Umahlekisa Comedy Club rebrands

Umahlekisa Comedy Club has rebranded to Umahlekisa Entertainment in a move that will see the brand accommodating more forms of art, other than focusing on comedy only.

“Umahlekisa Entertainment encompasses promoting young emerging female comedians, spoken word artists, musicians, and DJs to name a few. We’ll mainly focus on what we call marginalised arts, especially spoken word where many of them (artists) are not known. We want to get them appreciated as well,” Ntando Van Moyo, the director of Umahlekisa Entertainment said.

“We’re into culinary arts as well and we want to introduce these people so that the public gets to know them,” said Moyo.

He said there is a lot that people should expect from Umahlekisa Entertainment.

“People should expect a different level of engagement and more collaborations. It’s 10 years now (since Umahlekisa has been in existence) so we need fireworks. We have brands that we’re already working with and we’re also working on other online and television content.

“We also have young family comedians coming up who are the next generation. We’re saying we want the old guys like myself to retire from performing and create space for the younger generation to run the Umahlekisa Entertainment,” said Moyo.

He was speaking at the Enkundleni Exclusive podcast where the Umahlekisa brand celebrated its decade of jokes and existence at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Saturday.

It was all giggles as the audience got to see comedians like Ntando Van Moyo, Skhanyiso That Guy, Zwee, and Frank Chirisa performing uncensored jokes live.

First to perform were the three clowns without borders, Tanaka, Thando and Michael. They left the crowd in stitches with their funny performances. One of the funny moments was when one of them took comedian Mdawini’s beer and spilled it. It was clear that these were clowns without limits as Mdawini’s face was full of anger and frustration.

In between the performances, the audience was entertained by musician Adoe who was backed by Ria. It was a bonding moment for lovers when Adoe performed one of his love songs, Sondela.

Putting the audience at the edge of their seats was Chirisa with his skits.

When the audience thought they had seen it all from him, Zwee understood the assignment when he made a joke about the trending E-creator which apparently scammed people.

He played the role of a pastor preaching to his congregation about all the things that have been happening the past week including cricket.

Skhanyiso that guy also had people in stitches with his jokes.

The audience also got the opportunity to see DJ Sida playing local music and Mawiza performing live for them. Mawiza performed his song Entumbane as well as his new song which he dropped last week Friday titled Umuntu Uyakugqibel’Uphila.

Fans of the Enkundleni Exclusive podcast, an IsiNdebele podcast, also got the rare chance of watching the podcast live. Sipho Mercent Nyathi was the host and Moyo was the guest.

Moyo took audiences through the journey of Umahlekisa, how it all started and why it is now called Umahlekisa Entertainment.

After the podcast, Moyo performed and at this point, the audience could not hold their laughs anymore. — @TashaMutsiba