Daliso Chaponda excited with Malawi return

East or west, home is best. That adage cannot fit better than the scenario of United Kingdom-based Malawian top-notch comedian Daliso Chaponda.

Having been restricted by the Covid-19 lockdown in his second home, the comedian has jumped at the first opportunity to come and reconnect with his Malawian audience. He is set to perform on February 18 at Kumbali Lodge in Lilongwe.

The show, dubbed Kumbali Comedy With Daliso Chaponda, will be his first in two years.

He said: “I am very excited to be back in Malawi. It has been a Covid-19 imposed exile for the last year and a half. I talked about Malawi a lot. I was doing zoom comedy and comedy streams in my kitchen and one of the jokes became viral in Malawi.”

Chaponda said though he has received love wherever he has performed, he loves performing in Malawi because the Malawian audience is the most excited he has ever seen.

“In Malawi people scream at the jokes and jump at the jokes. Malawi is the place where I am stalked the most by the people on the street. I am recognised the most. The people are sometimes shocked by the things I say, but it’s an appreciative reaction since they don’t believe I could say anything like that,” he said.

Chaponda said he used his time during lockdown to write a book which should be released by the end of the year or early next year.

Poet Q Malewezi and his company Kweza Arts will provide technical production assistance during the show and he will also be a guest performer. It will be a reunion after the two performed together at Chaponda’s first show in Malawi in 2009.

Malewezi said: “This is our second meeting. I am excited to be performing for the first time this year. I will bring a bit of my classics at the show.”

Chaponda’s African visit will also see him perform in South Africa and Uganda later in the year.n