CHAPONDA GOES FOR IRIS: Comedian mesmerises audience with Zambia related content

WELL, whereas it may be true that Britain Got Talent gave Zambian born but now UK based Malawi stand-up comedian Daliso Chaponda, a golden buzzer, Zambia on Thursday night gave him something even bigger – it delivered to him a Music Club filled to near capacity.

Now, that is something big in stand-up comedy circles –   especially down here anyway. Not many people turn up as much as they did, for such events.

Immediate conclusions could be that the organisers put up a vigorous and ambitious publicity campaign for the show, or Daliso is just that good, good enough to merit the audience he got on his maiden appearance in Zambia in a show as part of the Wakanda for Laughter world tour.

Well, both could be true. But we shall dwell so much on the latter – Daliso is really good at what he does.

It is no wonder that The Music Club, Lusaka’s world class performance and events venue was thronged the way it was, Daliso is a class act. True to his word prior to his coming, there was no such thing as Zambian time here – the scheduled time for the show was 19:00 hours and it started at exactly that time.

Seasoned comedian and actor, Chibwe Katebe wasted no time in gassing the audience with some laughing gas, if at all there is such a thing. In other words, he set the tone, just perfect enough for Daliso.

For those that have followed Chibwe’s comedy, they know how talented and organised he is. Mixing between his old and new relatable jokes, he kept the audience entertained as he spiced it up with a little dance, here and there.

Chibwe, a former St Clements Secondary School in Mansa pupil made fun of how people in rural areas find it hard to excel in life because of the schools they attend and their funny names.

He soon introduced the Sakala Brothers in fashion on the stage. Note that the music group will be hosting a music event dubbed ‘Royal Salutations’ at the same venue tonight [Saturday].

After a performance of two songs, comedian and public relations practitioner Topsy Sikalinda introduced Daliso at 20:05 hours.

Ideally, you’d expect him to be on stage for an hour or less, like most stand-up comedians do, but he did not. Instead, Daliso who was proud to share and joke about how he is Malawian but was born here went on to perform for close to two hours.

Clearly, people got the full value for their money.

As is required of stand-up comedians, he proved to the audience that he is well researched too, when he cracked jokes on socialites Iris Kaingu and Mutale Mwanza. He didn’t stop there - even former President Edgar Lungu and President Hakainde Hichilema featured in his jokes, of course much to the delight of the audience.

He also joked about his native country Malawi and also his experiences in the UK and some of the perceptions about Africa he’s had to deal with abroad, because of his race.

Daliso expertly transitioned from one joke to the other without suggesting any hint of lapse. He wasn’t even shy to take a dig on people in the audience, including waiters. Take for instance how he commended this one waiter for doing a tremendous job of serving patrons alcohol that was making him funnier.

He ended his set close to 22:00 hours with jokes about sex and fitness, causing frenzy in the building. He continues his Wakanda for Laughter tour with Tanzania and Malawi this week.

This article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail's Sunday Mail edition of December 18, 2022.