Coming back to Zimbabwe after 8 months away certainly had its challenges psychologically for me. You see I initially left because there wasnt any support for comedy and that one couldnt consider it as a full time profession. I was on a bus headed home for my first performance at Simuka Comedy, a collection of a fledgling comedy industry of Zimbabwe would put together comedy events once a month at the Mannenberg. But now since the Book Cafe and MAnnenberg were closed Alliance Francaise was the setting for the next one. I was overwhelmed by the reception, the turnout, lack of seating for the guests who had come and packed this venue to overflow. Pressure was on me to deliver, most expecting an improvement or something special from me since it was a long time. I was happy not to dissapoint and added a new sick twist to my performances risky but it won the hears of many. The next day would have a return to Zimbabwe German Society for a brief appearance at Acoustic Night. The more reserved crowd watched in shock as their once clean comedian dished out the most saddistic and dirty and politically incorrect comedy set for a mostly NGO crowd...loool one could argue that this was in fact the joke of the night. The faithful still cheered on and the reviews kept coming back positive. I was happy on the third day to enter the relm or academy of previous hosts of the NAtional Arts Merit Awards. An awards ceremony I had been known to direct, I designed the trophy and pretty much cemented the template of the show for other event planners to follow. This time I would host it with the beautiful Smantha Dika, former Miss Harare. The awards were not without their regular controversy but it was great review upon review of first time MC Carl Joshua Ncube in all the papers, Bang Bang comedy followed at the red bar, great setting and reminded me of my brief stint in Capetown, what an event, putting the old guard and the new comics and absolurtely fresh talent on stage in one night of stand up awesomeness. This was the best indication that indeed comedy was on its way back into the Harare calendar. I would then try and pull off an ambitious set of shows once again at Alliance Francaise (2 nights of comedy) knowing very well that in harare once you have a first night, you are likely to get the same faces at the the next show. This was not the case. The fist show strictly by invitation attracted a full house. Corporates you would not expect to come out to an event like this were thrilled by the one man performance. Day 2 had a sold out show with overflow at the alliance francaise theatre. The final show a dinner and comedy event hosted by Steak Out restaurant had ver little or no advertising with a $20 charge at the door for a 3 course dinner and comedy, the show sold out hours before rgw show began. Quite a new thing in Zim comedy, coz zimbos generally will buy tickets at the door. Which explains why only 6 black people ended up at the show and most were turned away at the door. Mostly indian and white crowd booked tickets in advance and sold out the restaurant and no tickets were sold at the door and the restaurant had to turn people away at the door. Overall I would say the Zimbabwe tour went on quite well with future dates at bigger venues planned for the rest of the year. Certainly a lot has changed since the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT in Zimbabwe comedy circles and am so excited about the prospects in the near future.
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