April is the month of fools and what better jesters than stand up comics? Enter Loyiso Gola, Nik Rabinowitz, David Kau and Carl Joshua Ncube who will all be bounding over borders and bad jokes to bring the laughs to the Land of the Brave this month of malarkey.
Providing side-splitting support is our very own comedy behemoth Free Your Mind (FYM) who hosted Zimbabwean comic Carl Joshua Ncube at their monthly show last night.
Landing bigger jokes than the Zim dollar, the Zimbabwean comedian had barely touched down in Windhoek before rushing to support the arts at the //Ae Gams Festival where he bumped into fellow countryman Tapz Munya, clad as if for guerilla warfare, and said: “you are now free to wear camouflage because you are not in Zimbabwe.”
If you missed him bringing the house down alongside comedians Courage, Pang and Queeny, you missed out on what CNN African Voices describes as the “new face of Zimbabwean comedy” but lucky for you the Zim invasion is a prelude to the South African one and you can still catch Nik, David and Loyiso in what local comedian Slick the Dick has coined “The Unofficial Month of Comedy.”
Just as jaw-dropping in terms of his no holds barred aesthetic is celebrated South African comedian Nik Rabinowitz who is one of two Jewish boys to be born in a stable in the last two thousand years.
The other… is Jesus.
Which is what you’ll probably be saying after you’ve seen ‘Stand Up,’ his one man, one night only show being opened by FYM comic Ileka at the National Theatre of Namibia tomorrow.
Self-described as an “Oscar” winning performance that takes the Pistorious out of everything South African. The show is set to be a ribald riot as the stable boy goes where most comics fear to tread.
With or without their prosthetic legs on.
Duking it out with Nik Rabinowitz for the Saturday night crowd is cool comedian David Kau who will be hawking the hilarious at the Kalahari Sands’ Moringa Room on 5 April.
Fresh from producing the wildly successful ‘Blacks Only’ series of comedy shows currently taking South Africa by rainstorm, Kau will be bringing the funny for one night only in a one man show sure to have people shaking with laughter about the state of his South African nation.
Attendees will also be treated to some live music and a welcome drink for their N$200 trouble.
Last but not the least is international Emmy nominated comedian Loyiso Gola who will be splitting sides in Windhoek and Otavi later this month.
Described as the “King of Satire” thanks to his groundbreaking satirical TV show ‘Late Night News with Loyiso Gola’ (LNN), Loyiso will be bringing us ‘Professional Black’, a show about a new breed of black man that will be sure to shock, shake and have you rolling in the aisles of the Gateway Conference Centre in Windhoek and the Otavi Community Hall in, well, Otavi. At the Expo.
Loyiso will be supported by famed FYM funnyman Slick the Dick, comedy queen Helouise Goraseb aka ‘Weezil’ and the bravest comedian of them all, Courage.
Adding some serious to proceedings, Slick is well aware of the networking and exchange opportunities working with out of town comics offers to local talent.
“For the longest time, other African countries didn’t know that there was anything going on here,” says Slick. “Nik has been here a couple of times and Windhoek has hosted Trevor Noah, both comedians are wildly popular in their own countries, can go home and create some serious buzz saying there is a comedy scene here, that it’s worth coming and that we’re worth bringing out there. FYM is definitely going to step up and a couple of us will be hitting SA for the first time in June.”
Certainly set to be a month filled with loads of laughs for anyone with a funny bone, Slick the Dick’s ‘Unofficial Month of Comedy’ is up, at it and certainly not to be slept on.
