BY COLLINS ZULU
We have a lot of comedians who are incredibly super talented, unfortunately most of them are misplaced. I’ll soon explain what I mean by misplaced in a short while.
Not so long ago, there was some kind of stand off between fans and comedians. To be honest, I had no idea what sparked the backlash.
Two weeks ago I was privileged to attend a sold out comedy show that was hosted by Cosmas Ng’andwe aka Logic Benson in Mpali.
The Valentine’s Comedy Show helped put things into perspective for me. Those of you who follow my posts, you’ll recall a few weeks ago I spoke about the different types (genres) of comedies and the follow up post highlighted the difference between performing for the stage and performing for the screen.
As evidenced by what transpired at the comedy show, clearly most of our comedians don’t really understand the difference between the material meant for stage and that of the screen.
At every event, the best is reserved for last as was the case at the Valentine’s Comedy Show. Almost everyone including myself was anxiously waiting for Maza’s performance that was set to be the main act of the night. Lo and behold, unfortunately Maza’s performance that night was shambolic. He incredibly disappointed the audience, it was like one was watching a behind the scenes of a horror movie.
Maza as much as I am your big fan, stage yena te elya yobe blo. You’re a screen performer and you’re good at that no doubt.
Our comedians need to understand that it’s not every joke will work on the stage.
However, we have a few comedians who successfully navigate through both on screen as well as on the stage. The likes of Aubrey Luo aka Shi Mumbi, even though his strength is on the screen as oppose to stage. But he somehow knows how to connect with the live audience on stage. Just like my big brother ba Bob Nkosha undoubtedly the king of comedy, but kingdom his on the stage, screen not so much.
My point is, our comedians need to know their area of strength. When you perform on a wrong platform your jokes will come out dry, hence the recent noise about the dry comedians. Just like the film director is different from a stage/theatre director and yet we they both deal with actors.
During the preparation of the artistic send off for Alister Sibbuku who was one of the directors of Mpali, I had to excuse myself from directing a sketch that was to be performed on stage. I had to request for assistance from a theatre director, because I wanted it to be perfect. In that instance I acknowledged that stage directing was not my area of strength, I’m a screen director.
You won’t struggle if you keep to your lane. There’s enough grace for you if you stick to your lane. Kalebalika 🚶