Conrad Koch & Chester Missing’s “Puppet Power”, Comedy
Venue: St Andrew’s Hall
Next performance: Sunday 29 June 18:00
Review/Interview
By Ntombekhaya Busuku
I have never spoken with a puppet before.
But today I’m sitting with Chester Missing. The experience is unusual, but it is both very funny and, um, educational. His answers on South African political matters are insightful.
“The GNU is just like a party of crybabies, I don’t know what the hell is happening; it’s absolute bloody madness. Is Gayton a Minister of Arts and Culture or Minister of Arts and Xenophobia? John Steenhuisen is not even in charge of the DA – he is like Helen Zille’s missing Chester puppet,” Chester said.
“And Ramaphosa is rolling like he is a number eight while he is a number five. He needs to calm down, I mean, who the hell hides money under a couch?”
How does Chester Missing see his role in shaping public opinion? “I don’t shape public opinion; I am just here to make sure that Conrad Koch is taken down for his racism and his crimes. As soon as I get a government tender, I am out.”

photo: Chalotte Mokonyane.
Conrad Koch is a double International Emmy-nominated comedian and Africa’s most acclaimed ventriloquist. His main puppet character, Chester Missing, is a celebrity in South Africa and he is known in Southern Africa for his political satire and interviewing politicians on television.
Conrad Koch hosted one of his first shows called Chester Missing’s “Puppet power” at St Andrew’s Hall, and just like I anticipated his show was fully attended. The show ran for exactly 60 minutes, and each minute was worth spending in that hall. Even though it was a comedy show, the show was very educational, it based on social, political and current affairs in globally. What interesting about Conrad’s show was that before he introduced his puppet characters, he opened the stage as Conrad, and he made jokes using his audience in a very brilliant and humorous way and no one was offended by his jokes we were all laughing from the started up to the end of the show.

photo: Chalotte Mokonyane
Chester Missing’s was accompanied by five other puppets namely Gunter the German mosquito, Hilton the ostrich, Chef Gordon Ratsy, Mr Clive Dixon and Dj Hoodie. He used each puppet to deliver a joke and to comment on political matters. Each puppet had its own unique style that represent exactly who it is mimicking, and my favorite puppet character was Mr. Clive Dixon because he was so interactive with the audience, he would ask name of a random person in the audience, ask them what they do and just make a joke based on that on the spot, which was brilliant and very funny, I just loved his signature line ‘yerr’

photo: Chalotte Mokonyane.