By David Jenkin
A sustained, rolling chuckle filled the Lyric Theatre auditorium for the duration of Goliath’s show as he transformed himself into a seemingly endless variety of caricatures lifted from South African culture. Employing a particular skill for impressions, he took on a large range of accents and personas with convincing accuracy. The Umtata-raised Goliath describes himself as coloured with a white appearance but says that culturally he’s more Xhosa. The unique blend gives him the ability to effortlessly transcend cultural boundaries as he hops from one character to the next.
Goliath has a background in the advertising industry but he began his foray into the comedy world with the underground scene, doing his first show at the famous Cool Runnings Underground in 2010. A long list of performances at venues across the country soon followed and in 2012 he was nominated for
Newcomer of the Year at the
Comics Choice Awards, and again for the
Breakthrough category in 2013 and 2014.
In 2013, he teamed up with cousins Jason and Nicholas Goliath – and with Jason’s sister Kate handling the PR side – forming the comedy collective Goliath and Goliath, which quickly grew to giant proportions with their flagship show,
Awednesday. They have since launched The Goliath Comedy Club in Melrose Arch which sees the country’s big names in comedy featured on a regular basis.
Fellow Goliaths Jason and Nicholas opened for Donovan for his first one-man show and Jason explained the house rules, which were a little stricter than usual since filming was in progress.
For more information, visit
www.goliathandgoliath.com. Alternatively, connect with him on
Facebook or on
Twitter.
*Image courtesy of www.goliathandgoliath.com