1. THURSDAY OCTOBER 25 2012 5MusicTonightTHURSDAY OCTOBER 25 20124 TonightMusic
THIS series has registered on the
radar of TV critics, horror buffs and
television networks alike.
In the same way as shows like
Supernatural, Fringe, True Blood or
Vampire Diaries have ignited the
curiosity of viewers, American
Horror Story has earned a loyal
following.
Co-creators Ryan Murphy and
Brad Falchuk developed the idea,
drawn from Murphy’s childhood
experiences of being forced to watch
ABC’s Dark Shadows by his grand-
mother, whose apparent aim was to
toughen him up. Real life crimes
have also thrust their way into the
conceptualising process.
Falchuk commented in an
interview: “You want people to be a
little bit off-balance afterwards.”
Dylan McDermott – attempting to
cast out the lingering memory of his
character in The Practice – as Dr Ben
Harmon, Connie Britton (Vivien
Harmon) and Jessica Lange
(Constance Langdon), were the
drawcards in the first season.
With infidelity as the overarching
theme, season one followed the
Harmon family – Ben, his wife,
Vivien, and teenage daughter Violet
(Taissa Farmiga) – as they started
their lives afresh in a restored
mansion in Los Angeles.
Unknown to them, the mansion
was haunted and Ben’s new patient,
Tate Langdon, was not what he
appeared to be – as Vivien
discovered… too late.
Unlike most TV series, where
there is a cliffhanger ending that
offers a gateway to a sequel, the
creative team decided that each
season should have a beginning,
middle and ending. Also, the actors
would be playing different
characters.
In an interview with Wikia.com,
Murphy said: “The second season
will obviously be in America, but in
a completely different locale. There
are all kinds of American horror
stories to tell. There are serial killing
stories, prison stories, true crime
stories… Each year of the show is
designed to be a little mini series
unto itself. The only thing we’re not
open to doing is a season on
vampires.
“Connie and Dylan will not be
playing the leads of the show. But I’d
love for them to come back and do
something, albeit a different, smaller
or cameo part.”
This time around Lange will be
playing a sadistic nun.
On what viewers can expect this
time around, Murphy said: “What I
planned all along is an anthological
series – every year there is a
different house or institution that is
haunted. Some of the actors who
have been on the show this year will
stay on as different characters and
some will come and go.”
In an interview with tvline.com,
Lange compared her previous
character with her new role as a
sadistic nun, saying: “It’s a different
time [the 1960s], first of all, and she
comes from a completely different
background. There’s also different
geography [it is set on the East
Coast], and that informs a character
tremendously.
“So without giving away too
much, I think there are similarities –
they both have a history, and I’m not
entirely stellar – but that’s probably
where the paths diverge.
“She is very different from what
I’ve played. It’s going to be another
wild ride!”
While Murphy and Falchuk’s
approach can be defined as highly
avant garde, the horror drama is
spine-chilling enough in this new
season to leave a haunting
impression.
● American Horror Story 2 is on
M-Net Series (DStv Channel 114)
on Friday at 9.30pm.
MUNYARADZI VOMO
JUST when you think you are
gatvol of talent shows, someone
somewhere manages to convince a
commissioning editor that we need
another one. And as usual, once the
winner is announced we’ll never
hear of them again.
But before we paint every show
with the same brush, it is only noble
to give credit to programmes like
Stage Black where the winner is
groomed for the real world of
entertainment.
Being playwright David
Talbert’s idea, the show looks for
people across the US who can dance,
sing and act. The winner will then
be cast in one of his plays.
Talbert (pictured), for those
who don’t know, is a renowned
writer who has won many honours
including a New York Literary
Award and five NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People) awards for his
penning skills.
His works include the film that
stars Ice Cube and Katt Williams,
First Sunday, and the musicals Love
in the Nick of Tyme and The Fabric
of Man. He could easily be the next
Tyler Perry because he has
amazing ideas that keep his fans
addicted to his work.
On Stage Black, Talbert joins
forces with industry greats Blair
Underwood as his co-executive-
producer, Morris Chestnut as
producer and Terry Dexter and
Charmel Catrell as his fellow
judges.
The show is basically the
hardest talent search there is as it
looks for the ultimate triple threat.
Having a great voice is only a third
of the challenge. You also need to
know how to move and put on an
unforgettable performance. The
third aspect is being able to act.
Theatre gurus will tell you that
the person who has all three of
these talents is a darling to watch on
stage. Now how many people do you
know who can do all that?
Let’s start with the singers.
Beyoncé has a great voice and she
works hard at her dancing, but the
acting still needs a lot of work. So
it’s a “no” from me.
You then get actors who turn to
music, such as Idris Elba, and,
interestingly enough, he is quite
good at singing/rapping. It is only
when it comes to dancing that I am
not so sure about him. But if big
guys like Terry Crews can move
their humungous frames it can’t be
impossible for Elba to do the same.
We just haven’t seen him try.
I’d probably go with Chris
Brown as a possible example of an
all-rounder. He’s shown immense
talent in the music and dance
departments and his acting in
Stomp the Yard and Think Like a
Man wasn’t too bad either.
So in essence this show is
looking for that level of talent.
Whether there is someone out there
who can really clinch that top spot
is debatable as triple threat
performers are rare. Not even the
late great Michael Jackson could
get this gig right.
The show really is a blend of all
the talent search shows we have
seen over the years, from So You
Think You Can Dance to X Factor
and everything in-between. The
only difference is, the acting aspect
has been added, a thing that really
hasn’t been explored much before
in the talent search arena except for
our own Class Act (whatever
happened to that, by the way?). For
that alone we’ll give it a chance.
● Stage Black airs from
November 5 at 7.30pm and
8.30pm Vuzu (DStv channel 116).
HOLY MOTHER OF… Jessica Lange was as surprised as viewers to learn of her new character’s description in season two of American Horror Story.
American horror’s twisted sister
Ryan Murphy and Brad
Falchuk stumbled on a
goldmine with American
Horror Story. And the
show’s Emmy and Golden
Globe honours have
reinforced its popularity.
Debashine Thangevelo
looks at what season two
has to offer in terms of
fresh storylines and
new characters …
FULL HOUSE COULD BRING ROOF DOWN
MUNYARADZI VOMO
G
OING through my Twitter
timeline the other day,
something caught my eye.
Rapper ProVerb, 31, was
announcing that he’d had fun in
Cape Town, but was now ready to
head back to – wait for it –
PROhannesVERB.
And if you look at some of his
pictures doing rounds on the
internet, you will see them slugged
as En-Tre-PRO-Neur. When I
brought this “PRO” plague to his
attention, the charismatic rapper,
television and radio presenter,
emcee and husband and father of
two just laughed.
“We could go all day long with
the words incorporating ProVerb.
My business card has En-Tre-PRO-
Neur. I always talk about other
things like PROhustleVERB. In fact,
there is a whole song I did about that
where I talked about the ‘pros’ and
‘cons’,” he said.
With everything working out for
the young man, you can’t help but
let him rename Joburg – he more or
less runs it, or its media at least.
Few people at his age, and some
even older, can say they’ve accom-
plished half of what he has. From
being a TV presenter on Channel O
in 2004, Tebogo Thekiso (his real
name) read the media game like
the movie character Neo did The
Matrix. He has challenged himself
in many fields and succeeded in
most of them.
“I have excellent momentum,
good rhythm and a good pace.
Which basically means hustling
the living daylights out of the oppor-
tunities which come my way. I take
on as much as I can and expose
myself to situations that can create
more opportunities for me,” he
explained.
Some people have likened him to
the esteemed and established media
personality Ryan Seacrest, and
while ProVerb (pictured) takes it as
a compliment, he does not entertain
the notion that he is a copycat.
“I am not trying to be Seacrest
because I could never be him. That
said, he could never be me. The day I
can define myself is the day I would
have stopped growing. I don’t want
to be defined or limited to what I am
currently doing.
“If you want to know what I do
for a living, I will give you a cheeky
answer, like, I am still looking for
it,” he said, looking satisfied with
his response.
“On my way to finding my
purpose, I have ticked off television,
I have ticked off radio, I have ticked
off music, I have ticked off being a
speaker, a brand ambassador and
voiceover artist. I have hosted the
biggest television shows on TV.
From South African Idols to Miss
South Africa to Mrs South Africa –
and these are but only the
beginning,” he said in the most
modest tone he could muster.
“I am constantly on the quest for
the level beyond the next.”
Few people know that the source
of ProVerb’s hunger comes from a
dark past that left him with some
haunting memories.
Having been raised in a priv-
ileged environment, ProVerb had it
all as a child. From fantastic living
conditions at home to good and
expensive schools, his life was
every black boy’s dream. But he
didn’t embrace the value of the
silver spoon.
“I grew up an underachiever. I
had some awesome opportunities in
my life and took advantage of none
of them. I was in school for the sake
of being in school, and one school
recommended my parents pull me
out as I was wasting their money. It
is only when I was stripped of those
opportunities, when my parents
said I was on my own, that I realised
life is not about being spoon-fed.
“Even though I don’t live with
regret, I always use that as a con-
stant reminder, man, that when an
opportunity presents itself before
you, don’t just take it, grab it and
run hard,” he advised.
And grab opportunities is what
he seems to do effortlessly. This past
season of SA Idols saw him become
a co-producer of the show while
retaining his hosting duties.
“It was the toughest season for
me from a production point of view.
Idols is a working formula. There is
no use trying to reinvent the wheel.
So my job was to put 16-inch rims
on that wheel. I had to help pimp
out an already working thing. I
would bring little ideas like, let’s
get a different music director, or
change the sound, or let’s get
different guests, or bring Toya
Delazy and Jack Parow on,” he said.
As the season ended, talk of the
extraordinary achiever has shifted
from television to music as he
recently released his fourth
studio album, Fourthwrite.
“This is the first album I own
100 percent. The word ‘forthright’
means: direct, true, honest, blatant,
unapologetic and straight to the
point, and that’s what this album
is about,” he said.
For someone who wears many
other hats, you have to wonder
where the rapper finds the time to
sit down and come up with 16 tracks
that are good enough for an album.
But for him the whole project took a
long time.
“I didn’t mean to do an album.
I was just doing songs, just by
judging from the place I was in.
Then I started getting a response
and couldn’t service that demand
with singles any more so I had to do
an album. I was in an inspired
space, so much so that when I meant
to record a song or two I’d end
up coming out with a few more,”
he said.
Some of the people featured on
Fourthwrite include crooner
Kabomo, ex-Idols finalist Boki,
Nigerian superstar Naeto C and
Mi Casa’s J Something.
There is no telling what ProVerb
will be up to next, but one thing is
certain, he’ll be flying his flag high
for a long time.
BETWEEN managing Joyous Celebration,
performing the duties of a pastor, being a
family man and recording various artists,
musician Jabu Hlongwane (pictured) rarely
has time to make his own music.
“I… make music in the traffic,” he said.
“Many people hate the traffic, but I love it
because it gives me time to think about the
new material that I should record for my
personal projects. I always have my cell-
phone and that helps me record any ideas
that may come to mind so I can work
on them later,” he explained.
As cumbersome as that sounds, that
is how Hlongwane completed his latest
offering, The Crossover Experience 2. For the
project, Hlongwane experimented with a
sound not associated with him before.
“I am considered a traditional gospel
musician but on this album I was trying out
a much more contemporary sound. That
explains the ‘crossover’ in the title. Since
I am constantly writing songs, on the album
I am marvelling at how great God is. So if
you listen closely you will realise that the
material on this album is more praise than
worship,” he said.
As usual the man, once he had copied his
ideas from his various recording devices,
called the people he works with every
day and asked them to lend their talents
to the project to add more flavour and
diversity.
“I worked with my kids from Dominion
and Joyous Celebration. I call them ‘kids’
because they are all still young in age and
experience, but very talented. The ones
I used from Joyous Celebration are those who
I feel are drowned in the choir so I give them
a chance on my solo projects,” he said.
The response to the final product has been
amazing, but Hlongwane regrets that he
doesn’t have enough time to tour and
promote the CD.
“I hope to find time soon, as I run Joyous
Celebration full-time, I run a church and get
invited to speak in different places, so there
is usually very little time for anything else,”
the musician explained.
And for those who do not get just how
busy he can be, Hlongwane shared the state
of his diary, for this month alone.
“I am recording Innocent who used to be
with Joyous and Family Factory. I am also
recording another artist called Tebogo.
“I am responsible for the production of
the CD and DVD of the second Joyous
Rewind DVD from their recent performance.
“I also have to finish Dominion’s second
album sleeve and then I need to attend to
Patrick Duncan’s album, too.
“So it is all up to me to finish all of these
projects in time,” he sighed
● The Crossover Experience 2 is available
at your local music store.
GOSPEL DIGEST
MUNYARADZI
VOMO
Rapper still PROducing the goods
PICTURE: TIRO RAMATLHATSE