2020-21 has felt quite a lot like an apocalypse for Daliso, who by now should have done a full season at the Edinburgh Fringe, a national tour, and who knows how many more gigs, as one of the hardest-working comics out there. (We accept it’s been a bit like an apocalypse for quite a few other people, too, but they can bloody well write their own press releases.)
In typical style, though, the Malawian maestro has made lemonade out of lemons. He was one of the stars of last summer’s Comedy Carpool drive-in series, featured heavily in Mark Watson’s 24-Hour Watsonathon, and has built a whole new following online with his daily crowd-sourced comedy shows – one of the success stories of the pandemic, not to suggest that Daliso had anything to do with the outbreak.
Finally, though, this enterprising and infectious (not in that way) comic gets to bring his enormous personality and fine joke-writing skills back to a flesh-and-blood audience, with a brand-new show he’s been building up to for (in the circumstances) slightly longer than he would have liked to. As great as it was, seeing him hit the national spotlight once again with appearances on the Britain’s Got Talent Christmas Special and Royal Variety Show last December, the best way to experience Daliso Chaponda is in his element, live on stage.
And since it hasn’t quite been an apocalypse after all, you can expect impeccable stagecraft, satire, and – to judge from the previous show – some sort of revelation about people trying to assassinate his dad which comes out of left-field. There aren’t many comedians in the UK with the voice of Daliso: this new tour is absolutely not to be missed. We advise getting tickets before they make comedy illegal all over again.
Tickets & Info watersidearts.org/daliso | 0161 912 5616
Sat 29 January | 19:30
