Stand-up comedy in Mthatha is about to get a shot in the arm.
Sonwabile “Soso” Sigcau, 31, is one of the few recognisable faces in stand-up comedy circles in a city better known for its crime rate and the size of its potholes.
While many of his peers have been quick to dash off to big cities like Jozi and Cape Town to further their careers, Sigcau wants to build the genre in his home town first.
“Sometime in the future, I might make it big and go and live in those places.
“But for now I want to focus here at home. I believe there is market for stand-up comedy here,” he said when the Daily Dispatch caught up with him a few minutes before performing at the Mthatha Country Club on Thursday.
On Friday he performed at the Mdantsane Sun with Whittlesea-born Khanyisa Bunu, the first woman to ever win the popular audience choice prize at last year’s Comics’ Choice Awards, and on Saturday Sigcau was wowing a Grahamstown crowd at the city hall.
Born in Ikwezi Township in Mthatha before relocating to the neighbouring Mbuqe Extension residential suburb, he said he was bitten by the love of comedy at a very young age.
“I was probably around four to five and used to watch local comedies, but then I saw Barry Hilton on the Comedy Showcase, a television show on SABC 3. I think I was around 12 at the time,” said Sigcau.
However it was not until he went to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to study for a bachelor’s degree in financial information systems in 2004 that he got his big break.
He went to an open mic session where top acts like Nik Rabinowitz and Ndumiso Lindi were performing.
“The organisers opened the floor and invited anyone who thought they had something they could do to the stage. I just went up there and did my three minutes and the students loved it,” he said.
He was later invited to perform at the famous Baxter Theatre during the Vodacom Funny Festival in 2007, alongside big names like “just what the doctor ordered” Riaad Moosa.
But once he had completed his studies he fell ill, and that is when he decided to come home for good.
Sigcau said one problem, not only in Mthatha but the rest of the Eastern Cape too, was that there weren’t many good venues for stand-up comedy.
“If we open more venues I believe that even bigger names will end up wanting to come here to perform instead of always going to East London and Port Elizabeth,” he said.
Mthatha’s own funny man looks to promote comedy
Sonwabile “Soso” Sigcau, 31, is one of the few recognisable faces in stand-up comedy circles in a city better known for its crime rate and the size of its potholes.
While many of his peers have been quick to dash off to big cities like Jozi and Cape Town to further their careers, Sigcau wants to build the genre in his home town first.
“Sometime in the future, I might make it big and go and live in those places.
“But for now I want to focus here at home. I believe there is market for stand-up comedy here,” he said when the Daily Dispatch caught up with him a few minutes before performing at the Mthatha Country Club on Thursday.
On Friday he performed at the Mdantsane Sun with Whittlesea-born Khanyisa Bunu, the first woman to ever win the popular audience choice prize at last year’s Comics’ Choice Awards, and on Saturday Sigcau was wowing a Grahamstown crowd at the city hall.
Born in Ikwezi Township in Mthatha before relocating to the neighbouring Mbuqe Extension residential suburb, he said he was bitten by the love of comedy at a very young age.
“I was probably around four to five and used to watch local comedies, but then I saw Barry Hilton on the Comedy Showcase, a television show on SABC 3. I think I was around 12 at the time,” said Sigcau.
However it was not until he went to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to study for a bachelor’s degree in financial information systems in 2004 that he got his big break.
He went to an open mic session where top acts like Nik Rabinowitz and Ndumiso Lindi were performing.
“The organisers opened the floor and invited anyone who thought they had something they could do to the stage. I just went up there and did my three minutes and the students loved it,” he said.
He was later invited to perform at the famous Baxter Theatre during the Vodacom Funny Festival in 2007, alongside big names like “just what the doctor ordered” Riaad Moosa.
But once he had completed his studies he fell ill, and that is when he decided to come home for good.
Sigcau said one problem, not only in Mthatha but the rest of the Eastern Cape too, was that there weren’t many good venues for stand-up comedy.
“If we open more venues I believe that even bigger names will end up wanting to come here to perform instead of always going to East London and Port Elizabeth,” he said.
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