John Maytham is a familiar voice on CapeTalk’s 567 Afternoon Drive show. This radio personality is known for his extensive general knowledge, and for reading between three and five books per week. Maytham spoke to MatieMedia’s Na’ilah Ebrahim about his career behind the mic, but also about his dreams for the future.
Growing up in a rural part of the Eastern Cape, John Maytham grew up reading books that were well beyond the ones that were normally read by children of his age. Today, the CapeTalk Afternoon Drive host has built a reputation for having rich and extensive general knowledge and is known for reading at least three or five books a week.
Maytham credits his extensive general knowledge to the reading he has done over the years. “I think I must be genetically wired to remember things better than other people,” he adds.
Every afternoon, listeners to CapeTalk test his general knowledge by asking him random questions in a game of “Rapid Fire”. Maytham says that he predicts what people will ask using Google and typing out “What are the ten most interesting questions?”
He then chooses the random questions he thinks people will ask.
The Afternoon Drive with John Maytham was awarded the Best Afternoon Drive Show Commercial at the 2020 SA Radio Awards. PHOTO: Na’ilah Ebrahim
Reading forms a big part of Maytham’s daily work as a talk radio journalist, since it is important for him to keep up with current affairs.
Maytham is speaking to MatieMedia over Zoom. A heap of newspapers is visible on his desk, and an untidy stack of books on to his left. These include Roads and Bridges by Glynnis Hayward and Birds of Kenya by John Karmalis.
Maytham’s day typically begins at 06:30 or 7:00, and is filled with what he calls “intelligent conservatism”: According to the pile on his desk, he reads newspapers from around the globe. He also frequents The Conversation where he looks at “interesting” stuff: research in astronomy, philosophy and psychology.
For Maytham, a day entails “always soaking up information, always listening to what people say […] trying to find as many strands of analysis [on a topic] as I can”.
“Not just for the day, but for the weeks and months ahead,” he says. This might even include eavesdropping on people’s conversations at his local coffee shop to find out what people are speaking about.
GRAPHIC: Na’ilah Ebrahim
Places to go, things to see, books to write
The journey and intellectual exploration does not stop after talk radio and journalism, says Maytham. “I am not satisfied with where I am in life,” he says.
One may find him researching different species of birds and various populations of gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Alternatively, one might stumble upon a Maytham original in Exclusive Books about the great Merseyside Derby or about the latest horseback riding sport in Mongolia.
But in the same breath, Maytham says that he is grateful that he has done lots of things within his life. “There are lots of things I would like to do, but I’ve done lots of things. Many more things than lots of people,” he says.
When speaking about life after CapeTalk, Maytham acknowledges that even if he is considered to be part of the “old furniture”, he cannot continue forever. However, he says, he hopes that his work has been able to make a difference in the lives of others and that it helps people think more clearly about the big issues of the day – even if it is only some of the time.
John Maytham at his desk. PHOTO: Na’ilah Ebrahim
Theatre: Maytham on the stage
I have always been drawn to the theatre,” says Maytham. He holds an honours degree in drama and is a trained actor.
“It’s wonderful to show off and get applause,” he says about his love for theatre. “Such real-time appreciation from an audience is not something which can be easily achieved alone through the vacuum of talk radio.”
But Maytham’s love goes beyond simple validation, to the craft of acting. It is the ability to present oneself in a disguise and explore their psyche to present it convincingly to the audience, Maytham says.
“To make a group of 250 or 400 people laugh, or to keep them absolutely silent so you can hear a pin drop while you perform something on stage… [Acting] really is a massive sense of achievement and quiet power,” he says.
Time constraints and work commitments make it difficult for Maytham to act frequently, but one-man shows have become his recent port-of-call, he says. It has even earned him a nomination for a Fleur Du Cap in the category of best performance in a revue, cabaret or one-person show for his recent role in Outlaw Mukridge, he confirms.
Maytham once got scrapped from the original cast of Egoli. It is something that he now laughs about. But, he points out, he is different from the man that he was then. One might see him in a little ongoing role in a soap after his journalism career ends, he suggests. But maybe rather in roles of a “slightly mad and decadent uncle or grandfather”.
Maytham in his radio broadcasting studio at Primedia in Somerset Square, Cape Town. PHOTO: Na’ilah Ebrahim.