Schalk Bezuidenhout’s Keeping Up is a showcase of how far comedy and performance can be pushed to make people laugh.
A hilarious energy that reaches new highs at every punchline
There are a number of messages and themes at play that work themselves throughout the show, however our ability to clock them is mostly due to Bezuidenhout’s signposting more than anything. The nature of context that holds this show together, but it is a very loose as the anecdotal style of the show creates a very piecemeal and disparate feeling each time piece of material ends. Each anecdote is based off an example of where Bezuidenhout feels he isn’t ’keeping up’ over the course of a number of areas, which whilst creating a commonality, doesn’t bind the hour tightly together. The perception of the hour as a number of segements than a whole is mostly due to the lack of segue between the anecdotes themselves. The use of anecdotes lends itself well to Bezuidenhout’s style of storytelling, and the full-body re-enactment of his material as he throws his entire self into a joke, but it is really his observational current affairs jokes that are perhaps the most memorable as he creates a very unique sense of misdirection to hit a punchline.
A kind of dialogue is created in Bezuidenhout's breaking of the fourth wall, again where he will constantly delay a punchline or build upon it further - seemingly in-tune to our enjoyment - to get a bigger laugh. In this way, there are many moments where a joke will tail off, and we lose the energy behind whatever punchline Bezuidenhout is aiming for. Bezuidenhout pushes an image as far as it will go to the point where it becomes incredibly visceral. He is an enigmatic performer that can clearly and quickly establish a relationship with every single audience member. His intrinsic awareness of his audiences pushes him to create a show that every single person will enjoy, but in the pursuit of this, the show stretches perhaps further than it perhaps should and eventually the length and slight repetitiveness of rhythm catches up to us.
In Keeping Up Bezuidenhout gives us a practical example of his central thesis throughout his material and physical comedy, creating a hilarious energy that reaches new highs at every punchline.