Interview by Jeriah Fredericks

All images courtesy of The Sunday Show

The Sunday Show snuck up on us. It came across our radar late last year - an artist reached out to us telling us telling us that they were headlining a show at Obscene Parrot in The Backyard, and at the time I was stunned - I didn’t even know that there was Backyard at Obscene.

As a former Obs resident, and even neighbour to The Obscene Parrot, I only knew it as the dive bar that my former roommate and I would go to to kill 2 hours during loadshedding (we don’t speak about that time as a Capetonian). Two doors down, cheap drinks,a chessboard, what even is loadshedding?

We got to know the resident bar lady, and the bottle store next door - Neighbourhood vibes as Cape Town does best (when you can find it).

So when I heard about this new show in Obs, I wondered where this location was. I had lived in Obs fro 2 years, and to be fair I thought I knew the suburb back to front.

To be fair, I wasn’t as tapped into the culture as I am now, and at this point I wear it as a badge of pride (outside of the actual Sunday Show badge that I wear on my bag) that I knew about the Obscene Parrot before it was cool.

And capital C cool it is. From Conor curating shows most every weekend, to the landmark that The Sunday Show has become, The Obscene Parrot has become a focal point for the culmination of the culture in Observatory.

And culture is what The Nnetwork thrives on. So when the opportunity presented itself to interview Uncool Ant about The Sunday Show, I rushed over to The Parrot and settled in at The Backyard to learn the full story about how Mav and Ant went about curating the Variety Show that perfectly encapsulates the generation of artists that we have set out to platform

So, The Sunday Show - tell me all about it. How did it start, where did it come from, what’s the mission behind it?

“We started out right where we’re sitting , in the backyard, on Mav’s birthday last year on the 10th of March #MavDay24. It then progressed to backyard busking sessions where we would receive contributions from the crowd into a hat and the proceeds would go to the artists. The momentum really started when we evolved into an open mic called ‘Sunday Chill’”

“What ended up happening was that the people that kept coming to the open mics kept coming, and they started having their own little following here in our backyard. So we decided to have curated shows.”

“Instead of having an open mic we transitioned into ‘Sunday Socials’ where we interviewed members of the audience in order to catalyse the Networking experience - but we still had an open mic. Those were the Nnetwork plus shows - the Nnetwork plus other homies.”

“Then Mav left for Jozi for a bit and needed someone else to hold the fort down here. That’s when we named it ‘Super Sundays’, and when I stepped into more of a leadership role in the team. Mav left around August, Super Sundays was around that time, and then he came back around the end of November for Streetopia.”

“When he came back he decided ‘because it’s December and we have so many international friends that play music here - let’s make the Sunday Show a headliner gig, with international acts’. And that was the birth of the ‘Sunday Show’.”

I think that’s when you first came across our radar. It popped up on our social media feed, and we started hearing about it from others - even my sister-in-law told me I should check it out. The same week you first reached out to me coincidentally.

“And it was still very young then. We had the experience in running the shows and being residents on Sundays, but having our own unique curated experience was novel. And it’s amazing because it's still continuously growing and evolving.”

“So yeah, after we decided to formalise it as a curated show, we had 3 weeks in which we had international headliners, then we took a week break in Jan. We came back for my birthday show, and from there we really started picking up trajectory. We started attracting people who really loved the idea and kept coming back. The Sunday Show format got locked in and we just polished and perfected it.”

“The show mostly leaned on the performance. It wasn't really focused on us or on the audience - it was about who is on stage. A platform, if you will.”

“A while back someone pitched me on the idea of making it less performer-centric and make it more host-centric, focus on the engagement, add more variety. Make it a full show essentially.”

One thing I can say, I met you first last December and I had still never been to the show. The first time I came through, the one thing that sat with me was the curation. It's just a backyard, but it doesn't even feel like that. It was so polished, and intimate.

“Everytime someone asks me ‘So what is The Sunday Show?’ I say ‘Imagine Jimmy Fallon - but in a backyard.’ And already they’re intrigued. And we want that. We’re all exposed to media but it's so next to impossible to be involved in something like that, never mind being able to attend it weekly and witness the progression.”

“If I can be honest with you, for a very long time we were running off vibes only. We brought fairy lights, we had bubbles, everyone just made it fun. Only once I started thinking of it as an actual production for the purpose of it being on TV have I started to think of it from so many different perspectives. Even the whole variety aspect, someone who attended asked me ‘Okay, we love what you’re doing, but its music and what?’.”

“It’s a lot to think about in terms of the growth, but it’s exciting. Every time we try something new we execute it so well that it gives birth to so many new ideas. It's a real level up. It’s intense, but it's fun.”

“As much as we take this seriously, as much as we portray a Trevor Noah or Jimmy Fallon vibe, mistakes are still going to happen. A mic is going to fail, a camera man is going to trip, but the people want to be able to experience those moments. And at the same time it is good to be able to teach somebody something. It’s amazing to be able to have a headliner that is an industry professional that the variety acts can learn from.”

So given that you started as an open mic, and the fact that you're moving forward with a sense of a more curated feel to the show, how do you maintain the accessibility to The Sunday Show?

“So I personally decided to move away from being on stage and focused more on the production side. From that I started to associate with industry professionals, people that are also trying to make something but have an actual stake in what we’re trying to do. We now have a producer, a videographer and a video editor,among others, who joined the team.”

“I came to understand that as much as my aspirations for what I want The Sunday Show to be are big and only I can realise them, I’m only one man and I don’t have the resources to take it as far as it can go.

“Because the ethos of The Sunday Show is being able to network and branch out and create new industry branches, it only makes sense that I had to start that in house. My main priority right now is to build the right team, so that The Show is seamless. If any of the core team is missing, the show still goes on. Because of this the ship won’t sink, and now I can start saving people in the ocean.”

What’s it like running a team now?

“The short of it? Have fun. I’m literally having fun every week. What we have now is like Prison Break. We’re trapped in a situation that we don't want to be in, and we are lucky enough to have a detailed and guaranteed plan to get out. But we can’t do it alone.”

“We know for a fact that we can get 10 people, but we would like to get 50 people out. Even if we get only 25 people out it's a win. But those 10 people, they need to want to get out. And I’m more than anything looking for people like that, because once I have a team of people like that and get them out, I know that they have been trained and are well equipped enough to train others to do the same way.”

“That’s one of the big things about The Sunday Show and the platform - the bigger we get, the more people think “this is my chance to get put on”. You’re going to want to get out of this more than me, you’re not just trying to get to where I am so that you have a better view of your cage. We’re tryna get out.”

So, for the uninitiated, why should they come through to The Sunday Show, and how can they get involved?

“If I can boil it down to a word, it's a show. If someone says to you ‘Hey do you want to go watch a show?’ without giving you any other details - everything that comes to your mind, that’s The Sunday Show. Every week we are working diligently to facilitate all the ideas that could fill that gap. Because every week people come to me and share those ideas.”

“And that’s how we’re going about building a community. The fact that we’re able to create something that is a once in a lifetime experience for people, but at the same time create something that is tangible enough that they can say something and see it the next week? That’s life changing.”

“That’s something that will make someone buy a badge, and go tell their friend’s friend’s friends about the show. Because they saw me do something amazing which gave them a tiny idea, a piece of that amazing, and they saw me try it. Lo and behold it was more amazing. And we’re keeping it going, so obviously they’re going to bring their friends to come see it. ‘Come see how I added to this amazing show’.”

“That’s really the ethos of The Sunday Show - it’s a platform for every single creative that is involved in it to have a lasting place. It’s a gallery for art and creativity, for people to be able to say to anyone else, ‘Come see what I contributed too’.”

“That’s my responsibility and my promise - to the audience of The Sunday Show, and the acts - my promise is that I will keep the gallery open. As long as you keep giving me art.”

“I wanted to be an artist, I wanted a place to hang up my art, but I couldn't find anybody that would hang it up for me, or hang it up long enough. So I’m telling people that I will give you a gallery that will hang up your art forever.”

Catch Uncool Ant headlining The Sunday Show this Sunday the 27th July. Or catch the show every Sunday at Obscene - from Sptolight acts, to the headliner, or maybe even a VERVE pick of the week, you’re guaranteed an experience.

The Sunday Show in Obs’ Backyard

the literary nourishment of sour fig poetry