The comedian ped the Savanna Comic of the year as well as flying solo awards.ped the Savanna Comic of the year as well as flying solo awards. Funnyman Carvin Goldstone, who won big at the 8th annual Savanna Comics Choice Awards, snubbed the event which took place at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City Saturday night.
Goldstone’s victory came on the back of fiery encounters with the organisers in July when he raised concerns about the nominations of certain comics, who he said had not met the criteria to be shortlisted.
He alleged the nomination of the comics was cheating the industry as a whole, as they would promote themselves under the banner of being nominated for the big awards, undeserving. Goldstone called for the suspension of the awards to allow an independent audit to look into the nominations and, as this was not abided by, he avoided the event and was at a friend’s wedding in Durban on Saturday instead.
Goldstone said he would only accept the awards once an audit had been completed and communicated publicly. “We want checks and balances to be put in place. In this case, there is one company which manages the awards and also manages people who enter for the awards.
“For me, there’s a conflict of interest. “If you work for Shoprite or Coca Cola, your family can’t enter for competitions from those companies. This makes all of us look stupid. Don’t contaminate the awards with your conflicts of interest,” he said.
Back at Gold Reef City, the glittering affair saw a plethora of comedians grace the yellow carpet. Kagiso Lediga once again took home the comics’ pen award. This was not his first Waldo – the name of the statuettes the comedians win – and, after the year he has had with the likes of Catching Feelings being released on the big screen and on Netflix, it was well-deserved.
The Lifetime Achievement Award of the #SavannaCCA was #PieterDirkUys. The award was presented to him by legendary muso Johnny Clegg pic.twitter.com/WfU62Odstl
— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) September 8, 2018
Lediga was up against another previous Waldo recipient, Christopher Steenkamp, as well as Thenjiwe Moseley, Lazola Gola and Happy Hour by Dalin Oliver and Carl Weber. Gino Fernandez broke the Goliath and Goliath streak and won the best friend of comedy Waldo.
#SavannaCCA The skits in between the awards were created under the watchful eye of the ever so dope @JBobsTshabalala. The show was witty, very 18SNLVP & everything in between, and good old funny. To end a killer show, they got the audience dancing to Sister Bettina. pic.twitter.com/ja22anns0Q
— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) September 8, 2018
This year, the awards received more than 300 entries for 12 categories and wound up with 55 nominees. But obviously, not everyone can be crowned a comedy king or queen. The awards pride themselves on being the only ceremony where one does not deliver an acceptance speech. Instead, winning comedians are required to deliver a gag.
COMEDY G AWARD
David Kau – Winner
The #SavannaCCA Comedy G award went to @davidkau1 who encouraged other comics to continue with the spirit of free speech driven comedy. pic.twitter.com/tmvGL3jlmL
— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) September 8, 2018
See the full list of winners below:
SAVANNA NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Tsitsi Chiumya – Winner
NEXT LEVEL AWARD
Phil de Lange – Winner
THE NATIVE TONGUE AWARD
Siya Seya – Winner
THE FLYING SOLO AWARD
Carvin Goldstone – Winner
THE COMICS’ PEN AWARD
Kagiso Lediga – Winner
BEST FRIEND OF COMEDY AWARD
Gino Fernandez – Winner
THE GAMECHANGER AWARD
Loyiso Gola – Winner
THE SAVANNA COMIC OF THE YEAR AWARD
Carvin Goldstone – Winner
THE SAVANNA PAN-AFRICAN COMIC OF THE YEAR
Basketmouth (Nigeria) – Winner
Nigerian comedian @basket_mouth walked away with the Pan African Comic of the year award for the second year in a row. pic.twitter.com/8G2N0t2Vxx
— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) September 8, 2018
THE CHATZ CONNECT AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
Abuti Lolo – Winner
