Blantyre comes out for Daliso Chaponda
United Kingdom – based comedian Daliso Chaponda was on Friday all smiles as people in Blantyre came out to support him during his first show in the country since coming third in this year’s Britain’s Got Talent.
Dubbed The President of Laughrica, the first show was at Victoria Gardens in Blantyre while the second one was held at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe on Saturday.
Blantyre has always been unpredictable when it comes to shows, especially this time when people are struggling to make ends meet.
Prospects for show, organised by Qoncept Creatives, were made further made complicated by entry fees, which were K15, 000 for standard tickets and K25,000 for VIP tickets.
In the end, it became a sold-out show.
There were setbacks in the course of the show, starting with the usual power outages. Power outages marred the performances of all the four acts – starting with Zimbabwean comedian Carl Joshua Ncube, who was the host, curtainraisers Patience Namadingo and Prince Chikweba and the headliner Daliso.
In fact, Carl was forced to tell jokes on power outages after electricity supply was interrupted while he was on stage and the same happened to Daliso, who had to shout the name of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri as the blackout persisted, forcing the audience into stitches.
Bushiri told the media recently that he was ready to help the country end blackouts.
It was a perfect choice for the organisers to have Carl as the host as he played it well and also took it upon himself to show his versatility in jokes. The antics kept members of the audience on their toes.
He was vibrant throughout and managed to give people a dosage of jokes focusing on, among other things, Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe.
His jokes were razor sharp as Carl meandered through the things that both black and white people do.
Carl then introduced Namadingo to the stage.
Having indicated earlier that people would see Patience the comedian and not Namadingo the musician, Patience played that but not to the fullest.
He showed that, with time, he could mature into a good stand-up comedian.
Chikweba was next in line but he, too, has a long way to go. His entry with an urban song was interesting, but he has to improve on his masterly of telling his jokes.
Jokes are supposed to be short and straight to the point and if it is a story it needs to be polished to keep it shiny and, in that respect, he failed to tick.
He also needs to do research depending on the audience and come up with jokes that are relevant; otherwise, one of his jokes’ target audiences is the urban generation.
Despite not enjoying much support from the people, he was brave enough to continue his set even after power went off.
Daliso received a huge applause when he jumped to the stage and went straight to business dishing out jokes and, at times, interacted with members of the audience.
He started his set with news that he had been subjected to insults by different people on social media and that he took a break.
But as a comedian seeking more in terms of support and audience he still came out.
Reading one of the messages he got through his Facebook page, one person wished he was attacked by cancer.
“Of all the diseases, why choose cancer; why not chickenpox,” Daliso wondered.
Daliso, who performed for over an hour, showed his masterly as a comedian when he joked about blood -suckers and blackouts in the country, Robert Mugabe and Donald Trump.
He, however, could have offered more on the local scene. Of course, as an international comedian, he showed his prowess with his know-how on worldly issues.
“I am happy with the support. The opening acts were also good, and, so was Carl. There is always humour in everything and there are so many things going on around the world,” Daliso said.
Daliso, who also performed in Blantyre four years ago, said he would be coming to Malawi every year depending on the schedule.
“Malawi is my home and, so, there will always be time. I have a lot of shows in, among other countries, Sweden, Kenya and USA in February,” he said.
Chikweba said it was a learning process for him.
Carl said it was amazing, adding that he learnt a lot from Daliso.
“He has helped me so much in my career. Daliso is a joy to watch. I follow what he does but I don’t copy his jokes,” he said.
One of the patrons, Stanley Chingaipe, said he was satisfied with Daliso’s performance as it took stress of work out of him.
He recalled one of the jokes which, he said, sent him in stitches – that if there was a talent show in Zimbabwe, even if Daliso entered, Mugabe would have won.
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