Ian Fraser (playwright)

Ian Fraser (born 18 April 1962) is a South African playwright, writer, comedian, anti-Apartheid activist, artist, anarchist, and social agitator, now living in the USA. He began as South Africa's first street-level comedian, "ranting-verse" poet, and acerbic anti-government satirist. He has consistently been a pro-democracy, anti-establishment voice, both under Apartheid and under the new dispensation in South Africa.

Fraser has won many awards for his plays, including the 1992 Amstel Playwright of the Year Award and the 1992 Tonight-AA Life Vita Award for Comedy. His comedic work has been compared with that of Americans Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, and his dramatic writing to that of Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and Tom Stoppard. Critics characterised Fraser's work as alternatively swinging between brutality and violence, and delicacy, sensitivity and grace.

Alongside his plays, Fraser also performed eight "one-man" satire shows, primarily at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in South Africa, Africa's largest Arts Festival. His works repeatedly won the coveted "Pick of the Fringe" award.

Born Brent Haupt, Fraser did not finish high school or complete any formal training. After being conscripted in the then South African Defence Force, for a two-year period (1981–82), he began to write and perform his own material from 1985 onwards.

Fraser's experiences in the South African Defence Force provided much of the background for his first novel, published by Penguin Books (My Own Private Orchestra, ISBN ). In 1994, he began writing as an Internet technology columnist for the Johannesburg daily newspaper, The Star. He later wrote a weekly "Fraser's Razor" column for the Mail and Guardian newspaper.

From 1994, he gradually became regarded as one of the leading voice-over talents in South Africa. He was an official on-air "voice" for the South African Broadcasting Corporation and their TV 2 channel. One of his popular TV ads for a hotel chain in South Africa (City Lodge) has emerged on YouTube.

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