If candid camera were taken as seriously as Pop Art... Leon Schuster would be its Andy Warhol. Besides taking the piss and literally taking a piss on his artwork, he's dominated South African comedy film ever since Jamie Uys dropped a Coke bottle on a N!xau's head. The side-splitting American comedy pursuit could only go so far with lawsuits flying around, yet the world of candid camera has developed its own raw sense of local flavour and hilarity under the wing of the accomplished Schuster. Now just like Warhol, Schuster isn't fully appreciated by everyone... but it'll be difficult for you to walk five steps in South Africa without meeting someone who remembers a funny moment with Schucks.
Andy Warhol was daring. Well, so is Leon Schuster. He's resorted to wearing heavily padded prosthetic disguises in his latest outing, Schuks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa, but who can blame him if he wore a bullet-proof vest too! He's taken at least a hundred snot-klaps in his day and that's just off-camera. On-camera, Schuster has the ability of a full-time matchstick man, roping the victim in with his utterly bizarre set of South African characters and accents in a situation even more ridiculous. It's a surreal scenario, like watching a car crash in slow motion as Schuster builds the mark up to such extreme emotion to have them hit him in the face or bolt like the last sheep in a slaughterhouse.
Schuster has become a household name, but more than that... he's a legend - giving a country with 11 official languages something to laugh about is anything but easy. You can hurl sticks and stones at the brand of low-brow comedy in movies like There's A Zulu On My Stoep, Mr. Bones and Mama Jack, but the numbers speak for themselves. Schuks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa is a return to the candid camera stuff. The grand candid master must have realised how hungry people were for reality comedy in post-recession, pre-World Cup fervor. This must have also been spurred on by a reasonable attempt from a new candid franchise called Rainbow Skellums and it's been a while since that 50/50 mix of story and candid camera in Oh Schucks, I'm Gatvol!
Alfred Ntombela, Schuster's partner in crime and comedy makes yet another appearance as Shorty - Schuks's sidekick. Just like Schuster, he's willing to go the extra mile for comedy featuring in a laugh-out-loud mortician scene and as a shower security accessory. The two have heaps of fun in this lively, rainbow tribute to South Africa's flavour ahead of the World Cup. Helen Zille, Alan Boesak, Rob van Vuuren are a few recognisable faces amongst the multitudes of "Oh, Schucks!" targets. The Survival Guide is set in Cape Town and cleverly connects the dots with an international tour group as Schuks Tshabalala is commissioned by SA tourism with the task of creating a tour guide movie for foreigners to acquaint themselves with our country.
Schuster does go to town with highlighting the problem areas in South Africa, but they're no secret and he always reels things back in a laugh and a hug. As a Dutch correspondent, he loses his temper with a man selling vuvuzelas in the background of an interview with Helen Zille. He focuses on contentious issues such as roadside traffic bribery with an androgynous speed cop pulling people over and charging them for stopping in a no-stopping zone. Schuks even tests the boundaries with taxis, seeing how far they're willing to go to make a buck as he tries to get a corpse to Wellington on a sunny day. The film is jam-packed with outrageous situations, some revised and some borrowed and manages to set a good pace.
The end result is a typical Leon Schuster candid camera style movie with plenty of laugh-out-loud laughs and a genuine South African culture. No one's untouchable as far as Schuster goes and the clash of cultures makes the whole show all the more enjoyable. This is a solid piece of South African comedy and the only real disappointment is that they couldn't have come up with a more theme-committed conclusion. The Survival Guide to South Africa angle was well-conceived, but the whole production would've benefited from a stronger finish. The last scene rolls into the credits without a proper farewell, making the film seem a little inconsistent after a good run.
The bottom line: Funny.
