The Almost Perfect Podcast

Kylie Wentzel is an artist. While she can create art in almost any medium, painting is her first love and what she's most known for. With recent exhibitions at highly acclaimed art spaces and upcoming online exhibitions with noteworthy names, Kylie Wentzel is an artist on the rise. Getting to this point though has been a journey fraught with self-doubt, soul-crushing institutions, and trying not to be taken for a ride.

While Kylie studied Fine Art at the prestigious Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, it nearly broke her, and it was outside of formal education that she found her style and inspiration for art-making. We get into the complexities and nuances of navigating the art world as an "up-and-coming" artist whilst also looking at how Instagram has been a tool for connecting outside of traditional art spaces. We also get into why Durban is a fantastic city to create art from and briefly reminisce over GMT and Unit 11 days. Enjoy. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/almost-perfect-69-kylie-wentzel/

Keep up with Kylie on Instagram. 

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Patrick Duff is the Marketing Director for Vans for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. A pretty big title but the journey to that title began with working at skate shops in Gateway and giving a hitchhiking 50-year-old bodybuilder a lift. Pat has worked for brands like Nike, DC, and Bata, before finding his home at Vans, so he has a wealth of knowledge and experience under his belt which he shares freely on the podcast. 

I've always appreciated Pat's vibe and approach to life, and it's seemed to have worked out pretty well for him. Although, as he'll tell you on the podcast, it came from making specific choices towards the life he wants. Pat got a degree in Economics and chose to go and work in a skate shop, which should tell you a lot about the kind of person Pat is. Pat's also the kind of guy who shows initiative and makes the most of his positions, which is why he went from working the till to living the dream in Switzerland in just over a decade.

We get into the importance of staying young at heart, at being true to who you are, and finding a balance between corporate and creative. We also look at how the current situation has lead to a more efficient work environment while looking at what it means for our personal futures. It's a deep yet laid back chat with a deep yet laid back cat.  

https://almostperfect.co.za/almost-perfect-68-patrick-duff/

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Tiny Mungwe is a producer, director, and project manager (among many other job titles) who has been instrumental behind the scenes of some of Durban's most important cultural projects. It all started with a bossy phone call 14 years ago and there have been many more ever since. While Tiny has been heavily involved in the Durban International Film Festival and Durban Film Mart, as well as various other festivals around the country, her day job is as a documentary producer for Steps. She's also been working on a documentary about sex work in South Africa with Shanelle Jewnarain for the last 6 years and has been building a pan-African creative retreat in Inanda brick-by-brick for the last 4 years. 

Tiny is tenacious and driven and always seems to find a way to get things done whilst also showing great consideration for others. We get into the politics of curatorship and some of the concerns when it comes to programming a festival, and we also get into the nuances and hurdles that come with making a film about sex work in South Africa at this time. We learn how Tiny has forged her own path by constantly "just doing the thing" and not letting any setback stop her. As always, there's a lot to learn from this one. Enjoy. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/almost-perfect-67-tiny-mungwe/

Here's the article about Jahdatta that Tiny mentioned on the podcast: https://thenetline.com/the-sad-truth-about-jahdatta/

Support Sisonke: http://www.sisonke.org.za/

Support S.W.E.A.T: http://www.sweat.org.za/

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Matt Knight is a pastor. Or, as he prefers, a pastor*. The asterisk is because, while Matt does officiate weddings and funerals from time to time, his role these days is mostly in HR and admin for a collection of 11 churches and an NGO that tackles multiple projects in Cape Town. Matt and I first met in the Burn, Willowvale, and Unit 11 days of the Durban music scene and would occasionally work together on various projects to try and make things in the city a little bit better in the ways that we knew how. While things have changed a lot for both of us over the last decade, that drive to make the world a better place and our love of music and Simon Amstell has never wavered. 

The thing that might make this all rather interesting, I guess, is that I'm an atheist yet one of my favourite people is a pastor. Matt has been a good friend to me who even invited me to his wedding but I'm also kinda known as the guy who swore God on Easter Sunday at Splashy. For us, it's never really been an issue, and I've grown a lot since my angry atheist days, so this was a cool opportunity to discuss some big ideas about the universe whilst also getting into the importance of acting locally. Maybe you've never really thought about why someone gets involved in the church, or maybe you have, either way, I think the reality of it all is probably different to what you might expect and I think Matt's perspective will be useful regardless of your personal beliefs. Enjoy. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/almost-perfect-66-matt-knight/

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When launching a brand, there are many different approaches to take to get the word out there about who you are and what you do.

While most companies will write up a press release and send it to all their media contacts, we here at Almost Perfect Media would rather bury all the information in a 20-minute monologue that nobody is going to listen to. Game-changing.

Check out the home of Almost Perfect Media: https://almostperfect.co.za/

Thank you to The Printroom for partnering with us on our merchandise: https://www.theprintroom.co.za/

Support Sisonke: http://www.sisonke.org.za/

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Majozi is a musician who first shot to fame in 2015 with his debut pop hit "Fire", although he originally started his music career playing in punk and metalcore bands with friends from school and church. While you may know him from the radio, I know Majozi from the moshpit which I think makes this a rather enlightening interview. 

In this episode, we reminisce about Majozi's early days in the Durban punk and hardcore scene before getting into the pressures that come with being a full-time musician on a major label. We learn about how crucial the church was in Majozi finding confidence in himself and also how important the support has been in his success. We also have a few laughs over him getting flooded with messages intended for Sho Madjozi and how he saw her rise through his Google Alerts. It's a fun and informative chat, enjoy.

https://almostperfect.co.za/ep-65-majozi/

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Martin Evans is a comedian who has grown tired of the grind of the stand-up circuit so he's bought a boat and is looking to sail away the second he gets the chance. Martin is one of the funniest comedians in South Africa and has an incredible resume, he just feels like he's reached a ceiling in SA stand-up that he's tired of trying to breakthrough. Personally, I get it. 

We learn all about Martin's early days in comedy and his meteoric rise in the London comedy scene before coming back home to SA. We get into the realities of being a stand-up comedian who doesn't walk the corporate path in South Africa before we take a look at the wealth of opportunities that Martin sees before him now that he's not tied to getting his laughs on stage. Martin has been using this lockdown to get introspective and look ahead to the future rather than dwell on past successes and current difficulties. Martin is someone who I have looked up to in South African comedy for quite a long time now, click play to find out why. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/ep-64-martin-evans/

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Annie Brookstone is a former magazine boss type and current freelance writer and editor who has recently moved from Cape Town to Berlin. Annie pretty much has the dream career as she’s lucked out into watching porn, smoking weed, and masturbating, and then also getting to call it 'research'. When she's not writing about sex, cannabis or travel, her interests include getting tied up, learning how to fight the biggest guy in the room, and snacking. She's also kak at wearing clothes.

Annie is someone who I have followed online for years and through her writing is partially responsible for some of my (and maybe your) sex education. We get into her early days starting out as a sex columnist for FHM and how it put her on her journey of publicly exploring the kinkier side of life. Annie's career has spanned across publications and continents, from writing for the likes of Men's Health and FHM to being the Acting Deputy Editor of Cosmopolitan and more recently contributing to the wonderful weed focused website, Kush Kush. We talk about being tied up with ropes and we also talk about getting tied up in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. No surprises that the two share some similarities. It's fair to say Annie lives life on her own terms- there's truly so much to learn from her. Enjoy. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/ep-63-annie-brookstone/

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Schalk Bezuidenhout is an actor and comedian who has been ridiculously prolific in the decade or so he's been in the game. He's got multiple specials out, he's toured the country many times, he's in TV shows and movies, and he even performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. Schalk has a lot of experience under his belt but still feels like he has a lot to prove to himself and desires that next level of success beyond our shores. 

Schalk and I get into some pretty deep topics whilst also cracking jokes about moustaches, which I guess is kinda Schalk's vibe. We chat about being bullied in school and we also get into some of the nuances of growing up white and Afrikaans in 90s South Africa. Racism and homophobia were norms around many of us growing up so we reflect on that and how it influenced the work we create and the people we are today. I enjoyed this chat a lot because I think it perfectly straddles that fun and casual/deep and honest line that I like to ride with this podcast. I hope you enjoy it too. 

https://almostperfect.co.za/ep-62-schalk-bezuidenhout/

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We're pivoting to video, baby!

Well, kinda. You'll still be getting a full-length episode of The Almost Perfect Podcast on the podcast app of your choice every (almost) Friday but every Tuesday at 19:00 you'll also get to enjoy the Almost Perfect Live Stream on YouTube.

The first episode was with Neil Green and we took a deep dive on his Last Boss comedy special on Showmax. If you don't want to watch the video, well, here's the audio for you to enjoy.

Follow Neil on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neilgreen82/

Subscribe to the Almost Perfect Live Stream: https://youtu.be/Mi87hTmoqKc