Trevor Noah leads a major South African stand-up tour: Bafunny Bafunny comes to Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town
Trevor Noah returns to major stages in South Africa at the beginning of September as the headliner and lead curator of South Africa’s Festival of Comedy, whose central programme has been designed as a tour called Bafunny Bafunny. According to the tour’s official website, audiences can expect five shows in three cities: September 4 and 5 at SunBet Arena in Pretoria, September 19 at the Suncoast complex in Durban, and September 25 and 26 at Grand Arena within GrandWest in Cape Town. The tour thus connects three major South African urban centres over almost the entire month and brings established names and performers from a new generation onto one stage. Alongside Noah, the official line-up consists of Eugene Khoza, Lindy Johnson, Thabiso Mhlongo, Mbali Gudazi, Panch Gasela and Learnmore Jonasi. The organisers present the project as a kind of "national comedy team", a concept that deliberately borrows the language of sport and turns it into a framework for presenting contemporary stand-up.
For audiences in Pretoria, the event is coming very soon: the first evening is scheduled for Friday, September 4, and the second for Saturday, September 5, 2026. According to information from the official ticketing channel Quicket, the doors of SunBet Arena open at 6 p.m., the programme begins at 7 p.m., and entry is not permitted to persons under the age of 18. SunBet Arena is located in the Time Square complex in Waterkloof Glen, in the southern part of Pretoria, the administrative centre of South Africa and one of the main cities of Gauteng province. Visitors travelling to the performance from other cities can check accommodation in Pretoria near the event venue in advance, especially because two consecutive evenings are planned for the city.
Five evenings in three cities during September
The schedule currently published shows that Bafunny Bafunny has been conceived as a national tour rather than a one-day festival programme at a single location. After the double opening in Pretoria, there is a break until September 19, when the tour arrives in Durban, a coastal city on the Indian Ocean and one of the largest urban centres in KwaZulu-Natal province. Time Out South Africa states that the event at Suncoast is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., while the official Bafunny Bafunny website confirms Durban as the only stop on the tour with a single evening of programming. The finale then moves to Cape Town, where performances are scheduled for September 25 and 26 at Grand Arena at GrandWest. Sun International, the operator of the complex, confirms that September 25 was subsequently added as a new date alongside the originally announced evening of September 26.
Such a schedule also demonstrates the scale of interest the project attracted before it even began. In the spring announcements, the organisers initially spoke of five performances in three cities, but individual dates and line-ups were announced gradually, in the style of sporting "national team call-ups". Additional evenings in Pretoria and Cape Town fitted into the same concept, in which comedians are presented as team members, Noah as captain and lead curator, Eugene Khoza as vice-captain, and Ntosh Madlingozi as coach. According to an Eyewitness News report from the project’s presentation in April, Noah, Khoza and Madlingozi were the ones involved in shaping the initial line-up and emphasised the intention to place performers they wanted to introduce more strongly to a wider audience alongside established names. The final list on the tour’s official website has meanwhile grown to seven performers who are listed as the "squad".
Noah returns to the domestic stand-up context, but in a different role
Trevor Noah is not merely the main name on the poster in this project. The organisers list him as the lead curator and captain of the imagined South African national comedy team, giving him a role in shaping the identity of the entire tour. That position is significant because over the past decade Noah has established himself as a globally recognisable comedian, particularly after seven years hosting the American satirical programme The Daily Show. His official website for 2026 lists both Pretoria dates among his performances, as well as the subsequent South African dates, confirming that the festival is part of his current stand-up schedule rather than merely a promotional guest appearance.
When presenting the project, Noah explained that the South African stand-up scene has grown considerably over the years, but that development has not taken place equally strongly in every part of the country. Eyewitness News reported his message that one of the goals is to ensure that a more robust comedy scene does not remain limited to only a few centres. At the same presentation, Eugene Khoza emphasised that the goal is to bring together performers whom the organising team believes can represent the breadth of domestic comedy before audiences numbering in the thousands in arenas. In that sense, the festival is trying to combine a large production scale with a format that still rests on the individual creative voice of each stand-up comedian.
The line-up combines different generations and styles
The official list of performers includes Trevor Noah, Eugene Khoza, Lindy Johnson, Thabiso Mhlongo, Mbali Gudazi, Panch Gasela and Learnmore Jonasi. Although the organisers use sporting terminology to give the group a shared identity, these are performers whose acts draw on different styles, life experiences and regional perspectives. In the festival’s initial announcements, Johnson, Mhlongo, Gudazi and Gasela were particularly highlighted as part of a generation for whom a major arena platform could provide additional visibility. The later official list was expanded to include Learnmore Jonasi, giving the programme a stronger cross-border component as well.
Jonasi is a Zimbabwean stand-up comedian and actor with experience performing in several countries. According to his official biography, in 2023 he won the Boston Comedy Festival and the audience award at the Jersey City Comedy Festival, while in 2024 he finished among the top five contestants on the American programme America’s Got Talent after receiving host Terry Crews’s Golden Buzzer during his audition. His own 2026 schedule confirms performances on September 4 and 5 in Pretoria and September 25 and 26 in Cape Town. Including a performer with recognition beyond South Africa further supports the project’s ambition to present local comedy as part of the broader African and international stand-up scene.
Bafunny Bafunny has a history dating back to the 2010 World Cup
The name Bafunny Bafunny is not new. The project directly builds on the comedy "national team" of the same name that was assembled in 2010 ahead of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. According to the official South African Yearbook for 2010/2011, the group performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May 2010 before a national tour, and consisted of Barry Hilton, Trevor Noah, Nik Rabinowitz, Loyiso Gola, Marc Lottering, Kagiso Lediga, John Vlismas and Mark Banks. The government document states that it was the first South African comedy production performed at the Royal Albert Hall. The archive of the London venue itself also records Bafunny Bafunny among the events held in May 2010.
The sporting pun was central to the original version as well. Bafunny Bafunny is clearly a play on Bafana Bafana, the nickname of South Africa’s national football team, so the performances at the time were also structured as a kind of comedians’ "matches". In 2010, that framework carried additional weight because of the atmosphere ahead of the first football World Cup held on the African continent. Sixteen years later, the concept returns in a different cultural moment: without a connection to a single global sporting tournament, but with the same idea of presenting comedy as part of national popular culture capable of bringing together a highly diverse audience.
Trevor Noah is also an interesting link between the two eras. He was a member of the Bafunny Bafunny line-up in 2010, long before the international phase of his career that would take him to The Daily Show and the world’s biggest stages, and in 2026 he returns to the project as its most prominent performer and curator. The new tour therefore does not function merely as a nostalgic revival of a familiar name. The organisers are trying to use the old concept to create a new platform for a generation of comedians working in a substantially different media environment, in which careers are built simultaneously through clubs, large venues, podcasts, television and short digital formats.
Why the arena format matters for the stand-up scene
Stand-up traditionally develops in smaller clubs and theatres, where a performer can control the rhythm very precisely and react directly to the audience. The arena format changes those conditions: a larger space requires different production, stronger technical support and a programme capable of maintaining momentum in front of several thousand people. That is precisely why Bafunny Bafunny is not presented as a series of unrelated solo sets, but as a curated showcase with a clearly defined shared narrative. According to the organisers’ official description, the emphasis is on combining established and new names and presenting the best of South African humour within a single major live production.
For performers who have not yet regularly appeared in arenas, this can be an important professional step. A major tour increases visibility, but at the same time places their original material before a considerably more heterogeneous audience than the one found in a specialised comedy club. In their public announcements, the organisers present precisely this diversity as a value of the project: on the same evening, viewers get several styles and perspectives, while comedians have an opportunity to present themselves beyond their usual circles. Whether the format will develop into a regular festival platform in the long term has not yet been officially confirmed, but the first edition has clearly been conceived more ambitiously than a one-off spectacle.
Pretoria opens the tour, Cape Town brings the finale
As of September 2, 2026, the nearest event is the opening of the tour in Pretoria, just two days later. Quicket lists a starting ticket price of 465 South African rand for SunBet Arena, with a note that wheelchair-accessible seating is available through the ticketing system’s support service. The age restriction of 18 is also important for visitors and is clearly stated on the sales page. Since this is a large venue within the Time Square complex, the organisers and local tourism websites recommend arriving with enough time before the programme begins.
Durban is the only stop between the two two-night series. Time Out South Africa states that the September 19 event at Suncoast is scheduled for 6 p.m. and that prices start at 495 rand, while the tour’s official website confirms the date and location. After Durban comes Grand Arena at GrandWest in Cape Town, where Sun International lists September 25 as an additionally opened date alongside September 26, with prices starting at 475 rand. Visitors planning a trip for the final evenings can check accommodation in Cape Town near GrandWest and, at the same time, check the organisers’ latest information about admission, the schedule and any possible changes.
The festival as a test of how large a South African stand-up platform can become
South Africa’s Festival of Comedy in 2026 arrives at a time when local comedians have more ways than ever to build an international audience, but a physical tour remains an important test of real reach. Noah’s global recognition draws attention to the project, but the festival’s concept clearly attempts to redirect some of that attention towards the entire line-up. This is particularly visible in the way new names and additional dates were announced during preparations, with constant use of metaphors involving the national team, call-ups and the squad. Such an approach gives the organisers a recognisable marketing identity, but its real value will depend on whether it can leave audiences interested in performers they did not previously follow after the shows are over.
The first five evenings also provide a sufficiently broad geographical cross-section to see how different audiences respond to the same curated framework. Pretoria represents Gauteng and the country’s largest urban market, Durban brings the audience of KwaZulu-Natal, and Cape Town closes the tour with two evenings in one of the best-known venues for major entertainment events in the Western Cape. If the project achieves the goal that Noah, Khoza and Madlingozi described at its launch, Bafunny Bafunny will not merely be the return of an internationally known comedian to the domestic scene, but an attempt to turn arena-level attention into a broader platform for South African stand-up. The first response from audiences will come as early as September 4 in Pretoria, while the complete picture of this year’s edition will be known after the final evening on September 26 in Cape Town.
Sources:
- Bafunny Bafunny – official tour website, dates and official list of performers (link)
- Quicket – official event sales page for SunBet Arena, dates, schedule, age restriction and prices (link)
- Sun International – GrandWest, confirmation of the September 25 and 26 dates in Cape Town and information about the additional date (link)
- Time Out South Africa – information about the Durban performance on September 19 at Suncoast (link)
- Eyewitness News – report from the festival presentation and statements by Trevor Noah, Eugene Khoza and Ntosh Madlingozi (link)
- Government Communication and Information System, South Africa Yearbook 2010/11 – information about the original Bafunny Bafunny performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010 (link)
- Royal Albert Hall Archive – archival record of the Bafunny Bafunny event from May 2010 (link)
- Trevor Noah – official website with the 2026 performance schedule (link)
- Learnmore Jonasi – official biography and performance schedule (link)