I Love and Enjoy Silent Comedy a Lot

I love and enjoy silent comedy a lot, especially when done live on stage in front of the audience, and it is the most challenging one because you need to convey the message without even uttering a word, and the only way to see if people understand what you’re doing is when they laugh.

1. How and when did you choose comedy as a career?

Firstly, comedy wasn’t my chosen career and I never imagined myself as a comedian even though I've always loved entertaining people and making them laugh, but I wasn’t exposed to comedy being a career, which I’m sure is because I was born and raised in rural areas.

To answer your question, I accepted comedy as a career in 2009 when I was still in varsity (Mangosuthu University of Technology) where my friends and acquaintances would always stop me when talking and ask me why didn’t I consider doing standup comedy as a career.

At first, I didn’t like what they were saying because I used to undermine comedy, it didn’t sound good to me as I had always known only academic careers as descent careers hence I was also doing Electrical Engineering, being an Engineer made perfect sense to me, but being a comedian didn’t.

Especially when translated to Zulu “usomahlaya” even worse, I couldn’t imagine myself as “usomahlaya”, until I saw a standup comedy show on one of my residence mates’ computer, only then I get to understand comedy and accept it as a career, especially because I realized that I actually had always been a comedian not even knowing.

2. What type of content do you enjoy producing the most and is the most challenging?

I also like it because it makes me showcase my acting talent and more. It also teaches me to be accurate and perfect since it’s not easy to improvise, so one needs to rehearse thoroughly and master each and every move, and be able to be in line with the band.

3. Do you prefer digital as a medium or do you enjoy doing live gigs more and why?

I enjoy live gigs more because I get to interact with my audience and practically feel their reception and see their honest response.

Again, live performances make the best videos that can be used on digital platforms, however, digital is more convenient for both artists and the audience, since it gives one enough time to shoot and edit before putting it up on digital platforms.

Digital is also influential and helpful when building up to live gigs, so these two work hand in hand for me. But I still enjoy live gigs more.

4. People, who are interested in taking up stand-up comedy as a profession, do they need a funny bone or they can develop one?

I believe they do need a funny bone to sustain their creativity and productivity, simply because there’s no school for comedy, it has to come naturally, and one needs to be able to keep up with time and be spontaneous.

If you don’t have a funny bone you’d end up trying hard, of which comedy audience can sense and be easily irritated or have enough of you. Most importantly, comedy is a calling more than just a career, you can’t do it if you’re not called for it.

5. How stable is being a stand-up comedian as a profession in India? And what is the future of this profession?

I wouldn’t really know cause I’ve never been to India, I’m based in South Africa, KwaZulu Natal. I would love to perform in India though one day.

6. What impact do you want to make in this world?

Since I have a lot of people looking up to me, I want to do nothing else other than being the light and bring hope and transformation to people’s lives, directly or indirectly.

7. Which is your favorite book and why?

The Holy Bible is my favorite book because it contains wisdom and teaches authenticity; integrity; love; fairness; justice; forgiveness; humbleness; Holiness; God-reliance and more, in fact, it teaches everything essential to humanity.

To me, it’s even practical because I get to practically see God’s faithfulness in my career since I trust in no one and nothing else beside Him.

I even decided to have Jesus Christ as my role model, because I’ve never seen anyone as powerful as Him, which makes the Bible the greatest and my most favorite book.

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