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Barbara Loots
DESPICABLE HEHE is comedian and ventriloquist Conrad Koch’s latest show where he and his main puppet, Chester Missing, share the stage with some other funny friends at Theatre on the Bay until 15 February 2025. Their aim? To bring the laughs, and they do just that!
Koch (and Missing) have toured internationally and locally with this show, to the amusement of many an audience member. This stop in Cape Town is your last opportunity to see this particular show.
Walking out of DESPICABLE HEHE on opening night I realized my cheeks were actually hurting – that’s how much I laughed. I mentioned to my friend that the show felt like Sesame Street for adults traumatized by life. And let’s face it, the world and all the responsibilities and obstacles coming at us from every angle, every day means most of us (excluding those getting their affairs in order to claim refugee status in America) need to decompress.
DESPICABLE HEHE is that very necessary decompression aid. You sit back for about 60 minutes and laugh, at all the things we can’t change, at all the things that make us human, and just at life in general. The show somehow recalibrates your humanity by boosting your sense of humour and resilience, giving you the energy to walk into the next day a little lighter and brighter. Yes, the radio might still reveal the latest questionable (or darn right offensive) statement by some politician, or some entitled person stuck in traffic with you and the rest of Cape Town may think he has the right to cut people off because where he is going is apparently more important, but what does change is that you may not get a heart attack shouting at all these special people, because the night before you had a great laugh at all such follies associated with the maddening world.
Koch has managed to avoid the comedian-trap of getting caught repeating the same shtick from show to show. Yes, Koch’s puppets may make comebacks, but his comedy never feels old or recycled. You don’t feel duped as an audience member. In fact, Koch reads an audience extremely well and pivots as per his interactions with them. I suspect his superpower is that he studied anthropology, making him rather adept to reading a situation as far as the people heconverses with and the cultural considerations at play.
The show kicks off with everyone’s favourite rabble-rousing puppet, but Chester and his screwed observations on the politics of the day don’t dominate the show: Chester is the opening act, and a great one at that, but Koch has many surprises hiding in the suitcases that surround him onstage. Along with Chester, you get to engage with the antics of Gunter the German Tourist Mosquito (and his post-divorce emotional stability), Vladimir Putin the Vampire (putting a sucker/sucking twist on Russia’s leading sex symbol), Mr Dixon (a retired high school teacher who likes to keep life and love “spicy”), DJ Hoody (a unique character born out of necessity when Chester really did go missing on route to Canada) and, my person favourite, Hilton (the most fabulous party ostrich you will ever meet). Together Koch and the gang bring all the laughs and more with sarcastic commentary and daily anecdotes, while they very wittily place a spotlight on relationships, stereotypes, inequality, and political hypocrisy.
DESPICABLE HEHE is smart, funny, and relevant. It has adult themes in it, so it’s definitely not a family show. But why not make it a date night, and head on over to Theatre on the Bay between now and 15 February 2025 and give yourself over to a good dose of comedy. Tickets can be bought online through Webtickets.