Michael McIntyre live in South Africa

"I feel like Rod Riguez" said Michael McIntyre as he walked onto the stage at the Coca Cola Dome to a sold out concert.  "Really, I had no idea you knew who I was."

 My sibling first introduced me to Micheal McIntyre when I arrived back from Taiwan. I had kind of shut myself off to that kind of thing. I watched one of his live DVDs and couldn't stop laughing the whole way through. He has a knack for pointing out the obvious and in doing so is hilarious.

If you've never heard of him, watch the clip below and you'll see what I mean. 

Michael McIntyre on Idiot Drivers

When my sister told me that he was coming to South Africa, I had to check the internet to see if it was for real yo. It was. For. Real. Yo. We immediately booked tickets - the cheapest, which were not so cheap, but turned out to be an awesome place to sit. 

The evening started off with some music blaring through the speakers, the kind you would expect to hear on a NOW compilation. It was ok, but when they played the same songs twice, it became a bit much. Anyway moving on.

A comedian walked onto the stage, who was NOT Michael McIntyre and I am sure he could sense the disappointment, because he said "Don't worry. Mike will be on soon." For the first few minutes he wasn't really funny, but then he was hilarious. They know how to make comedians in the UK. He did a skit where he ripped on his teenage son, and wow was I thankful that neither of my parents were comedians. He was brutal, but funny. 

Time for an interval and of course some more NOW That's What I Call Music. When Michael McIntyre walked onto the stage, the crowd went mental, myself included. And Michael McIntyre couldn't get over the fact that this was the largest audience a comic had performed in front of in the whole country (continent) of Africa. 

His show was hilarious. He performed some well known skits from his previous DVDs but my favourite part was when he would do his South African accent and make South African jokes. He pointed out that in England, when they have roadworks, the just have a sign that says roadworks. Over here we have an actual person waving a flag. I laughed from start to finish. 

About half way through, a buzzer went off. McIntyre didn't skip a beat, "Come in." He asked if this was like a reality show, where you get three beeps and you're voted off. At the end of the show we all clapped loudly and were hoping for an encore. The applause died down a bit and eventually McIntyre came back on. 

"Don't do that to me! Why did you stop clapping?" It was question time, and as usual drunk South Africans didn't fail to disappoint. They walked right up to the stage and fired away. At once point, McIntyre's supposed South African doppleganger, did the famous Micheal McIntyre skip and that's when the crowd went wild. "You only want to see my skip? You do know I have just done an entire comedy show right?" Oh South Africa. 

Big up to Comedy Central Africa. I hope the success of this show, not only brings Micheal McIntyre back but brings other big names too. I'm hoping for Ricky Gervais. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

My awesome friends, Dan & Lauren always get me the best presents, and by that I mean books. They have introduced me to some awesome authors who I would probably never have stumbled upon. One of these books is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

I started reading it and couldn't put it down. It is written as a diary slash journal and has a Catcher in the Rye kind of feel to it. And of course at the end there is a TWIST. 

When I found out that there would be a movie made based on the book, I was so excited. And the movie did not fail to disappoint.

Also the soundtrack is also pretty cool. What's not to love about David Bowie's Hero?

And finally, there are some very cool one liners, but this one has to be my favourite:

Charlie: Do you like football?

Patrick: LOVE it.

[cheering]

Patrick: Be aggressive Passive aggressive

*

Delicious Dessert: P-p-peppermint tart

Over the weekend, I had some friends over for a late lunch. We sat outside in the warm winter sun, drank amazing vino and laughed a lot. I made a Thai Curry (my specialty) and a peppermint tart for dessert. This dessert is super easy to make, sets pretty quickly and is super delicious. 

P-P-Peppermint Tart

 Whip 250ml of cream. Being careful not to over whip. 

 Add one can of treat. Looks gross doesn't it?

 Carefully mix the cream and treat (caramel) together.

 Grate some peppermint crisp chocolate into the mixture and stir. 

 Crush up a few tennis biscuits into your dish and add about a tablespoon of melted butter. You can make this as thin or thick as you like. 

 Pour the cream mixture into your bowl over the biscuit base. 

Grate some more chocolate over the top for decoration and taste. Place in the fridge for about an hour and then it will be ready to serve. 

Searching for Sugarman

I know that I am jumping on the bandwagon a bit late, but I only managed to watch this last night. I had heard rave reviews pre the Oscar award and of course more rave reviews post the Oscars.

  

The first thing that surprised me was that hardly anyone outside of South Africa had heard of Rodriguez. He was one of those artists, like The Beatles, that our parents grew up listening to and because they liked him, our childhoods followed suit. I was so surprised that I actually emailed my token American friends and asked if they really hadn't heard of Rodriguez. 

The plot is also one of those that you just cant make up: unbeknown to Rodriguez he was famous in South Africa and never saw any of the royalties. All of the South African's said that they did send royalties to the record company, Sussex. When the former owner of the record company was interviewed, I think a dead giveaway of his dishonesty, was when asked about the money he blurted "What's more important? The music or money". He couldn't recall any money.  

What I liked most about the documentary, besides that fact that I got to hear South African accents on film (you cant beat a South African accent), was that throughout all of this Rodriguez remains so humble. Even when he performed to a sell out crowd for the first time in South African in 1997, he remained cool and just did his thing. 

So what about now, after Searching for Sugarman won an Oscar?

In true Rodriguez style, he is back performing around the globe, has appeared on numerous talk shows and is still the same old Sugarman. 

*

Teacup Chocolate Mousse - easy to make and delicious to eat

For the Easter weekend, I took some time off to recharge. Sure it was already a long weekend, but I decided to cash in and add an extra two days. The joys of vaykayshun. I did a lot of things I haven't really had time for, like making delicious food. 

Teacup Chocolate Mousse

 based on Nigella's recipe, which you can find here

 

 You will need to add 1 packet of marsh mellows, 3 slabs of dark chocolate, 50g of butter and about 60ml of boiled water.

Make sure you use a heavy bottomed saucepan. 

Melt it all together over a low heat. You don't want the chocolate to go all hard and burnt. The marshmellows take a bit longer to melt, but eventually they do. 

Take 284ml of cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Get out the blender and whip that cream. I suppose you could do this the old fashioned way, but it would take forever. 

 

Now fold the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture. Don't over mix it. It takes a while for all of the chocolate and cream to mix, but don't be tempted to over mix. 

Now for the easy part - pour the mixture into tea cups. I used a soup ladle so that the mixture wouldn't go all over the place. Put them in the fridge and allow to set. 

Then eat! These are quite rich, but are super tasty and for the effort that you put in, you can claim masterchef points because it is delicious. 

Oh yes the photos were not taken by me. I art directed them :) They were taken by @mynameinneon on his fancy new samsung note 2.