Motivational
Based: Cape Town
Conrad Koch is one of South Africa’s most in demand comedy talents and the winner of the 2010 Entertainer of the Year award, and a 2012 Standard Bank Ovation Award from the National Arts Festival. He combines hilarious comedy with world-class puppetry, and has done so for over fifteen years to local and international acclaim. He has worked all over the world, been featured on local and international television and is a frequent guest at some of South Africa’s biggest comedy events – the 94,7 Heavyweight Comedy Jams, Blacks Only, the Smirnoff Comedy Festival, the Vodacom Comedy Festival, Metro FM Comedy Experience, etc. His most famous character, Mr. Chester Missing, is a regular on etv and eNCA’s satirical news show, Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola; and his hit one man shows, Puppet Asylum, and The Chester Missing Roadshow have received standing ovations around South Africa.
Conrad has studied psychology, and is a social anthropologist – he has a master’s degree in the subject from WITS University (Cum Laude), focusing on corporate and African culture. He has had extensive experience implementing culture change programmes for the likes of FNB, Goldfields, Sun International, SAA, etc.
His outspoken political analyst puppet, Mr. Chester Missing, is fast becoming a household name. His television interviews with SA’s political elite have received wide acclaim. The use of a puppet to get political players to let down their guards is completely unique. In fact Chester Missing has been asked by the likes of City Press, Natal Witness, Reuters, the Mail and Guardian, etc, to comment on political affairs.
Conrad is completely unique in using his combination of razor sharp comedy with an understanding of human dynamics to create effective corporate communication. In the age of television and internet the human mind needs more than just facts read off the PowerPoint. His comedy is the sugar to effectively deliver the medicine of your message.
His edu-taining talk, “Making Laughter Work” (on techniques to make the office a more diversity friendly, pleasant, playful and productive environment), has received standing ovations around the country. This fun-filled interactive talk focuses specifically on creating a client-focused culture, where diversity, customer-centricity and corporate citizenship are lived, rather than just spoken about!
Conrad has audiences in stitches by talking to himself through a variety of extremely eccentric characters. Self-ridicule has never been this fun. Meet Mr. Chester Missing (SA’s top puppet political analyst of LNN fame), Ronnie (the precocious monster), and Hilary (a bad attitude ostrich).
Conrad learned his craft at the College of Magic in Cape Town. He started doing comedy with the UCT Comedy Club, and then the Cape Comedy Collective. He is the only ventriloquist on the circuit, and is dedicated to bettering both his art form, and his contribution to debates on culture as a whole. As far as we know he is the world’s only anthropological ventriloquist.
