Boys Don’t Cry In July

There’s a well-known piece of advice that’s held showbiz strong for centuries – leave them while they still want more.

Take a bow before the audience wants you to go, but not so soon that they feel short changed. And never stay so long that when you say “I’ll just tell you one more story” the audience is likely to say no, please don’t.

Comedian Ndumiso Lindi was so caught up with his own material that he forgot to stop, and his one-man show runs for at least 30 minutes too long. Possibly more, if you’re not that engaged by it in the first place. I’d add ‘start on time’ as another handy tip, because interest was already flagging by the time Lindi walked on stage.

His show is called Boys Don’t Cry In July, because his father died in July last year and this is an anniversary tribute. It’s a blend of stand-up comedy and fond recollections that have some amusing moments, but feel more like cathartic memories for him rather than fodder for an audience anticipating laughter. So you find yourself winding down to listen to the stories and being grateful for the laughs when they do arrive.

For some black people in the audience it’s a run through a familiar childhood of Sunlight soap and sleeping on a sponge mat on the floor because there was no real mattress. For the whites, it’s a view of a world that our privileged positions spared us from.

Some of it’s in Xhosa, but not enough to alienate the English speakers, and he delivers some lovely funny commentary on the process of learning English. A lot of his material is fresh territory, and that’s well worth applauding. There are some great moments, like the story of his first bicycle, where Lindi physically shows us how he rode as much as he describes it.

He tells his jokes with charm and his stories with grace and style, delivering vignettes of village life and boarding school escapades. For an Eastern Cape man it’s all about the manhood, he tells us - being tough and taking the knocks without showing emotion. Kudos to him, then, for breaking out of that with these stories that show his vulnerability.

He delivers his material with an affable manner that means you like him even if he doesn’t have you falling off the seat in stitches. When he talks of the death of his father you’re not supposed to laugh anyway, and you don’t, because this is still near-raw emotion being held in check by the retelling of it.

It’s a very personal journey that he’s sharing, remembering how he always tried to impress his father, and describing some painful moments with affection rather than outright wit. His father would be proud of him.

Boys Don’t Cry In July runs at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square until July 27. Tickets from Computicket. It’s part of a two-week comedy series that also includes:

30 July - 8pm: Goliath and Goliath - a high-energy comedy show from three observational storytellers.
31 July - 8pm: Tats Nkonzo in New Nights, where Nkonzo will be performing with and be interviewed by musicians.
1 August - 8pm: Robby Collins in Iyeza Comedy Tour, an honest piece of comedy billed as truthful and full of soul.
2 August - 8pm Tsitsi Chiumya gets personal about the awkward life of a young person in his debut one-man show, So Naïve.
3 August - 6pm: Mojak Lehoko explores some of life’s big questions and some questionable answers in Tell Us More.
3 August - 8pm: Carvin Goldstone, a journalist and comedian, presents funny stories from his travels, with a Durban style of delivery.
3 August - 9:30pm: Nina Hastie explores what it’s like to stumble through democracy managing to offend everyone with good intentions in her show Thuma Nina.
6 August - 8pm: Mo Mothebe in The Chocolate Chronicles, his debut hour-long solo show about the black middle-class experience.
7 August - 8pm: Mark Banks On Ice! sees the return of this veteran comedian with fresh material.
8 August - 8pm: Dalin Oliver in Adulting, talking through the challenges of being a grown up.
9 August - 6pm: Carl Ncube, a Zimbabwean comedian, investigates what it takes to live in the country of Robert Mugabe, coups and crazy inflation.
9 August - 8pm: Noko Moswete in One Night With The Queen, a collection of jokes from the time she started her comedy to date, plus her live band.
10 August - 6pm: Open Mic Session
10 August - 8pm: Lihle Msimang in her debut one-woman show that celebrates growing up in Soweto.