By Siphesihle Dlamini
In between scripting and practising for their first ever “one act show” and fresh from delivering back-to-back performances on the Chuckles stage at the Laugh Africa Comedy Festival,
The trailblazing stand-up comedy and comic content creation duo of Gogo Eswatini and S’lwane will this coming Saturday, grace the Savanna Comic Choice Comedy Awards, as industry friends of the Mzansi comedy scene.
The glamorous awards are set to be held at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City in Johannesburg. In its 11th year, this annual stand-up comedy feast which is curated to celebrate the best of South Africa’s stand-up comedy to be hosted by the one and only Mpho Popps, the local duo will rub shoulders with South Africa’s comedy royalty in the likes of Mashabela Galane, Vafa Naraghi, Celeste Ntulu, Tsitsi Chumya, Kagiso Lediga and many others either nominated in one of the thirteen-categories in this year’s edition of the festival or out to have a fun night out.
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Besides honouring the newbies in the game, this year’s edition of the awards ceremony will also celebrate the legacy of the great Joe Mafela, through the ‘Joe Mafela Award’ which will see industry giants including Sifiso Nene, Summary, Mashabela, King Flat and TT Phasha battle it out. Other categories include
‘The Breakthrough Act of The Year Award’, ‘Best Comedy Show or Festival Award’, ‘Best Solo Show Award’, ‘Sauce of the Year Award’ amongst others, featuring newbies like Mr Chase right up to industry legends including Robbie Collins, who walked away with last year’s ‘Stand-Up Comedian of the Year Award’ – the event is touted to be once again, a feast of bottomless indulgence for all lovers of comedy.
When reached for a comment, half of the duo, S’lwane said besides serving as effective sources of inspiration, events of this calibre have time and time and again proven to be significant in helping them position themselves as talents worth their salt, simply because they believe that for them to be the best, they must unrelentingly associate with the best.
“They are important investments to us slowly but surely building the greatest stand-up comedy brand ever out of Eswatini.
From the potent networking and learning from like-minded industry colleagues, from Sifiso Nene to Mpho Popps to sharing our craft on the Chuckles stage, we are surely learning a lot,” he said.
He further invited everyone to come and see them manifest at their debut ‘duo’ show slated for May 3, 2024, at Happy Valley, where Gogo and he will deliver unhinged straight out of vault, relatable, warm and family-friendly stand-up comedy.
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“Ours boSwane is to keep on learning and getting better with every performance, learning not just from our local community but from our immediate industry colleagues laNtalasifane and events like the Laugh Africa Comedy Festival and the Savanna Comic Choice Awards are helping us perfectly achieve that.
Umsebenti wetfu uyalolekisisa kulena mibutsano,” commented Gogo Eswatini.
He added that it is from this learning that they will return home better performers, as artists that peers will respect and the community would love, and importantly, all corporate Eswatini would be proud to associate with.
“We cannot wait for the awards, and we are sure they will give us all the firepower we need to curate and deliver a memorable once-in-a-lifetime experience to everyone who will attend our show at Happy Valley Hotel on May 3, and of course, may we invite everyone to get their tickets to this once-in-a-life Swati piece of history. It will be fun.”
