Flash Republic Concept Party

Posted by KM on 2009-06-09

Acappella Productions stages an exclusive concept party in the olive tree courtyard with Flash Republic, at the VitaminWater popup store, Johannesburg, on Saturday 20 June 2009.

As tickets are strictly limited, those that manage to get them will enjoy free drinks all night long and witness one of South Africa's most illustrious live performance acts in an intimate party setting decked out with heaters. Be amongst the first to sample VitaminWater's designer range of beverages, fresh on South African soil.

After the show, responsible party-goers and designated drivers will be rewarded with Flash Republic's Limited Edition double-CD, "Danger", if they pass the optional breathalyser test.

Tickets are R250, immediately available pre-sold from the VitaminWater popup store, and if any are left, available on the night. The VitaminWater popup store is open from 11h00 to 17h00 weekdays, situated at 44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark, Johannesburg.

Acappella Ad Labs Launches

Posted by KM on 2009-02-05

Ad Labs is an OPA-nominated niche advertising agency and infrastructure design brand that deals specifically with the world of mobile-web advertising, which offers marked benefits over traditional above-the-line media.

Amidst economic turmoil, brand managers, marketing executives and CEOs are faced with the daunting task of marketing services and products more efficiently. Because the mobile internet and tools surrounding mobi-sites, advertising campaign implementation and management are all relatively new to the digital landscape, the combination of experience, knowledge and creative prowess is imperative to facilitate advertising spend that achieves measurable results.

Click here to download a PDF services portfolio for Ad Labs.
Click here to get in touch with us.

Visit us at DigitalLife Expo '09

Posted by KM on 2009-01-10

Acappella Productions will be showcasing Comedy Twist Mobile at the prestigious DigitalLife Expo '09 from 27-29 March at the Sandton Convention Centre.

A hub of all things cool, funky and geeky, this year's DigitalLife Expo promises to be rich in technoflavour. The Comedy Twist Mobile stand will give DigitalLife attendees digital relief at personal laugh-stations, where South African stand-up comedy videos can be watched until the endorphins make you forget your feet are sore! Keep an eye out for celebrity comedian appearances and performances, free mobile comedy content, show tickets and more!

To keep updated, enter your email address here. Click here to find out more about the DigitalLife Expo or here to visit the Comedy Twist Mobile website. To visit the Comedy Twist mobi-site, type "comedytwist.co.za" into your phone's browser.

Comedy Twist: An OPA Bookmarks Finalist

Posted by KM on 2008-11-10

Acappella's digital comedy brand, Comedy Twist Mobile, has been nominated as a finalist by international judges Johan Tesch (BBH London) and Dick Buschman (Achtung! Netherlands) in the Online Publishers Association's creative awards, The Bookmarks.

Comedy Twist Mobile is one of the only private entries, having competed against over 200 other entries in the category "Best Innovation Using Mobile". Other finalists in the category include powerhouses Ster Kinekor, Standard Bank and Vodacom.

Comedy Twist™ Mobile launches!

Posted by KM on 2008-09-01

Following a media launch on Tuesday 12 August 2008, South Africa's new mobile phone comedy hub, offering high-quality video and audio content from a variety of local comedians, officially launches to the general public today.

Technology specialists call Comedy Twist™ Mobile "technoprogressivism", or the convergence of technological change with social change. Plainly put, Comedy Twist™ Mobile is laughter delivered to you when you need it, wherever you are, so that you can live life laughing™.

Click the image above or here to see the official website.

Acappella Comedy Industry Awards 2008

Posted by KM on 2008-07-07

After 3 years promoting and producing club comedy shows, 150+ shows and 85+ performers later, the Acappella Comedy Industry Awards (ACIAs) have been borne as a relationship-building competition between Acappella Productions and comedians on the South African club comedy circuit. The purpose is two-fold: to fairly reward and encourage comedians (both new and seasoned) that demonstrate consistent professionalism; and to provide artists with a formal and credible award for their biographies and corporate referrals.

Click here to see the nominees and winners.

Acappella signs motion picture distribution deal

Posted by KM on 2008-06-18

DepthVFX, one of South Africa's pioneers in visual effects, character animation and motion graphics, has commissioned Acappella to develop distribution platforms and placement gateways for a variety of high-quality animated material. These animated shows, ranging from short 10-second motion comics to animated feature films, constitute a multitude of genres from action to comedy and drama, and will aim to entertain youth and adult age groups.

To visit DepthVFX's website, click here or click here to see the showreel.

Comedy Revolution Tour

Posted by KM on 2008-05-12

The Comedy Revolution Tour, featuring 3 UK comedians - Martin Davis, Glen Bo & Martin Evans - has been billed as "Africa's geographically longest, most cutting edge stand-up tour". It runs from the 14th May through to the 7th June 2008, starting in the Cape, continuing along the coast up to KZN, proceeding thereafter to JHB and the Freestate, to finish up in Cape Town. The aim is to develop and unite the comedy scene in South Africa by taking these shows to towns that many performers bypass and staging a stand-up show set at an international standard.

Acappella, with its proud association to these supremely talented performers (two of whom have recently been nominated in the Acappella Comedy Industry Awards), has been given exclusive control of the Johannesburg territory.

The JHB tour dates are:

Wednesday 4 June 2008 - Tanz Cafe, Bryanston

Thursday 5 June 2008 - Tanz Cafe, Bryanston

Book your place early by calling (011) 463 3128. Tickets are R50.

Daliso Chaponda (Canada) live in SA

Posted by KM on 2008-05-10

Daliso began his comedy career in Canada with the acclaimed one man show Feed This Black Man. Subsequent appearances across Canada followed (including The Just For Laughs Festival 2005 & CBC Televisions Crossing The Main). Originally from Malawi, in 2004 Daliso headlined the Dont Let Them Deport Me Comedy Show as a plea to officials to have his Canadian visa extended. The show was sold out, well reviewed and frenzied letters were written to bureaucrats.

But he was kicked out anyway, so he moved to the UK, however not before one final show entitled They're Deporting Him Anyway. In addition to Stand-Up Comedy, Daliso is a fiction writer. In 2002 he was a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest and in 2006 he was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon Society Award.

Fresh out of a string of Australian festivals, Daliso stops over to entertain South Africans in an exclusive Comedy Twist show in Bryanston. Details are:

Wednesday 28 May 2008 - Tanz Cafe, Bryanston

Also featured: Vittorio Leonardi & Roland Gaspar.

Tickets: R60

Book your place early by calling (011) 463 3128.

Seether's Shaun Morgan:
exclusive, live & unplugged

Posted by KM on 2007-12-14

Last time SEETHER were in South Africa, you were 1 in 100,000. This December, Acappella Productions in association with Musketeer Records gives Jo'burg rock fans the opportunity to be 1 in 400 elite to experience a 1-night-only, live, unplugged & intimate gig with Shaun Morgan, brainchild of one of the world's most celebrated rock bands, to mark the start of a nation-wide acoustic tour.

Having released "Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces" produced by Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance) in October 2007, the album exploded onto the illustrious international Billboard 200 at #9 and peaked at #5 shortly after. The latest single, "Fake It", aside from conquering local radio charts, has spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Rock Chart and is currently ranked #1.

SEETHER have headlined shows with leading bands such as "30 Seconds to Mars", "Audioslave", "Metallica" and "Evanescence", and after a short stay in South Africa, a colossal US-wide tour will ensue with "Breaking Benjamin" and "Three Days Grace". Further testament to SEETHER's global success, the band has had tracks featured on major motion pictures such as "Daredevil", "The Punisher", "Freddy vs. Jason" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

Tour dates are as follows:

Thursday 20 December - The Blues Room, Sandton, Johannesburg

Friday 21 December 2007 - Burn, Durban

Friday 28 December 2007 - Mercury Live, Cape Town

Monday 31 December 2007 (NYE) - The Phoenix Rising, Kenton on Sea

Sunday 6 January 2008 - Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Gardens, Cape Town

Support acts include: "Holly & the Woods", "My Epic" and "Scarlet Box".

UPDATED!
Johannesburg post-event photos: Click Here
Johannesburg post-event video: Click Here (courtesy Dave Andre)

Want to work for Acappella?

Posted by KM on 2007-11-02

Acappella has adopted a new business model that involves lean process techniques to be applied to concurrent events, allowing a company restructure to take place. The change has given rise to new opportunities at Acappella. These include:

Senior Project Managers

Junior Project Managers

Hospitality Managers/Agents

Personal Assistants



If you are interested in working in the competitive, fast-paced, high-tech and creative industry that is showbiz, send your CV with contact details through to Katherine. Please note that while it is not necessary, applicants with prior experience in the entertainment industry, or applicants with an engineering education background are preferred.

New York Underground Comedy Festival 07

Posted by KM on 2007-09-10

Acappella has been selected as the official promoter for the New York Underground Comedy Festival 2007 by E! Entertainment TV and David Letterman Show committee members under Sarris Productions, New York, USA. Originally started in Brooklyn in 2002, the NYUCF started as a three show affair at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. The laughs were too much for USA to carry alone, so in 2007, the festival will span USA, Europe, Australia, China and South Africa, tallying up 100 events with the involvement of over 600 comedians around the world between September 28 and October 7. It is without question the biggest comedy festival on planet earth.

Click the image to go to the official sub-site.

Footskating 101 and Acappella join forces

Posted by KM on 2007-08-01

Continuing the local motion picture industry support initiative, Acappella Productions teams up with 5fm's Footskating 101, South Africa's forthcoming extreme feeture film, as an official promotion partner, responsible for experiential marketing to targeted demographics.

The story revolves around Vince, a poor miner's son, who sets out to save his small town from exploding, his family home from reposession by the government, and his granny's lungs, all by inventing the new extreme sport of footskating... which is skateboarding for those who can't really afford a board. Time is running out for the town and his family, and the high profile skateboarding finals in Johannesburg are looming. But is the world ready for this extreme and ferocious new sporting art form called footskating? Find out this September.

Click the logo above to see the official site.

Acappella promotes 50th comedian

Posted by KM on 2007-05-20

The 3rd week of May marks the 50th comedian Acappella Productions has promoted since November 2006, and what a comedian he is: the godfather of SA comedy, Mel Miller! Those that might know how small the market is compared to USA and UK will know this is no mean feat.

This statistic is furthered by the following Acappella Productions comedy facts:

One of the top three all-time SA comedy promoters

The number one national promoter of new SA comedians

The only "improv" promoter in SA, starting May 30

Running 7 comedy events a month

Used 6 live venues in Johannesburg alone



"Comedy Twist" is Acappella Productions' name-brand comedy.

Julia Wilson in South Africa

Posted by KM on 2007-04-11

Notorious Australian female comedian, Julia Wilson, will be performing for one night only at Tanz Cafe as part of Acappella's international club comedy drive. Julia Wilson, well-known for her experience as a bouncer, is sure to frighten the crowds and concurrently set them roaring with laughter on Wednesday 2 May 2007.

Have a look at the poster here.
Please note: the poster may not be safe for viewing at work.

Hotel Costes & Stéphane Pompougnac exclusive

Posted by KM on 2007-03-10

Acappella Productions, in association with BeyondRed Event Management, are thrilled to announce famed French superstar DJ, Stéphane Pompougnac, father of the highly popular Hotel Costes lounge album series, performing only one night in SA at Taboo nightclub in Sandton, March 31st. Stéphane Pompougnac is a household name in downtempo electronic music, holding the title of official music producer and DJ for European fashion powerhouses such as Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent. Visit BeyondRed to find out more.

Acappella promotes "Bunny Chow"

Posted by KM on 2007-03-01

Acappella Productions has signed underneath Ster Kinekor Distribution as a promotional partner for the home-grown "Bunny Chow" movie, which documents the lives of a group of comedians on their journey to the Oppikoppi music festival. "Bunny Chow" is a product of MTV Films Europe/Dogpack/DV8 Films, and is directed by John Barker, who was presented with the Lionel Ngakana Award for Most Promising Director at Sithengi 2006. There, they also took home the award for Best Actor and was an official selection motion picture for the Toronto International Film Festival, AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and Melbourne Film Festival.

The movie releases at Ster Kinekor cinemas nation-wide on Friday 9 March 2007. Click here to view the official trailer.

Join Our New Mailing List

Posted by KM on 2007-02-23

We've upgraded our mail list manager. If you're not on our mailing list, click the image below.

In-house technical equipment available for hire

Posted by KM on 2007-02-16

Acappella Productions welcomes the experienced sound, lighting & video engineer, Brendan Marsay, to the team. With this partnership, Acappella Productions is now able to hire out equipment with an operator, and able to offer more client services. To have a look at what is on offer, click here.

Plush back in Gauteng on "Grace Grew Tall" tour

Posted by KM on 2007-01-12

Acappella Productions came by the talent of legendary band Plush in Cape Town, headed by the talent of Rory Eliot, prompting a short trip up to Johannesburg in early November 2006. As a consequence of this highly successful "feeler" trip, we're thrilled to announce a more comprehensive tour of Johannesburg and Pretoria - the "Grace Grew Tall tour", the namesake of Plush's new single. Stay tuned to your TV sets and radios as there will be extensive media coverage. Continuing the tradition of "doing good to the community", Acappella is also delighted to state that Cape Town-based charity The Wandering Star Project will be coming up to Johannesburg and Pretoria with Plush to spread their applaudable cause to schools in the vicinity of the concerts. Click here to view the official tour poster.

Rory Eliot in Johannesburg for an exclusive gig

Posted by UGC on 2006-10-25

Shortly after starting to play the guitar, Rory Eliot met Chas Smit, with whom a musical and brotherly bond was instantly forged. This magical synergy would last a decade and give rise to the highly praised band PLUSH. The duo had their first taste of success in 2001 with their number 1 hit "Tainted" on Tuks FM radio. While promoting their second album, tragedy struck when Chas Smit was hit by a speeding drunk driver, ending his life and consequently PLUSH as it was known. After much contemplation, Rory decided to pick up where PLUSH left off � and Acappella Productions is proud to invite you to be part of the legend of the revived band in the form of Rory Eliot for the VERY FIRST show in Jo�burg since that fateful day, on Saturday 4 November, exclusive to the Blues Room.

Time for a midweek holiday!

Posted by webmaster on 2006-10-21

Acappella Productions proudly brings you the ultimate way to get through a crazy work week. Starting November 1st, every Wednesday from now will be a night of "No More Blues" as we bring you South Africa's freshest, hottest comedians performing alongside some of the more influential and established comedians. For details about where, upcoming performers and cover charge, visit the comedy MySpace.

Acappella launches MySpace profile

Posted by webmaster on 2006-10-08

Acappella Productions has launched a corporate MySpace profile. MySpace.com is the fastest-growing networking site on the internet today. Being the very first company in South Africa to launch a corporate MySpace, Acappella's profile serves as an interaction gateway between the company and the general public. This allows Acappella Productions to get first-hand feedback on events and allows members of the public to casually interact with Acappella's staff. Updates and exclusive event competitions will be featured on this profile, so click here to view the profile and add yourself as a "friend".

CANSA comes onboard

Posted by UGC on 2006-08-03

We'd like to officially welcome CANSA, the Cancer Association of South Africa, onboard as Acappella Productions' official charity. Many of us at Acappella have lost family to this terrible disease, and we're hoping that our charity fundraiser events that have been so succesful in the past will now have newfound enthusiasm and drive. To kick our new relationship off, CANSA and Acappella will be putting on a very big, very bold live event early in 2007 - look out for it! We'd also like to officially welcome Ruth Jacobs from CANSA to the Acappella Team as their representative, she has worked for them for fourteen years and brings a huge amount of charity and fundraising experience to the team.

New Acappella site goes live

Posted by webmaster on 2006-08-01

The new Acappella site has just gone live, and I have the privilege of posting the first piece of news, I guess this is it! We'd like to thank DevelopDaly for their excellent design, it really is easy for us to add to and work with. We'd also like to thank our longtime hosts, Flamewave, for quickly recovering our domain after it was hijacked, their DNS department is incredibly sharp and reacted before we even knew what was happening! Finally, I'd like to personally apologise to everyone that has been staring at the parking page for the past six days, I had uploaded the new site but forgot to replace the index file in the root - it's been up for almost a week but nobody's noticed...whoopsie! Anyway, feel free to drop me any comments or suggestions, I look forward to hearing from everyone.