By TERENCE MISELO
She is fast-becoming one of the biggest forces to reckon with in comedy. Watch her on stage, see her on TV or follow her social media pages, one thing is clear about her talent; it is extraordinary.
Now that she is even part of the cast on Zambia’s highly followed drama series ‘Mpali’, her influence has doubled.
Female comedian Vubwi is surely taking command of her trade.
You probably have seen her in her identifiable character of a perpetual drunk with a slurred speech. Vubwi can actually be irritatingly funny.
But who really is Vubwi?
She was born Mutinta Saliyah Miyanda and she is the last born and only female child her parents have.
Mutinta ventured into comedy in 2017 and adopted the Vubwi character. This is a personality that is seemingly undetached from her real self.
She plays it so well that it has become part of her.
“I’ve never sat down and decided “oh, I want to be a stand up Comedian”. I always used to think If I was to be out there, it would be because of music or poetry because these are some of the things I love to do so much but surprise, here I am always thinking of ways to be hilarious to people of all ages,” she said.
“Being a stand up Comedian just sort of happened. You’d be shocked that it took two years after I was out there to have my own Facebook page which was created for me by the way. People would always push me to create one and I’d always say I would, knowing deep down that I won’t because I thought I’m just a “one hit wonder”, you know? I was just having fun and patiently waiting to lose interest (cause I’ve tried quite a number of things and I just dropped them). Also, I don’t like that much attention from “strangers”, makes me unease. “
Mutinta who is a science student, graduating in September this year developed her Vubwi character way back from school.
“Initially the character was supposed to be insane but because I believe people do not choose to lose their minds. It could be hereditary, due to head injury or hormonal imbalance just to mention but a few. I was uncomfortable playing such a one and ‘improvised’ with a drunken one because people do choose to consume as much alcohol as they want,” she explained.
“There is no cool story or anything deep behind my stage name, my friends and I just thought the drunk character should have a funny name and we all agreed that Vubwi tickles a little for a district and that’s how the name was adopted.”
And where does her inspiration come from?
“A lot of people would suspect I get inspiration from Klint The Drunk, on the contrary, it’s Russell Peters and Travor Noah. Russell and Trevor are the first stand up comedians I ever watched in 9th grade but that’s not the reason they inspire me. I think they are amazing story tellers who express themselves very well and I love that about them,”she said advising young people to keep dreaming.
“One of my friends always says “dreaming is free”. You can achieve anything you set your mind to, sounds cliché but it is a fact. You need a certain amount of focus and determination to reach the top of the mountain, any distraction could make you miss a step and you’re back at the bottom. Where you are may not be where you want to be but it’s where you are supposed to be for now. Every level has got lessons that the future you will need. So be thankful, be focused and never stop dreaming.”
Apart from comedy, Mutinta loves to read, sing, write poetry, play basketball, jog, watch movies, listen to some good music and dance.
