Britain’s Got Talent ‘Golden Buzzer’ winner is heading back to Edinburgh


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Chaponda, who has now performed all over the world, says, "I can't wait to have an actual audience in front of me and to make actual people laugh. Actual people. You'll cry with laughter; I'll cry with joy. It could get messy."
His new show, Apocalypse Not Now, was inspired by the comedian's experience of lock down, which he says "felt quite a lot like an apocalypse" as it robbed him of a full season at the Fringe as well as a national tour. Having spent the first two lock downs on his own, "trying not to go crazy," he also found the inspiration to write his latest show, which focuses on change, not just in the world but in himself.
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He says, "I’m ecstatic to be back after a year of not performing, being back in front of live audiences has been absolutely amazing, the tour has its genesis from the panic at the beginning of last year when we didn’t know what Covid was going to be, and how we flirted with the end of the world but the apocalypse didn’t come and we are still going."
Fame and success came later in life to Chaponda. Now 41, it was only four years ago that he was discovered by the masses when his audition for the ITV talent search saw him go straight through to the final, in which he came third.
In Apocalypse Not Now, the comedian, who once considered himself "Mr Independent," explores how his attitudes about being alone have changed - during lock down he invited a friend who was in an abusive relationship to move in with him. The compromise that came with such a move made him realise freedom isn’t everything, he reveals.
During the show, he also recalls how, over a three year period in Malawi, he went from golden boy to someone the locals threw stones at after being condemned by proxy when his father was wrongly accused of a crime of which he was later acquitted.
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Hide AdHowever, it was that life-changing appearance on Britain’s Got Talent that saw Chaponda win the hearts of viewers with his hilarious observations on life. By then, though, he was already no stranger to Edinburgh – he first appeared here in 2008 when he made the Best of the Fest line-up.
With his last show, Blah Blah Blacklist, critically acclaimed at the 2018 Fringe, he says he can't wait to be back in front of the mic.
"I really missed performing at the Fringe so coming back to Edinburgh is really exciting, the Fringe is like no other comedy festival, perfect strangers randomly hug you, people debate whether a show was good in late night bars with the intensity of MPs discussing Brexit, the street art performers are incredible and in 2018 somebody made a balloon art representation of one of my jokes. It’s a melting pot of talent and I can’t wait to come back to such a beautiful city."
Daliso Chaponda, October 13, The Stand, York Place, www.thestand.co.uk
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