Review by Steve Bennett

The poster for Cape Comedy Collective boasts five faces from the Rainbow Nation, promising a lively introduction to South African stand-up.

But on the night, just three of them performed - and they seemed to be overstretching themselves to fill the necessary hour.

Compere Mark Sampson describes himself as "an albino crusty" and is actually a Brit, who's spent much of his adult life in South Africa.

He was a competent, if unexciting host, relying far to heavily on references to dope - or dagga as the local slang has it - to make himself distinctive.

The reaction of the divided room was interesting, with South Africans laughing heartily with recognition at any reference, with the Brits needing everything explained.

First act was freestyle rapper Sky 189, demonstrating an impressive talent to improvise verses around audience suggestions - even if the results weren't actually that funny.

He struggled sometimes, but always got the rhyme in the end - the audience loving him even more for it.

Riaad Moosa is apparently South Africa's only Muslim comic, and he had some fabulous material about his faith and the stereotypes surrounding it.

He's not the first comedian to joke about air travel, and I suspect he won't be the last, but his hijack ideas were some of the best around.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have only six or seven minutes of great material to fill more than 20 and relied on some familiar gags about Americans dropping food and bombs at the same time and formulaic "What if James Bond advertised condoms?" routines to make the length.

With a full complement of comics, this could have been a great showcase; as it was, there just wasn't enough funny to go around.

Review date: 1 Jan 2003
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett