Award-winning comedian, Carl Joshua Ncube has been very quiet in 2019. Well at least on the comedy scene.
One would not be wrong if they were to conclude that the funny guy had quit the craft of making folks laugh.
However, things are about to change on a big scale as Carl is set to host a one-man show in the foreign lands of Mzansi on August 9 at the Auto and General Theatre on The Square.
Zimbo Jam caught up with the brother from his base in Victoria Falls and he shared with us a bit of what has been taking place in his life since the beginning of 2019.
What has been really happening with, you just too quiet?
Indeed, this year I haven’t been very active in the comedy space.
As I explained at the beginning of the year that our primary focus was to work on the bus conversion so that we would have a house of our own.
I realized that every time I will be travelling outside the country I would still have to pay rent for whatever apartment I will have back here in Zimbabwe which was just not a sustainable model to use as the economy does not say this is Carl so I will not affect him. I am just as affected as anyone else.
We had to adopt a different strategy and that meant getting this house sorted. We are getting there. This project forced us to push all the international gigs to later in the year which was why you starting to see me getting back into the market.
Besides the bus conversion, what else has been keeping you busy?
Being in Victoria Falls, we are very busy from a tourism perspective. A lot of corporate events are held here so we are very busy – just not in the spaces that people are used to seeing me in.
Tell us a bit about this SA gig on in a few days…
The South Africa gig is a major milestone for me. I have been performing in South Africa as an opening act, middle act and recently graduated to be a headline act.
So getting this opportunity from Goliath and Goliath to do this one-man show is an endorsement of what the future holds for me.
The show will be talking about all my experiences around the world, generally educating people on what I call my story of Africa.
This gig is an acid test of whether or not I have the capability to do my own one-man shows across Mzansi which happens to be the market that I want to predominantly work in.
So besides this gig are there more shows line-up?
This show is actually part of a southern African region tour which we started planning since the beginning of the year. We are also planning to shows in Mexico.
What does the future hold for Carl?
I am now approaching a decade in the game. In 2020, I do hope to also consolidate everything I have learnt and reshape a lot of my work.
I will also be targeting to do a lot of big festivals. For instance the Edinburgh Fringe, and Melbourne Comedy Festival. That is the direction I am taking.
