The rise and rise of stand-up 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 Moyoy has been exceptional.p His passion for comedy is beyond questioquestion. Credit to him for most of the success comcomedy has seen in the past years. In his stride ththe young man has begged Bulawayo’s covetecoveted award for comedy under Bulawayo Arts Awards. But it will be unfair to finish tthis piece without mentioning the comediacomedian 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 lovedl his set duringduri the Intwasa Extra in DDecember where he literally took everyoneeveryo by surprisurprise. He was there at the UmUmahlekisa Birthday celecelebrations laslast week anand again he blew eveveryone off their seatseats. This young man has everything going ffor him. He is inintelligent. He is wittwitty. Just looking at him one is remindereminded of Richard Prior — the black American pioneer of stand-up comedy. But most impimportantly his comedy has been vevery clean. He is definitely the comcomedian to look out for this year. And we conclude this aarticle by wishing Umahlekisa ComeComedy Club a happy 5th anniversary. May the club continue its upward risrise!