Text: Sarah Borchert. This article is from the November 2011 issue of Africa Geographic Magazine.
A native of Cornwall in the UK, Mark Sampson came to South Africa 20 years ago on a surfing holiday – and never left. Finding a niche in his adopted Cape Town as an ‘intellectual English comedian’, Sampson’s one-man shows have tackled subjects as disparate as depression and the evolution of humans.
In his latest offering, Africa Clockwise, he stars as the host of Beat the Heat, a wacky game show where contestants answer questions about climate change. Sarah Borchert spoke to him about poking fun at environmentalists, his cooking oil-powered journey around Africa and the upside to greenwashing.
Funnyman Mark Sampson is in a reflective mood. We’re sitting upstairs in his Noordhoek home in Cape Town discussing his latest one-man show Africa Clockwise.
‘You’d think they’d have a sense of humour,’ he says talking about environmentalists and greenies – you and me, basically. ‘You should all be funky dope-smoking musos, but instead there are so many holier-than-thou boring vegans.’
As neither a dope-smoking muso nor vegan (boring maybe), I nod in agreement and ask Mark whether he’s heard the one about a customer going into an environmental bookshop and asking for the humour section.
‘I’m sorry sir,’ replies the assistant, ‘this is an environmental bookshop, there is no humour section.’
Then I realise that I’ve just told a joke to a comedian, which is probably the interview equivalent of taking coals to an Eskimo (or something), so I quickly ask another question.
Jokes about climate change – isn’t that quite ambitious? Is climate change well known, or rather, understood enough to be funny? How do you do it?
It’s really just a light-hearted, jokey show. Me talking bollocks, really. And no, you don’t have to know very much to get into the vibe. One of the booking agents was worried that it would be worthy – it’s definitely not worthy (there are methane-related jokes, for heaven’s sake!), but sometimes people should get what they need, not what they think they want. I play the anti-consumer host of a crazy global warming game show and challenge members of the audience to ‘Beat the heat’. We had rave reviews in Grahamstown earlier this year, I’ve performed it in Cape Town and we’re doing a run in Johannesburg this month.
To book, go to www.strictlytickets.com or call +27 (0)21 789 1665. Mark’s clockwise circumnavigation of Africa kicks off in April 2012 and is garnering increasing interest from sponsors. Digicape, Snap-on Tools, Leatherman, Scarfini, Trellidor, Groundswell, Dave Stubbs, Coreban and Von Zipper have all joined the green bandwagon.
You can follow the Sampson family’s adventures via www.africaclock wise.com
The show is just the beginning though, isn’t it? Next year, you’re off on a two-year, 60 000-kilometre journey around Africa, in a camper van that runs on cooking oil. Where did that idea come from?
Oh, it’s basically an excuse for a big surfing holiday! That’s why we’re going along the coast. We’re starting in Cape Town at six o’clock and saying to people, ‘Meet you at 12!’ (Laughs.) Look, I’ve been in South Africa for 20 years and have always wanted to travel beyond its borders. Then I started doing the research for this new show and the more I found out about climate change and what was driving it, the more I started to wonder whether the solutions to this problem don’t lie in the West. Maybe happiness can come from something other than fast cars and gadgets? I came across this insane statistic – apparently, the annual carbon footprint of the average Burundian is equal to that of the average American television, on standby!
So, in Africa, ‘climate change’ is about adapting to a climate that is already changing, it’s not about lowering carbon footprints (well, maybe in South Africa it is). I thought that instead of this one-way flow of information – ‘We’re coming to educate you!’ – Africa would have something to teach my family about how to cope with climate change. I mean, my house is next to a beach, that’s some inheritance for my children!
And, while we’re at it, this could be a great opportunity to share technology and ideas that can improve lives.
That technology aspect is interesting, isn’t it? I’m sensing a real burst of creativity around the need to create fuel-efficient or non fuel-dependent technology. Most of it isn’t 
mainstream yet, but it appears to have sparked the imaginations of the inventors out there. Have you found any ingeniously designed equipement to take with you?
We are taking some solar cookers from Sunfire (www.sunfire.co.za and www.solar cookersforafrica.com), which cook your food without burning your house down.
We’re actually looking for more eco products to test in the field – especially lights.
There have to be more gadgets and gizmos out there!
Now about this cooking oil-powered camper van … it really runs on cooking oil?
Ah, the big green van!
Yip. We bought this 10-tonne van from a guy who had started to convert it to biofuel and, probably realising what a huge and expensive job it was, he’d given up.
Then I found someone in suburban Cape Town who has developed a heat-exchange plate, which uses water from the radiator to warm up the cooking oil so that it is hot when it goes into the engine.
You need a separate diesel fuel system to run the engine to heat the water, which then warms the cooking oil.
When that’s ready, off you go. I didn’t know any of this until, literally, two days ago, so I’m learning all the time!
What about re-fuelling?
Well, we can carry a tonne of cooking oil, which will get us about 4 000 kilometres, then we can buy used oil from restaurants along the way.
And what of your children? They are a big part of your decision to do this, aren’t they?
I really wanted them to have the opportunity to become interesting, vital people, instead of locked into a culture where you’re so busy transmitting the moment over MXit and BBM that you never get to be in the moment. We had a family holiday last year where we lived in a kraal [traditional homestead] in the Eastern Cape for the summer. If you wanted hot water you had to make a fire and heat it. It was great – and my kids still talk about it.
I’m beginning to see where the “anti-consumerist game-show host” comes from.
You know, the really positive message from Africa Clockwise is that we can show big business that the power lies with us. If we tell companies that we want solar-powered appliances and vehicles, then they’ll figure out how to make them. That’s where social media can be really powerful, in a good way. The fact that greenwashing exists shows that businesses are at least feeling the pressure to produce environmental credentials. It’s actually a good sign!
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