Windhoek
Namibian award winning comic, Courage Condo, well known in the comic industry as Courage the comedian, has ventured into the sketchy comedy as part of his 2016 projects.
Aunty Mavis is the new art of Courage, a sketchy comedy released on social network such as Facebook and Instagram on daily basis. According to Courage, Aunty Mavis is an “Illegal” Zimbabwean lady who is in Namibia in search of a better life and is looking for a mate at home affairs whom she can marry in order for her to get a visa for herself and her extended family back home. Aunty Mavis main role in the comedy is the unofficial spokesperson of Zimbabweans outside Zimbabwe and as a mother, she loves to give free funny advice. She is a typical aunty who likes things and is very opinionated about everything going on even if it is none of her business.
“I came up with this initiative in addition to typical stand-up comedy because I am not on stage every day, so people who appreciate my art have something to watch while waiting for stand-up shows. I also came up with this because it is a joint venture with Pelly Fresh Queen (Namibians biggest sketch comic), who is also teaching me more about sketchy comedy,” says Courage.
He adds that people who follow her comedy career love the Aunty Mavis. “I have gotten good responses, and people keep asking for more because of Aunty Mavis,” he says.
Courage the Comedian was born 25 years ago and become one of the biggest stand-up comedians in Namibia. He is best known for his comedy focusing on life of a Zimbabwean in a foreign country. He has won awards such as “Last comic standing 2011” and “Male comedian of the Year 2014.” Having been born in Zimbabwe’s third biggest city and moving to Bulawayo at a very young age, Courage got the opportunity to learn both Zimbabwe’s principal languages. This gave him the nickname, Coloured, since he was fluent in both tribal languages. He then moved to Namibia to pursue his tertiary education at the University of Namibia (Unam) in 2010 when Zimbabwe was facing the harshest economic crisis.
At Unam Courage aspired to become a DJ and had a good run djying at university functions. However as a Media and Drama student, he was introduced to comedy in 2011 by a class mate, Keith Nkosi, who was doing an arts marketing project. His plan was to become a comedian just for that project but a week into it he was discovered by one of Free Your Mind stand up comedy founder, Slick the Dick, who also happened to be one of Namibia’s top comics
Three weeks after joining Free Your Mind, Courage got his big break when he was lined up among the biggest comics in Namibia entitled “free your mind’s Bread, Butter and Chicken”. A month after that his career shot up when all the Comics had a comedy battle in the “The Last Comic Standing” when he emerged the winner . To date he is known as the first ‘Last Comic Standing. Since Courage the comedian has never looked back.
Having appeared in more than 40 shows, he has developed his talent and started including improvisation in his sets. His comedy evolved from just being Zimbabwean-oriented into being something more international and relatable to by anyone wherever from. He also grew his ability to observe and make comedy out of everything and anything.
In 2014 he became courageous enough to have his first one man show entitled “University of comedy, a history lecture on Courage” which was all about showing who Courage is. Two months down the line he got crowned Male comedian of the Year at Free Your Mind comedy awards. The same year he also joined forces with one of Free Your Mind comedians, Chiro, and together they became C-square. This duo has done numerous shows but they are best known for their viral video series called Boot News focussing on Namibian current affairs, and the rest of the world.