Learnmore Jonasi’s Shoko Festival performance: A befitting ‘homecoming’ show for a brilliant comedian

TAKUDZWA HILLARY CHIWANZA 

HARARE – The biggest highlight of this year's Shoko Comedy Night was Learnmore Jonasi, whose appearance lit up Shoko Festival and inspired more confidence for Zimbabwe's stand-up comedy space. This was a chance for him to connect with the up and coming Zimbabwean comedians; with him being the embodiment of the notion that indeed, dreams come true. Perhaps, this was the essence of his homecoming show. 

AGT contestant Learnmore Jonasi performing at Shoko Comedy Night, Harare Gardens. [Image: The Big Conversation] 

Harare Gardens was the place for the comedy show rightly named 'The Homecoming, in which Learnmore Jonasi shared the stage with some of the most talented, rising names in Zimbabwean comedy: Tinashe Fortune and Tanya Alex. The future looks good too for them, with their enviable consistency being a fixed mark of their craft. 

Jonasi, a contestant at America's Got Talent (AGT) where he dazzled audiences and moved people's hearts, was armed with the intention of showing the Shoko Festival audience that indeed he was home; and that he is still in touch with the realities here. On the overall, his performance was decent, although it was heavily punctuated with instances of gross over-exxagerations of life in the global south—an element which some still want to hammer him for, given this is how he has made his name in America. 

But that is his style. Self-deprecation humour couched in exposing certain racial stereotypes and the inherent folly in them is what is gradually making Jonasi a global name. Showing gusto on stage, this was a timely reminder for the home audience of why he performed exceptionally at AGT. 

However, what we liked the most about his performance was how he counter-balanced this by exposing the harsh realities of life in the United States; clearly showing the home audience that the proverbial greener pastures are not all milk and honey but a hotbed of harrowing absurdities. 

Shifting between experiences in Zimbabwe as well as in America, Jonasi's story on Thursday was that of a creative who started with humble beginnings, and now on a meteoric rise to stardom in the U.S.—and in all this, still striving to retain the important aspect of connecting with his roots back home. In a way, he told us that a lot has changed in Zimbabwe; but at the same time, nothing really has changed in Zimbabwe. Yes, he has really been to America, but his heart still hasn't been divorced from Zimbabwe. 

ALSO READ: Learnmore Jonasi at America's Got Talent: Appreciating success while also critiquing racial stereotypes in humour

Of course, the visa to America—which was a fundamental aspect of his jokes on Thursday—greatly changed his life, but that has not precluded him from perceiving some of the brutal realities of life in the global north (the "third world" aspects of "first world" countries). Often, the visa to the global north is glorified in the global south as the sine qua non of greener pastures in this life. Jonasi personified the "homecoming" part of the show—telling us about life experiences in America while at the same time proving that he has not lost touch with Zimbabwe; with Africa, his home. In this regard, he performed remarkably well. 

Throughout his performance, there were many points in which the balance between highlighting American life and that of Africans fell flat and proved to be a tad difficult; but as an experienced stand-up comedian he ultimately managed to summon his audience control powers to deliver a decent performance that for the most part managed to live up to expectations. 

It did not feel as though we were watching him at AGT; but he brought that flair with him to Harare, and he was true to his style. Which is the goal of every creative out there really, whether they have gone internation or they are still based in their home country. He interprets his sociopolitical observations, as informed by race, into easily digestible humour. A lively joker, his jokes were received well by the audience, and for us, that was the real definition of a homecoming show.