Prison Break-fast

The Provost a year ago

A year ago, I did a photo essay on some interesting buildings on the Rhodes University campus and one of my favourites was the Old Provost, a prison that remained from Grahamstown's military days. Well a week ago that prison re-opened as a coffee shop! How's that for an out-of-the-ordinary culinary experience?

I popped in to The Provost Cafe last week after oversleeping and missing breakfast (which happens more often than it should) for a quick coffee but ended up staying for one of their savoury muffins. What a good life choice! It was a simple spinach, feta and pepperdew muffin but it was absolutely amazing. The filter coffee that I ordered, however, tasted pretty average. A friend of mine grabbed a cappuccino a few days later and said that it was really good, so I suggest you pay them a visit and decide for yourself because I am certainly no coffee expert.

The menu appears to be rather limited: just muffins, croissants and giant cookies but what is there is freshly made and wholesome. I do hope more food is added on soon though so I can say I know what prison food tastes like.

The Provost is on the outskirts of campus where it is much quieter, making it a great place to catch up on reading or meetings. I'm also pretty excited about using a landmark in such a way that tourists can do more than just have a look at the outside of the place. As you eat you are surrounded by the old jail rooms, which is possibly the strangest place I've ever had a meal at. Strange, but pretty darn awesome of course.

For more info on The Provost Cafe, this right here is their Facebook page. And if you don't already know that the Old Provost is a Panopticon (Panopti-whaaaat?) then do click here and be knowledged by the mighty wikipedia.

Happy coffee drinking!

Doors of the prison cells are now open for visitors to have a look around.

The view from inside the cells is now a much more pleasant sight.

The Rise of the Insanity League: not your normal funny

I’m always keen for comedy, especially if it’s of the South African kind. After watching Trevor Noah’s The Daywalker and Crazy Normal , I was really looking forward to his third show, even though I had already heard most of the jokes from friends constantly retelling them (why do people do that?!).

When I finally got round to watching the DVD, well... I was disappointed. The show began with a not-very-funny song about Indians and all I could think was no, not again, not another show based on racial stereotypes. I think it’s great that South Africans are able to laugh at jokes like these, especially considering our history, but does this have to be the main part of every comedy performance? As I write this I know a lot of people will think I’m simply getting offended or that I lack any sense of humour. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all offended by jokes about race, I’m just wondering if that’s all that current and future comedians will have to offer.

Because of this, it makes me quite happy to stumble upon a comedic performance that promises something other than the usual. The Rise of the Insanity League is a comedy sketch currently touring SA, and I was lucky enough to be at the Durban premiere last week. I already had high expectations from the comedians: I’d seen Aaron McIlroy perform outstandingly on many occasions, Ben Voss and his alter-ego Beauty Ramapelepele are always hilarious, and John Van De Ruit has of course written, Spud, one of the few books that can make me cry from laughing. Put these three fine men together, call them the Insanity League and I know I was set for a funny night.

The show had each of them playing various roles, male and female, young and old, human and animal. They did not play excessively with racial stereotypes, they did not resort to crude jokes or situations, and despite all of that, they were genuinely funny – how unbelievably rare!

The Insanity League aims to not just entertain but rid the world of the plague of ‘Normans’, their name for people who are completely normal. Kudos to the three for promoting utter insanity and in doing so, reviving my faith in South African comedy.

PS. I was very excited to see that the merchandise on sale after the show was locally made, with the t-shirts being designed by The Holmes Brothers.