Comedian Carl Joshua Ncube ready to be ‘cancelled’

RECENTLY, funny man, well…soon-to-be former comedian, Carl Joshua Ncube announced his retirement from stand-up comedy citing his need to accommodate his demanding rural Bn’B business venture.

The greatest way to signal your exit from the rib-cracking industry is to put on one final performance or tour and Carl is doing just that as he is getting ready to launch his “#CancelCarl” farewell tour, which aims to challenge the cancel culture.

The term “cancel culture”, which first appeared in the late 2010s and early 2020s, describes a society in which those who are seen to have behaved or spoken in an inappropriate way are shunned, boycotted, or excluded and Carl is ready for such a vocal barrage, giving stand-up comedy lovers carte blanche to cancel him.

Carl told Chronicle Showbiz how he will dance his swansong.

“Basically, we’re doing a mega tour recording content so that I can give my fans something to hold them up for a number of years, while I focus on my other business interests. We’re doing a stand-up comedy tour, filming a 90-minute documentary detailing my career milestones, creating and curating online content and even some sitcom-style skits.

“It’ll be an intense end-of-year schedule where we will travel to any country that will book me. I have my usual places of course which are South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and the UK.

“This comedy show is about my opinions, views and thoughts. If people don’t like it they can #CancelCarl. It makes sense because it’s my last show anyway,” he said.

Carl’s illustrious comic career has been characterised by controversy as at one point he did not find impersonating women to coerce laughter funny, taking a swipe at male comedians who impersonate women to be funny.

Highlights of his career, Carl said: “Has always been being able to execute what I conceive. God has blessed my wife and me to see through what we plan. The low point for me is how online audiences have become a threat to the comedy itself where people seek relevance by attacking comics.

“I haven’t really suffered that, but I’ve silently watched my friends and fellow artists getting attacked.”

Carl is also the dude who at one time had no physical address, but instead, lived in a makeshift home from a converted bus in Victoria Falls. How creative!

Ncube feels as if cooking and stand-up comedy remind him of his late parents. He feels he did not make them proud in the process, forgetting himself.

“Stand-up comedy has always been more emotional for me. It has always been attached to my father and his death at the start of my career was a driving force behind celebrating him and his memory. I just feel like I lost celebrating myself in the process. When my mum died this year, this was the same feeling around my cooking,” he said.

Carl said that he was evolving into more than just a comedian and a cook.

“Next time you see me I will be around a fire in a village somewhere. I was lying to myself by still saying I was actively a stand-up comedian or chef, but in the context of Zimbabwe or Africa, I have become much more than that.

“I’m on the brink of one of the most important innovations of this continent and it is loaded with purpose and I get to be the servant to this cause. Rural BnB is beyond the comedy, the cooking, or even design,” he said.

His Rural BnB, an online platform enables individuals to register their homesteads and allows users to book African Experiences. It will also showcase the continent’s villages through travel Vlogs, food shows, fashion, music and podcasts.

His decision to quit his field of expertise, for which he is most known, feels like robbery without violence because he leaves a path of countless successes in its wake.

The self-proclaimed, “Ambassador of Zimbabwean comedy” once described as, “the funniest comedian Zimbabwe has ever produced” by Comedy Central Africa has performed in diverse countries including South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, the US, Cote D’Ivoire Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Nigeria and Australia. In 2016, he attempted to break a Guinness World Record for holding the most comedy shows within a week.

He believes that he has, “ripped comedy as a Ncube, as a Ndebele, as a Zezuru, as a Zimbabwean, as an African and as a Global Citizen.”