Comedian keeps the chops cooking

If comedian Masood Boomgard manages to pull off the feat to beat the current record of continuous braaiing, he will be the one who has the last laugh.

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Durban - Durban stand-up comedian Masood Boomgaard was not joking when he said he was going to take on a Guinness World Record.

And if he manages to pull off the feat to beat the current 80-hour record of continuous braaiing, he will be the one who has the last laugh.

Boomgaard’s record attempt is just one of the many attractions at the Durban Street Food Festival, which The Independent on Saturday is co-sponsoring. On Saturday the festival is open from 11am to midnight and on Sunday from 11am to 10pm. Entry is R50.

Boomgaard started his big endurance challenge at 5.30pm on Thursday – Heritage Day – and is due to finish on Monday morning at 10am. By then he will have got through half a ton of meat, fed the homeless, hungry and needy, and raised money for charity from the people who have queued up to taste his wares and pay for the privilege.

Come Monday morning, he will also have got through 50 bags of charcoal “and probably beaten VW in carbon emissions,” he grinned.

Boomgaard always thought that people who tackled Guinness World challenges were a bit “weird and wacky,” and said that maybe that was him in some ways.

Perhaps he was remembering the time he wrote and directed his first movie, Attack of the Indian Werewolf, a horror spoof he produced on a shoestring.

“Taking on this challenge is obviously a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It’s not something that you can really train for,” said Boomgaard, as he turned the regulation five pieces of meat on his braai outside the Durban Street Food Festival at 8 Morrison Street, Durban.

The serious side of the project – feeding the underprivileged in the inner city – has made the challenging project all worthwhile though.

He is able to accumulate five minutes off for every hour worked at the “world’s longest braai marathon,” which enabled him to grab a 90-minute break on Friday, when he raced to a nearby mosque for Friday’s prayers, dashed to a friend’s home for a quick shower and hurried back to his spot behind the grill with 15 minutes to spare.

Has he been tempted to sample his own food, we asked?

“Well, I didn’t dare eat anything for 12 hours in case I got an unexpected bowel movement,” he confided.

The pressure is also on to ensure that the meat – worth R40 000 and donated by an Overport butcher – is well cooked.

“No matter how tired you are, you’ve got to maintain a certain standard because people have got to eat it.

“You also have to remember the rules: five different types of meat have to be cooked at the same time and then it has to be weighed before being handed out.”

One of his satisfied customers, Milo Mahomed, who, like others, was paying R30 for three pieces of meat, said he wanted to lend his support to help Boomgaard beat the world record.

Staff from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditors, are working in shifts, monitoring him around the clock to make sure he sticks to the rules and stays at his post, braaiing… braaiing… braaiing.

His record attempt is also being officially filmed and you can also watch him on itentv on YouTube.

Independent on Saturday