Eating Humble "Steve" Pie!

Life has finally returned to normal, well as normal as life can be as a working mom with 2 kids (3 if you count The Husband when he’s sick or after a bad day at work).  I am also over my ship sway (the cruising equivalent of jet lag) and no longer sway back and forth when in an upright position.  Now that all the cocktails I drank have been expelled from my system and my blood/alcohol ratio is once again at a level deemed appropriate for a 37 yr. old mom, I can continue blogging about my Cruiseperience.

There really is only one place to start and that’s with my man Steve Hofmeyr – S.A’s very own version of “The Hof”.  Without generalizing, I, along with the majority of English speaking South Africans have always considered Steve a bit of a joke – well actually that’s not true… I didn’t consider him a bit of joke, more like one helluva, big moersa joke! I mean really, who does he think he is?  I know many (and again I generalize) Afrikaans speaking people LOVE Steve and consider him the SA equivalent of a major rock star in the league of Mike Jagger et.al  . But really, who are we kidding, Steve is well, STEVE HOFMEYR – come on people!

Anyway… we heard via the Cruise Grapevine that The Hof was on our boat.  If it wasn’t for everyone (and I mean everyone except The Husband and I) taking pics of a scrawny blonde youth, which we later discovered was The Hof’s son, we would never have known that Steve was aboard.  But anyway, I then added “Spotting Steve” to my daily activities list. I eventually snapped him eating lunch… which really wasn’t that hard because let’s face it, it’s not like there’s a whole lot of places one can eat lunch on a boat, but I digress.

Steve does Lunch!

Our cruise consisted of predominantly (and again I generalize) people from the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town and for those who are not familiar with how Cape Town is divided, us in the North, live behind what is known as the “Boerewors Gordyn” (Boerewors Curtain).  Which roughly means that the North is considered “Afrikaans”, so since most of our Cruise came from the Afrikaans side of Cape Town – it stood to reason that 99.9% of the Cruise was “Hof BeF%k” – pretty much everyone except the Italian speaking employees and The Husband and I.

It later emerged that The Hof was actually on board as “an entertainment artist” and would be wowing us all with a show on Wednesday evening.  I was in my element; I mean who doesn’t enjoy a good comedy.  I relished the thought of watching “the show” and having a good chuckle and occasional cringe, because let’s face it, Steve IS cringe-worthy.  My mind was reeling with my good fortune and potential fodder for my blog.

The cruise was literally buzzing on the night of his show… people queued up outside the lounge for ages before it was time for the show!  I found this all really amusing and scoffed at all these musically challenged (clearly tone-deaf) groupies – I mean; they did realize it was Steve HOFMEYR and not Steven TYLER??  Anyway, friends of ours were fans, so they queued up early and “lucky” for us, we got a seat fairly close to the Rock Spider, I mean Rock God.

And then things took an unexpected turn… Steve, it turned out WAS actually pretty good.  99.9% of the boat weren’t so tone-deaf or musically challenged after all. So yes, I had to eat Humble Pie that night… well humble pie and pretty much everything else on offer at the mid-night buffet (but that’s a story for another time!) But humble pie it was for me and seriously, for me to admit that Steve was/is good, is really something.  Because if there was ever a “Steve Scoffer”, it was me!  I have never been able to take the dude seriously – I mean, really, he’s STEVE HOFMEYR for goodness sake!

But back to the show – it was good.  Steve is good.  Steve is funny.  Steve sings in tune.  Steve doesn’t take himself too seriously (well, that was no surprise, I mean I’VE never taken him seriously!), but the dude has a mean sense of humour and is able to integrate it so well into his show!  On more than 1 occasion he gave the middle finger to all those (like moi) who judge his lifestyle and gaggle of  children from high up on our pedestals. He jokes about his sexcapades, his many kids (and how they were conceived) and I say it again, the dude is seriously funny (and not “special” funny... I mean funny, HA HA”)

 Steve in Action!

But as we know Steve isn’t a comedian, he’s a “singer” (well that’s how I would have written it pre-cruise).  But after eating my humble pie, I am now forced to write “But as we know Steve isn’t a comedian, he’s a SINGER” and fyi, the dude can sing!  He can really (really) sing.  I mean even The Husband, who’s a die hard rock fan and considers Eddie Vedder the ultimate singer was tapping away to FM Stereo (fyi – one of Steve’s songs!). 

As a proud supporter of South African music (well of SA music like The Parlotones, Just Jinger, CrashCarBurn etc), for a moment there… my heart swelled with pride while watching Steve sing!  I almost felt embarrassed when Steve would say things like “and now I want to sing what is considered my most well-known/famous song” (I now know his singularly most recognised song is "Pampoen") and everyone cheered and went ballistic and knew every word and I sat there hearing this song for the first time thoroughly enjoying it!!!!  Where the hell have I been for the last 20 years and 23 CD's?

So, Steve, I apologise and along with all the other pastries I ate on the cruise, it was the Humble Steve Pie, I’ll remember most.  I will no longer laugh when people talk about Steve the Singer or Steve the Actor (yes people, he acts too…. Remember Doug Durand??) – but now I’ll be able to add “and he’s damn funny too” to the conversation! 

Steve might have been singing for 20 years, but it took 1 night being stuck on a boat, with no-where else to go for him to convert this cynic to a SUPER SIZED STEVE SUPPORTER!  His song "Liefling" with Patrizio is a goose-bump fest.... A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!!

 

P.S.  If I did watch rugby and needed a team to support – I’d be forced to choose The Bulls, because then I’d be able to loudly (and proudly) sing “Ek skreeu nie Vrystaat nie, ek is n bull!”

P.P.S. I also plan on investing in his latest CD “Duisend en een” – how scary is that!!  (FYI, my fav songs on that CD - Juliet, FM Stereo and In Ewigheid)

An extract from his Bio on his Official Steve Hofmeyr Website: "It takes a very gifted person to achieve lasting success as an actor, singer, songwriter, polemicist, presenter, poet, writer, activist, blogger in any country. South African superstar Steve Hofmeyr is one of those rare talents, undoubtedly one of the hardest working and creative artists in South Africa, whose schedule is never too crammed to not stop and share a word or smile with a support."  I couldn't agree more!