Umahlekisa looks beyond Bulawayo

Thembinkosi Khumalo, Sunday Life Reporter
UMAHLEKISA Comedy Club is looking to expand its horizons, with Bulawayo’s most popular joke factory looking to export its laughs beyond the City of Kings.

The award winning comedian and founder of Zimbabwe’s premier humour services provider “Umahlekisana Comedy Club’’ Ntando Van Moyo together with his team, were due to host their maiden show in Gwanda yesterday.

Umahlekisa Comedy Club which rebranded to “Umahlekisa Entertainment’’ now also wants to focus on providing entertainment through spoken word and collaborations with musicians.

To them comedy is a tool to advocate for positive social messages, to cultivate the spirit of “Ubuntu’’.

For the past eight years of its existence, “Umahlekisana Comedy Club’’ has been making noticeable waves in Bulawayo and Harare through their shows.

“We use humour to communicate social change for example, in people’s behaviours and inclusion of people in what is happening in society.

“We want to encourage the community that, it is not every time that they have to expect the Government to do things for them.

So, our aim is also to encourage the sense of belonging in our society and also to point out some negative behaviours in our society because I believe that if you make a joke about someone’s unusual acts, they somehow tend to see a need to change how they behave.

‘’As a Club we really want to expand into the Matabeland region and Gwanda has always been part of our blue print.

Most of our comedians communicate in vernacular, so we really want to get attention from the community by being relevant to them through the language they are comfortable with.

We want comedy to be known everywhere. We don’t want comedy to be known only in Bulawayo and Harare.,” said Van Moyo.