavy path about politicians needing to be magicians before it great payoff.

These, though, are matters of direction and of more attention to the writing. The most important thing Nkonzo brings to the Fringe is his stage manner. And that effervesces with fun, mischief and likability. And those are things you can definitely export.

Review date: 12 Aug 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard