Biltong and Potroast seen on South African television in 1976, cast members Mel Miller, Cyril Green and Eddie Eckstein are set to take audiences on a no-holds-barred trip back to the advent of South African stand-up comedy.


They will be joined on stage at Carnival City by Alain D Woolf and Joe Parker. The Biltong & Potroast team have put together a killer show for the big stage, after huge demand saw them sell out their previous run at Parker’s Comedy & Jive, Africa’s only dedicated stand-up comedy club earlier in 2010.

“Biltong & Potroast” was devised in 1975 to pit South Africa’s finest comedians against comics from Europe in an improvisational contest which saw host Clackie McKay handing out points based on the quality of their jokes on a series of randomly-selected topics. The show enthralled viewers for its 5-year run, eclipsing the immense popularity of the BBC’s “World At War” on the early SABC and causing everything in the country to grind to a halt each Tuesday evening as South Africa tuned in to see the talented comics jousting. “Biltong & Potroast was the reason pubs and clubs installed television sets for the first time in the late 70’s – otherwise nobody went out on a Tuesday night!” says Cyril Green, who told the first ever joke on the show.

While the trio aim to roll back the years for those who loved the television series, they won’t shy away from tackling content relevant to life in South Africa in the 21st century. “I still read the newspaper every day and get angry about some of the things I see – and I can’t wait to get out on stage and skewer politicians with as much relish as we tackled the government in the 70’s”, says Miller.

The performance of “Biltong & Potroast 2010” on 20 November 2010 at Carnival City’s Big Top Arena kicks of at 20:00, with tickets priced between R99 and R120. Tickets are available from Computicket (www.computicket.com or 083 915 8000).