Stuart Taylor
Gauteng
With a performance career that spans more than 25 years, Stuart Taylor, with his unique blend of stand-upcomedy and magic is by far one of SA’s top entertainment acts.
He has been performing magic since his teenswhen he studied this art at the College of Magic in Cape Town. Stuart went on to become the reigning SA National Comedy Magic Champion, a title he held for 3 years.
He has been performing stand-up comedy for the last 20 years and is a veteran of the varied comedy venuesacross South Africa. Stuart Taylor became a household name as the host of SABC 3’s hit travel show, Going Nowhere Slowly. A magician turned comedian; he has long since swopped his offbeat travels for entertaining local and international audiences with his stand-up comedy shows (with an occasional touch of magic).
Internationally, he has performed to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Berlin International Comedy Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival and the Montreaux Comedy festival in Switzerland. Locally, he has performed throughout most of SA.
Stuart has written, produced and performed 9 one-man shows that have toured across South Africa. His most noted and famed shows include ‘Techni-Coloured’, ‘Learner Husband’ & ‘Money’s Too Tight to Mention’. Some of these solo performances have scooped various awards including the prestigious Ovation Award and Overall Best Comedy award at the National Arts Festival, and the Show Time Award for best solo performance. The success of ‘Learner Husband’ led Stuart to write the best selling comedy book: ‘Learner Husband – A handy guide for avoiding collisions with your wife’ which was launched in 2013 with a major national campaign.
Stuart’s TV credits include but is not limited to:• two Comedy Central specials (Live at Parker’s), as well as• his one-man show, ‘Money’s Too Tight to Mention’ being aired on said channel.• A 6-part documentary ‘Diary of a touring comic’ (which he had written, produced, and directed) was showcased on Mzansi Magic.• ‘Evita Live & Dangerous’, Barry Hilton’s ‘Funny you should say that’, SABC’s ‘Comedy Showcase’, MNET’s ‘Laugh out Loud’• In addition, he has also appeared in various magazines and chat shows over the span of his career.
In 2017, audiences saw Stuart starring in his first feature film, Finders Keepers, a comedy-drama directed and produced by Maynard Kraak.