Africa’s only 24-hour comedy channel, Comedy Central (DStv Channel 122), has secured one of South Africa’s most controversial entertainment figures for the first ever African Comedy Central Roast. Actor, musician, talk show host, activist, poet and Afrikaner poster-boy Steve Hofmeyr will be the first ever African Roastee to face a grilling by the Comedy Central Roastmaster and Roasters.
The Comedy Central Roast Of Steve Hofmeyr will be recorded at The Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, Johannesburg on 11 September 2012 in front of a live audience – details of public tickets will be made available closer to the date. The Roast will premiere on Comedy Central on Monday 24 September 2012, at a time to be confirmed.
The Roast will see Hofmeyr being subjected to a side-splitting evening of comic provocation, good-natured ribbing and outrageous anecdotes from family, friends, colleagues and comedians. And finally – in typical Roast fashion – Hofmeyr will have the opportunity to have the last word.
Hofmeyr, 47, is one of South Africa’s hardest-working and most recognisable stars, with an eclectic and evergreen career that spans acting, singing, song-writing, presenting, writing, polemicism, activism and blogging. With 24 CDs and 200 self-penned songs to his credit, Hofmeyr has sold nearly 2 million albums during his career. Nearly 20 years after the release of his first album, Hofmeyr’s latest CD Haloda shot to number one in the SA charts in late 2011, while his most recent movie release Platteland broke national box-office records for Afrikaans movies.
Hofmeyr recently appeared in Deon Opperman’s successful musical Lied Van My Hart, and will be acting in the highly anticipated movie Pretville in November – all this while continuing to perform his Haloda shows all over the country. Previously voted the 13th most popular South African of all time, in 2010 Hofmeyr was voted The Greatest Artist Of All Time in a poll by listeners of Jacaranda 94.2 – beating Queen, ABBA, U2, Michael Jackson and every other South African act. Hofmeyr has also written six books, released six DVDs, acted in five movies and still finds time to host his own TV chat show on Kyknet.
“You could say I’ve been fuelling the flames of this Roast for a long time,’ reflected Steve Hofmeyr.
“Steve has done more than his fair share to keep the media busy over the years, and he has assured us that nothing will be off-limits to this Roast. His ability to court controversy and to polarise opinion make Steve truly Roast-worthy!’ commented Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks Africa.
Evert van der Veer, Head of Comedy Central, Africa, added: “We are very proud to be extending this classic Comedy Central franchise by shooting the first Roast in Africa. The Comedy Central Roast of Steve Hofmeyr will be a unique, laugh-out-loud event and TV show that should set a new benchmark for African comedy entertainment.’
Comedy Central Roasts are standout TV comedy events that have featured famous names from the worlds of entertainment, media, business and celebrity. US Roastees who have previously settled their eminent posteriors on the infamous Roast hot seat include: William Shatner, David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Donald Trump, Joan Rivers, Denis Leary and Flava Flav.
Filmed in front of a live audience, each Roast features a Roastmaster who presides over the event and introduces the guests (or Roasters), who dish out good-natured insults and hilarious tributes to the Roastee. The Roastee also joins in the fun, meets old friends, gets the chance to refute his critics and rounds up the show with a final closing statement.
For further information about The Comedy Central Roast of Steve Hofmeyr, visit www.comedycentralafrica.com. To join the conversation about the roasting of Steve Hofmeyr, please add #RoastZA to your tweets.
