TOP FUNNYMAN NENE’S NOW TAKING ON TH

MEMORIES of watching comedian Sifiso Nene on a comedy reality competition, which he went onto win, feel like a lifetime ago. There was something so genuine and endearing about the funnyman Nene that I remember being particularly pleased that he had taken the crown.

He has grown in leaps and bounds since then, even going ahead and having his oneman-show, titled Baby Mama Drama. What was ironic and seemed to not fit this character we were introduced to is that Nene was now being accused of taking the comedy thing a bit literally, by not paying his papgeld and thus, the drama.

It was a bit messy, with Nene accused of having broken up with his then-pregnant baby mama in an effort to keep his wife from finding out about his extramarital dalliances. Stories that came out at the time have also claimed that he abandoned the said child.

Three or so years later, Nene still dismisses the claims.

“The show is based real-life events. When I came up with content for the show, it was way before, possibly around 2012 or 2013. Now this story makes several incoherent claims about the age of the child, which, if you sit down and count, makes no sense. If you compare the child’s age to when I started the tour, the maths doesn’t add up. But I must state that there is no child that I know of,” he said with a slight chuckle.

With that out of the way, we could then discuss his latest work, Typical Zulu, also a one-man stand up comedy show that will deal with all the things that are associated with being typically Zulu. The content of which, will be in Sifiso’s home language isiZulu.

“There has been no time for any other thing besides my comedy. I was careful with that because I did not want to confuse my brand,” he explained.

Besides the advertisements that he has been seen on in the last couple of months, Nene said he had ensured that he would keep his brand only associated with comedy.

He has been on a successful nationwide tour over the last year – and the comedy industry has certainly been growing and the year been good to him.

“The country’s comedy scene has grown. We are able to make a living and look at it as an artform that can become a career. We are in a good space as comedians; we are no longer just making people laugh but we’re able to sustain ourselves and live,” he said. Nene believes that, from here, it’s only one way – and that’s up.

“We obviously can’t compare our comedy industry to the American one, for instance. We need to give it space to grow. Overseas, they’ve been doing this for years. We’re only now venturing into one-man-shows, which grows the industry, but also the individual brands. So I really do think we need to just give it time,” he added With Typical Zulu, Nene – of So You Think You’re Funny fame – said he wants to tackle all the stereotypes, the downright outrageous to the simply hilarious ones about Zulu