THE Frank Chirisa Comedy Night hosted at Bulawayo Theatre last weekend lived up to its billing with funny and relatable performances.
The theme for the show was, Stories that heal, which lightened up the mood as it was addressing the audience on the need to take care of their mental health and to lighten up despite challenges and stress they regularly face.
In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, the show’s host, Frank Chirisa, said the Comedy Night was also a story about his life in addition to helping people fight depression.
“I just think of telling my life story, how I see everything. Everything that goes on in my life, the pressures, whatever you had, it meant, like mental health,” Chirisa said.
The comedian said the show was also a tribute to his grandfather who passed on this year after losing a battle against cancer.
“So the thing about that is, with my grandfather, he was feeling so much pain every single day. And every time you woke up, he was disappointed to be alive. And I've been feeling bad because as a family, we tried everything. We tried Western medicine. We tried the traditional one, but it didn't work,” he said.
One of the performers, poet Sisa's piece felt like a story of herself as a person.
“All the poetry I write is based on personal experiences and personal feelings. So this piece in particular, was basically an expression of the different emotions a personal experiences throughout the day. Or it could be in a single moment at a time,” Sisa said.
- Comedy night lightens up mood of fans
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She added that it was relatable to the audience as it displayed the different emotions that people go through and experiences and interactions.
“So if you notice, you know, it was like a whole roller coaster of happiness. One minute you're sad, the next minute and it's just like, you know, it's so many things going on at once. And what inspired it is basically my day-to-day experiences with people and interactions I've had and how I've reacted in those kinds of situations,” Sisa said.
Ncomie (Sincominkosi Khumalo), who is a creative artist and was the master of ceremonies described the show as amazing.
“The event was beautiful, authentic and fun. That's the best summary I have. No one came with a script. Everyone showed up on stage as their authentic selves and poured their hearts out on stage. The performers looked like they had fun and I loved them. Frank out did himself. He has worked so hard for this so to see his dream come to life was mind blowing. The audience had amazing energy. They were so supportive and responded candidly with awesome energy,” Ncomie said.
She also said they faced challenges in selling tickets.
“It's hard selling a vision to people and believing that they'll buy it. Regardless of how hard it was to sell tickets sometimes, people who did show interest were genuine and it became the inspiration for us to work harder to promote the show. Frank encouraged us to engage with people, even strangers and not fear them. We wish we had more time but it's all about making sure the performers are on stage on time,” Ncomie said.
