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Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
FOR decades, if you ever wanted to be a famous entertainer, you either had to star on a movie or make a smash radio programme . . . But today celebrities are made online.
Facebook, Instagram, Vine and YouTube, to mention but a few social network platforms, have grown a new generation of social media stars, who have, by all means bypassed traditional gatekeepers to connect directly with their fans.
Over the past three or four years, social media has given birth to a new generation of global stars that have been capitalising on harnessing social media to advance their careers.
Unlike their comic predecessors in standup or film comedy, social media entertainers, have a greater chance of popularising themselves worldwide, as compared to TV and radio.
On that note, Africa has witnessed an extraordinary increase of social media entertainers that have significantly penetrated the comedy industry.
Talk of Uganda’s eccentric African Queen of Comedy, Anne Kansiime, who has landed a string of global tours, all owing to her comic stunts on social media.
In 2007, while still an undergraduate at Makerere University, Kansiime began to participate in drama skits featuring in plays showcased at the Uganda National Theatre.
The best skits were broadcast on NTV Uganda in the Barbed Wire TV show that later became U-Turn. She partnered with Brian Mulondo as a Taxi interview conductor in the MiniBuzz series and provided comic video dramatisations of topical issues that random passengers discussed.
According to recorded interviews that she gave in 2014, Anne began posting some of her sketch comedy skits on YouTube. She received positive feedback and that encouraged her to post more videos. Her screen breakthrough came when Citizen TV from Kenya, offered her a slot to produce, star and present a comedy show once a week. That is how she came up with the Don’t Mess with Kansiime comedy show.
In November of 2014, her YouTube channel had amassed more than 15 million views.
Her YouTube videos receive thousands of views and she has appeared on BBC Focus on Africa. She has played to packed houses in Blantyre, Gaborone, Kigali, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Lilongwe, London, Lusaka and Harare.
Nigeria’s hilarious Dr Craze, (Emmanuel Ogonna Iwueke Godwin) a medical student at the Kharkov National Medical University, Kharkov, Ukraine and his partner in comedy Tegaa, who are currently undisputedly one of Nigeria’s funniest pair.
Dr Craze started comedy and acting from an early age. He said in an interview that he used to lead his peers in acting and social events, as well as hosting events since high school. “I am madly in love with my area of study (Medicine) and passionately love entertainment.”
Also trending is Nigeria’s young mischievous Emmanuella, whose skits have reached a global following in just less than a year.
Emmanuella is a fast rising young comedian who won a lot of people’s hearts when she starred in a short comic clip.
She snapped many people’s ribs in the scene where she said “This is not my real face”.
The prodigious Emmanuella is receiving lots of love from all over the world on social media.
Her real name is Emmanuella Samuel and is just 5 years old. She Just Won G Influence Niger Delta Special Talent Award in 2015.
Bringing comedy closer to home, South Africa-based impish Baba Tencen, who managed to crack flamboyant businessman and socialite Sir Wicknell’s ribs to the extent of him giving him a whopping R100 000 is also making waves with his rather idiotic skits.
Popularly known as Baba Tencen, Pepukai Zvemhari, an online comedian is probably what any Zimbabwean wanting comic relief would listen to anytime.
He said in an interview that he started off as a garden boy in South Africa and recorded his first clip during lunch time. He then sent it to his cousin, with no aim of getting to be a popular person.
His cousin then sent it to other people, who then distributed it, hence, his rise to fame.
Next up is the witty United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean comic Gerald Xavier Do Couto, popularly known as OfishalXavier, who was born to a Portuguese father and Zimbabwean mother.
Last year a video of a young man, in the back seat of a car with his shirt off screaming Ngyatshiselwa to seemingly oblivious, mostly white, passersby, went viral on social media.
The young man behind that video became an overnight sensation, as videos on his Facebook page, OfishalXavier, became social media staple by those looking for a quick laugh from the comedian’s seemingly endless bags of tricks.
The 26-year-old Zimbabwean who is now resident in Uxbridge in West London was born in South Africa and spent the first 10 years of his life in Zimbabwe where he lived in Queen’s Park East in Bulawayo.
The budding comedian then progressed to Brunel University where he studied Communications and Media.
Although he is now a bona fide star on social media, Xavier disclosed that he had not envisioned that his video, recorded during a heat wave in England last year, would receive the kind of following and fame that it did.
Another rising star is the City of King’s very own former Mr Bulawayo — Keith Oliver Siamloboka.
Perhaps already being in the showbiz industry, venturing into comedy was a walk in the park. Currently releasing an endless strip of comic skits, Keith has even enrolled himself in drama school to pursue his pastime hobby. With some of his skits receiving an amazing 39 000 views, Keith promises to be an amazing comedian.
Finally Carl Joshua Ncube, who many perceive as a social media entrepreneur has had the best of both worlds as he uses both the power of social media and traditional gateways to promote his work.
Social media is new and the truth of the matter is that most of these content creators are using social media as a tool to make their way to TV.
Social media stars are already more recognisable to young people than many conventional celebrities and most of these stars are betting that their fans will stay with them even after the social media craze fades.
Online Reporter