BY SHARON SIBINDI
South Africa-based Zimbabwean street comedians, Omkhula, say their fans in Zimbabwe should wait a little bit for shows as they are struggling to hold fort due to lack of promoters.
Omkhula shot to fame in the early 2000s in Bulawayo with their stand-up rib-cracking jokes at public spaces such as Egodini and TM Hyper where they drew large crowds before relocating to South Africa in search of greener pastures.
In a telephone interview with Standard Style, Omkhula (Madalinja) said coming back home for shows was a bit of a challenge because no one seemed interested in supporting them.
“We have a lot to share with our fans, but we need promoters to support us like gracing events such as Intwasa Arts Festival.
“Comparing our situation and the past, a lot of things have changed and we now go to events in theatres where people buy tickets before our shows.”
Madalinja said their current DVD — Ibhabhalazi — released in November 2018 has sold 300 000 copies and they had roped in Victoria Falls poet Obert Dube.
“We have a sizzling comedy DVD, which was released last year. This time we featured Obert Dube who has two poems in it and so far it has sold 300 000 copies. We hope to sell more copies of it,” Madalinja said.
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Meanwhile, Dube said it was great working with the comedy duo and he was looking forward to collaborate with them in future projects.
“We worked well on the DVD and we met when someone showed them my tweets and asked them to engage me and we fused our production to change the taste. They had to call me, we rehearsed and we did the shooting,” Dube said.
“I learnt a lot from them and I look forward to engaging them in my future projects.”
