Comic Pastor laments poor treatment

By Tonderai Zvimba

Online comedy sensation Prosper Ngomashi, better known as Comic Pastor, has lamented the alleged poor treatment he received from the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo organisers.

The comedian from Harare, who was in the city this past weekend, performed at the Intwasa Comedy Night 1 at Divine Car Wash on Friday night alongside Zwexy Mackena and Mandla Da Comedian.

Narrating his ordeal to this newspaper after his performance, the Comic Pastor said the organisers had committed to take care of all his travel and accommodation logistics in Bulawayo but did not keep their word.

“I spoke to Nkululeko Nkala, the festival’s director and he told me that they’ll sort out everything from my accommodation, food and transport, but things did not turn out that way,” narrated the Comic Pastor.

“The Intwasa people paid the hotel fee for one night (September 27) — the day I arrived in Bulawayo. I was performing on September 28 and was told to check-out the following morning yet I was performing that evening.

“I asked them to at least meet me halfway by paying for my stay during the day so that I could checkout when I was going for my performance, but they were not willing to co-operate. I ended up paying for myself.”

On his transport, he said: “We had agreed that after my performance, they would pay for transport to take me back to Harare because I had a performance in Harare on the following day (September 29). They told me they couldn’t pay for my return and I had to pay for myself.

“For food, they only provided breakfast on September 28.”

The comedian said it was sad to be treated that way adding that if it was an international act, the organisers would have treated them better.

“If it was an international artiste, would they have treated them that way? They were not even communicating with me. The only time they called was when they were asking me to come for the show.

“Artistes should be treated with respect. I think that’s why Clive Chigubhu did not show up,” he said.

Chigubhu was a no show and was replaced by Mandla Da Comedian at the last hour.

Contacted for comment, Nkala denied the claims by the Comic Pastor.

“We appreciate that he’s talented but he just wants to create unnecessary drama. We paid him everything we had agreed on and after his performance, he started claiming demands that we didn’t agree on.

“He also started threatening to beat our administrator,” said Nkala.

Despite the drama, the Comic Pastor wowed the festival audience with a great performance of his social and political jokes. The Chronicle