With SA's Got Talent starting tonight (see Today's premieres!) it seemed the ideal time to catch-up with some of those involved with the show to sniff out what we can expect from it all.
I caught up with judges
Randall Abrahams and
Ian von Memerty this week to grab us some answers. Here's what Randall to say ...
Tashi: Which city’s delivered the most outrageous acts?
Randall: I think Jo’burg has - it certainly delivered the biggest variety of acts.
Tashi: What’s your take on the trends in the other two cities?
Randall: I think Durban was still trying to catch up to be honest, and I think - we were expecting to see a lot more good singers and dancers in Cape Town but we got more good variety acts there: people with dogs and juggling and flame throwers and all that sort of thing.
Tashi: What are you looking for specifically when it comes to talent?
Randall: I want two things: an act that has some degree of originality so you can go: “They’re talented, they’re not copying something they’ve seen.” The second thing I want is an act that’s hard-working as well.
The good thing is we’ve seen a lot of people who are quite Into what they do. So they’re not the type who figure: “Oh well, I’ll throw a couple of flame things into the air and it’ll be entertaining." They actually really, really work hard at the act which is hard - if you’re a singer or solo dancer it’s up to you but if you’re in a group it’s up to everyone to pull their weight and we’ve seen a lot of groups like that.
Tashi: If you’d entered the show - what act would you have done?
Randall: The hula hoop.
Tashi: Are you good at that?
Randall: I’m brilliant at the hula hoop.
Tashi: How long can you go for?
Randall: I can do my whole body - from head to toe.
Tashi: What’s been the biggest difference between judging on this show and judging on Idols?
Randall: The biggest difference has been trying to focus on each act because they’re not doing the same thing. You have to have a different perspective.
In Idols, because everyone’s doing the same thing you have to understand who’s doing it better than everyone else and who’s bringing their personality to it whereas here you have to decide which act is original, which act is talented and which is hard working - you have to have a different understanding of what each different performance offers.
Tashi: If you were to book any of the acts for a party - which would it be?
Randall: I’d book the snake lady and make sure I invited Shado.
Tashi: Did she freak out?
Randall: *Laughs* Ja.
Tashi: Does the snake lady do an act with a snake to music?
Randall: Ja.
Tashi: So what does she do with it - just dance?
Randall: The snake was actually pretty f*&*^%# dead to be honest. Snakes are cold creatures - if you don’t do anything to warm them up they don’t anything so it wasn’t that scary at all.
Tashi: Do you know what kind of snake it was?
Randall: It was like a python.
Tashi: Those bite don’t they?
Randall: No, they swallow you don’t they?
Tashi: Oh? I don’t know.
Randall: I think Shado thought it wasn’t SA’s Got Talent but Snakes On A Plane. Me and you, we’ve been to Malaysia
*, we know all about snakes, you know what I’m saying.
Tashi: Yes exactly, we know all about them. (Clearly NOT) Can you share with us: an act that’s "Urgh!" So unbelievably bad.
Randall: There’s a singer who’s a bit of a horror story - she writes her own songs. She’s from Jo’burg - she’s pretty special - bearing in mind that she also thinks she’s pretty special. She’s a double whammy - she’s delusional and at the same time she’s pretty damn bad.
Tashi: Is it excellent fun pressing the buzzer?
Randall: The only trouble is you can’t hit it when the other judges are speaking. Sometimes they started speaking and I wanted to hit it but you’re only allowed to press it for the other acts.
Tashi: So you wanted to slap the other judges?
Randall: Yes I just wanted to press the buzzer.
Tashi: Who’s your all-time talent hero or shero?
Randall: I imagine it would be Billy Holiday. You know there are two issues when it comes to talent: usually when you talk about great talent, you also talk about great adversity.
Someone who’s mega talented and also has people to help them and has an easy path: unfortunately their story doesn’t carry as much weight as someone who had overcome great obstacles and hurdles.
The thing about Billy is - we’re talking about a technological age far removed from our own and she - at one stage she lived in a whorehouse with her mother. Her mother wasn’t a hooker but she lived in a whorehouse.
It’s where she first heard Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet and she figured out that she needed to sing like he played the trumpet - this is like in the 1930’s.
To firstly have that level of imagination and then secondly to actually bring it to bare and thirdly to grow up under those circumstances and be a success - that for me is quite special.
EndsFast factsTo go to Ian's interview, tune in:
HERE.
*Malaysia explained: Randall and I spent time in Malaysia together during the filming of Survivor SA, Season 2. We toured some of sights and went to the island the Survivors were on.
To find out more about how the episodes are structured week-by-week, see:
SAGT - How It's Going Down.
To get the ins and outs about the show, see:
TVSA's SA's Got Talent Mini-Site.Lookout for! A catch-up with judge
Shado Twala - comin' up during the show.