The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
THIS month Umahlekisa Comedy Club celebrated its five years of hustling and creating a viable market for comedy in Bulawayo. Once in a while comedy was literally unknown. This was until Ntando Van Moyo came into the scene and changed the perception people had on comedy. He pushed the genre to what it is today — almost second to music in terms of a reliable and paying audience.
We remember years back meeting the young man for the first time at Walkers Pub. He wanted us to look at his set and give him feedback. He was fairly raw then, not in the vulgar sense but that he had just started. To be honest we never gave him a chance, we thought he was just passing through and that comedy would be a difficult genre for him.
The young man listened to what we had to say, always with that famous near sarcastic smile he wears when he doesn’t want to be disrespectful. He took what worked for him and threw away everything we said and look where he is now — running probably one of the best comedy clubs in Zimbabwe.
In its five years of existence Umahlekisa Comedy Club has given Bulawayo residents a regular platform to laugh at themselves as Zimbabwe and also to confront some serious issues through humour.
Comedy has been one arts genre that has been able to navigate through sensitive issues without causing an uproar from the public.
In its many years of existence the biggest criticism against comedy in Bulawayo has been the amount of dirty words and vulgarity by most comedians.
The comedians’ defence against this has been that perhaps comedy is not for everyone.
One comedian has even gone to say that those looking for clean comedy should try Christian comedy. And yes, Nceku has been there for Christians. He has curved his name with clean comedy, targeting mostly Christians.
The comedy scene has nurtured the likes of Clive Chigubu, Mandla the Comedian, Ntando Van Moyo, Marshal ‘‘Maroosh’’, The General and others not so popular.
The club also unleashed Bulawayo’s only female comedian in Lady Dee — trust me when on stage there is nothing laddish that comes out of this lady’s mouth. She can be raw and on a good day takes no prisoners. But then comedy is not church. We all know that.
Arguably the most talented of all has been Clive Chighubu with his “Yeye!’’ slogan. The young man has done the impossible. He has literally conquered Zimbabwe with his brand of comedy.
Clive has performed literally everywhere in this country, but his biggest stages has been Hifa, Intwasa and a couple of gigs outside Zimbabwe. The young man has grabbed a few awards in his short career, the biggest being the Nama award for comedy.
Ntando Van Moyo has been exceptional. His passion for comedy is beyond question. Credit to him for most of the success comedy has seen in the past years. In his stride the young man has begged Bulawayo’s coveted award for comedy under Bulawayo Arts Awards.
But it will be unfair to finish this piece without mentioning the comedian of the moment. At least our comedian of the moment. MaForty.
We have had the occasion to see the young man perform twice and on both occasions he got a standing ovation.
We all loved his set during the Intwasa Extra in December where he literally took everyone by surprise.
He was there at the Umahlekisa Birthday celebrations last week and again he blew everyone off their seats. This young man has everything going for him. He is intelligent. He is witty.
Just looking at him one is reminded of Richard Prior — the black American pioneer of stand-up comedy. But most importantly his comedy has been very clean. He is definitely the comedian to look out for this year.
And we conclude this article by wishing Umahlekisa Comedy Club a happy 5th anniversary. May the club continue its upward rise!
