Carl Joshua Ncube seeks new audiences

Lovemore Zigara

Stand up comedy is a relatively new phenomenon in Zimbabwe which has grown in leaps and bounds in the past years.However, the growth of the art genre which was pioneered by the likes of Edgar Langeveldt has been confined to Harare and Bulawayo and has rarely taken ground in other towns.
For Carl Joshua Ncube going on a national tour which started in the capital and has taken him to Mutare, Gweru, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls and will end in Masvingo is a way of showcasing stand up comedy to the rest of the country and also growing his fan base.

“The idea is to gauge the level of appetite the people have for stand up comedy and so far the response has been tremendous. The issue is, I was never going to know unless I come and see it for myself because quite often we talk about it when we are speaking in cafes that in Gweru there are no people who like stand up comedy.

“We make these kind of assumptions so I wanted to come and see this for myself. The tour was about figuring if I have a fan base and if we don’t have can we create one. The tour is going on well reaching out to fans that we did not know we had and meeting fans that we did not know like comedy,” he said.

With the overwhelming response the tour has received so far Ncube said plans are underway to also tour smaller towns like Gokwe, Mberengwa and Bindura among others which he said is the only way to convince sponsors to come on board and support the art genre.
Ncube broke onto Zimbabwean comedy landscape with his debut one-manshow titled “Carl Joshua Ncube’s Big Announcement”.
The stand up comic has so far shared the stage with renowned comedians like Basketmouth, Klint Mandy, Salvador, Eric Ormondi, Kagiso Lediga, Loyiso Gola, Mel Miller, Whackhead Simpson, Donovan and Kevin Goliath among others.

With his stock continuing to rise and with the audience for the genre continuing to swell Carl will take to the stage with some of the internationally acclaimed comedians Kevin and Donovan Goliath together with local comedy legend Michael Kudakwashe and rising star Q at the International Comedy Festival at the Harare International Conference Centre on November 28.