MEL MILLER

Mel Miller Started his show business career in August 1963 with Mel Green. They formed a folk group called Mel & Mel. They were both at Art school and did gigs on an amateur basis.

One night the audience weren't listening to the music and Mel decided to tell a joke and the audience laughed! So, they started combining jokes with their folk music and became the most popular folk group in town.

They toured Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth until Mel left for Israel in 1967 as a volunteer.

While in Israel he continued with his folk music/comedy act but one night on stage he made a grammatical error in Hebrew and the audience laughed so from that night he did all his comedy as a new immigrant using all the grammatical errors and slang he could find.

Returned to South Africa in 1970. Was spotted by Adam Leslie who offered him a part in his revue theatre.

While doing theatre work he was introduced to radio and started doing character parts on the serial programs for Springbok Radio: The World of Hammond Innes, Marriage Lines, Jet Jungle and Squad Cars.

At the same time he started to do stand-up comedy at 'Athens By Night' in Hillbrow in Johannesburg.

By now he had dropped the music and purely did stand-up comedy.

He went into a record shop one day and the only comedy record he could find was of Lennie Bruce - a man who stood up in front of an audience and told it like it was!!

At this time the Top Of The Carlton Club only hired overseas acts and when one of them fell ill Mel was the first South African to be asked to fill in for a few nights. Was subsequently offered a contract to work there and did four seasons, breaking attendance records every time.

Started touring country wide throughout South Africa at The Southern Sun, Holiday Inn and Crazy Horse spending eight months a year on the road.

In 1976 television came to South Africa and he appeared in a program called 'Biltong and Potroast.' Was a resounding success.

Also appeared on 'The Everywhere Express, 'Us Animals' and 'Punchline.'

It had taken Mel Miller twelve years to become an overnight success!!

For the next ten years he concentrated only on corporate comedy.

Has worked in Israel with Cyril Green and Eddie Eksteen and in London as part of a South African Comedy Festival. 2007 is Mel's 43rd year in comedy.