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CARVIN GOLDSTONE IS MORE THAN JUST A COMEDIAN, WRITES KATRINE ANKER-NILSSEN
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arvin grew up in Newlands East. “It was tough, and a dangerous environment for a child to be in – with lots of gangs, and wars between rival gangs,” he says. “But my parents did a lot to make life easier for my sister and I.” At only 16 he started studying towards a journalism diploma at Durban University of Technology. “I was pretty young, everyone around me were older. But it was an experience, more about culture than anything else,” he says – adding that he learnt a lot about journalism working at The Mercury, Independent on Saturday and eNCA. In 2006 Carvin entered a comedy
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ABOVE: Carvin Goldstone with his
two children, Kara and Jakin. BELOW: Carvin at the Nandi Drive clean-up. Picture: Kierran Allen
competition called Madras Masala, held at Sibaya Casino. “At that point I used to make lots of jokes in the office impersonating people. Colleagues kept telling me to leave journalism and pursue comedy,” he says. Carvin’s father took him to the competition, where he was the last person to go on stage. “It only took me about a minute to realise I was exactly where I needed to be – and that was that! I accepted my fate. “I spoke about myself, I spoke about my father who was a taxi driver. I spoke about living in Durban,” says Carvin, who feels that winning this comp was for him a sign. “Not so much the winning part, but the way I felt on stage,” he says. There wasn’t much happening in Durban comedy-wise back then, so in some ways the journey Carvin found himself on was all about creating opportunities as he went along. “I stayed in my job, pursuing this new part of my life on the side. I won a trip to England, but it involved committing to a contract, which I didn’t want to do. I wanted to do this on my own. And knew I would get
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