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Reflections on Kansiime Anne Comedy Show


 Susan Mwape 
 
After an endless hype on the much anticipated comedy show in Lusaka featuring MNET Comedian Pablo and Kansiime Anne from Uganda, there was no way that I would miss the show. Firstly the Host of the show Chibwe Katebe never disappoints and I knew that this would be a show worth going to. Secondly, having encountered the works of Anne Kansiime online via minibuzz I just had to watch the lady who silenced a man who thought he could get away with being rudely whistling a woman without clearly knowing what he wanted. 

I rushed to Mulungushi hoping to get there by 19 hours as indicated on the Tickets but Alas the great East road was jammed with cars all heading to mulungushi International Conference Centre, how could this have been strange when the show was sold out, anyways I slowly creeped into mulungushi with my friend, struggled to find the parking space and as soon as we parked on the side of the road we practically ran out of the car so as not to be late.

Since the place was not completely full we took our seats strategically, just as we were beginning to feel happy with ourselves, we were told some VIPs are more VIP than others and were ousted from our seats because ZNBC and Bank of Zambia had paid more. We sadly left our seats and what followed was an unbelievable nightmare. People “held seats at ransom” they would take a whole row and claim the seats were occupied. In the end, when we found a place to seat the extra chair was claimed by someone. And even though way into the show, several people were still standing behind they had no idea that people like our greedy neighbors were holding on to seats that could seat other. 

The show kicked of rib cracking jokes from the host Chibwe Katebe, he then ensured invited several other local acts. Mid way thru he invited his daughter to join him on stage, she turned out to be Anne Kansiime donned in frilly white dress mimicking a young gal.  This had the audience gasping in Awe because she really looked tiny. Questions like is that how short and small she really is were heard from the audience.

Pablo from Uganda was then invited to the stage and introduced as Chibwe Katebe’s twin comedian. His style and delivery of jokes in an effortless manner was fascinating. From the time he took to the stage to the time he left the audience just kept laughing and giggling. His jokes went from Zambia to Africa and America yet everyone could relate and laugh. 

Kansiime Anne finally took to the stage around mid night. She had the audience full attention. She was dressed in a beautiful dress and looked nothing like the young girl that had been on stage earlier that night. She cracked a few jokes here and there for appreciation jumped up and down displaying some complex Ugandan dance moves. She was finally joint by Pablo and together they did a few songs that had funny actions to go along with.

Her presence on the stage seemed limited and maybe it was because we had very high expectations of Kansiime Anne it appeared that her skills as a standup comedian were not entirely great. In my reflection maybe having the guy she works with on minibuzz would have made all the difference. 

Overall, it was a show very well put together and the comedy lounge should continue organizing such shows. The turnout at the show was a manifestation of the appreciation of standup comedy in Zambia and it is worth noting that a lot of appreciation was showed towards the Zambian comedians. Sadly, because of the anticipation and zeal that people had for seeing Kansiime’s performance many local comedians were sent off stage with only one being booed off stage because of inappropriate jokes.

Comments

Unknown said…
Why am I not surprised that Anne had no stage presence? She's a video comedienne, not used to facing live audiences
12:31 AM
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