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 changedg the pperception p people had on comedy.dy. He pushed the genre to what it is today — almostmost second to music in terms of a reliable andd paying audience.

We remember yearsars back meeting the young man for the firstst time at Walkers Pub. He wanted us to look at his set and give him feedback. He was fairlyrly 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 listenedened to what we had to say, always with that famousous near sarcastic smile he wears when he doesn’toesn’t want to be disrespectful. He tookok what worked for him and threw awayway everything we said and look wherehere he is now — running probably one of the best comedy clubs in Zimbabwe. babwe.

In its five years of existence Umahlekisa Comedydy Club has given Bulawayo residentsents a regular platform to laugh at themselves as Zimbabwe and also to confront some serious issueses through humour.

Comedy has beenn one arts genre that has been able to navigate through sensitive nsitive issues without causing ing an uproar from the e public.

In its many years of existence the biggest criticism against comedy in Bulawayo has been een the amount of dirty words and vulgarityy by most comedians. The comedians’ defence nce against this has been een that perhaps comedyy is not for everyone.

One comedian has as even gone to say y that those looking for clean comedy y 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