Jokebox

Bini might just have the last laugh when she takes her talent for being funny to the big stage

- EMILE EMTOCH

WHEN she was younger, Bianca, or Bini as her family call her, never really put much thought into what she wanted to be when she grew up. She was too busy being a 12-year-old to worry about her future career.

Many of her friends had dreams of becoming policewomen, doctors or social workers. Bini knew she didn’t have to worry about a career for many years so she didn’t.

All of that changed when Bini saw Vicky Pollock on TV. It was like Vicky reached through the screen and flipped a switch in her brain. All of a sudden Bini knew what she wanted to be when she grew up, she wanted to write jokes and more than that, she wanted to perform the jokes that she wrote – on the grand stage.

Vicky Pollock was one of the funniest stand-up comics in South Africa. She was also a judge on a reality competition called Make Us Laugh. The show gave aspiring stand-up comedians a chance to tell jokes and possibly win R250 000.

Bini watched as contestant after contestant came up to perform a five-minute stand-up comedy routine. Some of their jokes were funny, but most of them she didn’t understand.

Right at the end, Vicky would do a short routine before ending the show. She told clean jokes with punchlines that even a child, like Bini, could catch.

BINI’S big sister, Diane, was also her biggest fan and was the only person in the house that knew of her pursuit of being a comedian Both of them agreed that their father would not approve of Bini’s career ambitions, and thus they decided to keep quiet about it.