South African Comedian Pieter-Dirk Uys

Fresh Air

Published June 1, 2004 at 12:00 AM EDT

Pieter-Dirk Uys (pronounced "Peter Dirk Ace") is known for politically charged performances, touching on AIDS and apartheid. He's described himself as a "middle-aged, fat, bald Afrikaner Jewish drag queen from Cape Town." Writing in The New Yorker, Calvin Trillin called Uys South Africa's leading satirist. He's just won an Obie Award for his one-man show Foreign AIDS, performed at the La MaMa Theater in Manhattan last year. Uys' present show is Elections and Erections, now in London at the Soho Theater.

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