Cape Town – The city’s very own comedy festival – the Jive Cape Town Funny Festival – opens at the Baxter Theatre on Monday and runs for 31 performances until July 28.
Aptly called Cape Town’s Winter Comedic Tonic, its popularity is very much in tune with global trends. Forecasters state that more than ever before, humour is vital to relieving global stress. The Cape Town Funny Festival reinforces that exact point.
Global citizens of the world are daily bombarded by stress, be it political, social, work related or simply just living on this planet.
What happens on the other side of the world may not directly affect South Africans immediately, but the visuals carried on every news bulletin have a profound effect on an individual’s mental health.
Pressure escape mechanisms become vital as coping techniques. The most obvious stress relief is leisure activity, like outdoor adventure, exercise and laughter.
The old adage “laughter is the best medicine” holds a lot of weight in the modern world, and there are volumes of studies and research on how laughter releases stress, stimulates the release of endorphins and makes the lungs and diaphragm work harder than normal, oxygenating blood and refreshing the mind.
Laughter yoga and laughter classes are more common these days. Research also shows that the endorphins generated through laughter can benefit the human body in the same way as exercise.
Research also shows that laughing with groups of friends and colleagues generates substantially more endorphins than when laughing alone.
Humour has been used for centuries to convey difficult messages. The court jester is a case in point. His duties were to inform the royal court of the present situation in a comical manner, with impunity in a way that his counsel would never dream of doing.
Modern-day comedians and cartoonists do this as well. They convey a difficult message in clever humorous words and sketches. It’s all about the delivery.
The Jive Cape Town Funny Festival is Cape Town’s annual stress relief. It presents local stand-up comedians together with top international speciality performers on the Baxter stage.
Australian mentalist and magician Matt Tarrant, who is destined for the big time, joins the world’s top comedic pianist, Kev Orkian, and they share the stage with Emo Adams, Sifiso Nene, Alan Committie, Carvin H Goldstone, Lindy Johnson and local dance act The Big Boys.
* Book through webtickets.
Originally published on IOL News – http://bit.ly/2JhClYE