The Sunday Tribune SM comes on board this year as media partner for the annual Fools Awards. This is the fourth year that Copy Dog, a Durban-based publicity company, presents the Fools Awards, an opportunity for the public to go online and vote for their favourite KwaZulu-Natal artists.

A wide selection of people from the arts community is invited to submit their choices in each category. These lists are then whittled down to those with the most votes and are loaded on to the Fools Award webpage at www.at.artslink.co.za/~copydog The voting is then thrown open to the public for three weeks.

Public voting opens March 3 and closes on March 24.

The number of votes last year almost quadrupled those of the previous two years, and came not only from Durban but also from the rest of the country and from as far afield as Nicaragua.

The award ceremony will be held on April 1 to coincide with April Fool’s Day, as the Fools Awards are given in a spirit of light-hearted celebration. While April Fools Day is a time for pranks and jokes, historically, in the world of courtly entertainment he is the purveyor of wise or penetrating comment, contained in the sophisticated guise of wit, a tradition echoed by today’s satirists. This year’s award ceremony will be at the Playhouse Loft following a performance of popular Durban entertainer Lisa Bobbert’s hit one-woman comedy, Bobbert Uncut.

Celebrating SM’s participation in this venture, this year sees the introduction of the SM Award, presented in recognition of the most popular comedian.

The Fools Award trophy is a beautifully detailed jester’s stick, or Ninny Stick, designed by gifted Durban artist Wendy Nell. Wendy crafted each ninny stick in 2003 and 2004 by hand. Last year Wendy Nell’s ninny sticks were transformed and cast in bronze at the Goodwin Foundry, making her previous design a collector’s item. This year the trophy will be produced in a resin, making it lighter and more durable.