The Sunday Mail
IT is generally agreed that the year 2015 dubbed, “Gore reDzidzo” — The Year of Lessons, Schooling and Education, whichever tickles your fancy — lived up to its theme. I love how this “Gore reDzidzo” thing just fits in.
Well, here is to hoping that everyone learnt something new and today you stand ready and geared up to turn all those lessons into practice. The awards season is upon us and while the Americans are already knee deep into dishing out those golden statues and emblems, locally the season officially kicks off next month.
The People’s Choice and the Golden Globes Awards were held last week, and I have got to say they set the bar very high for this year’s Oscars also known as the 88th Academy Awards.
The prestigious awards will be held on February 28 with comedian Chris Rock returning to host the gig after about 10 years.
Locally, we have the National Arts Merit Awards aka Nama, the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) and the infamous Zim dancehall Awards to look forward to. The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, by virtue of being the custodian of the most prestigious awards ceremony in the land, the Nama awards, has the herculean task opening proceedings next month and setting the tone for the rest of the events.
Information at hand indicates that the usually star-studded event will be held on February 13, with the nominees being unveiled a week before. Now, as I was live streaming the Golden Globes last week, I could not help but spare a thought or two for my beloved local awards ceremonies and the struggles they go through year in, year out.
That said, I have decided to dedicate this week’s instalment, of your favourite read, to offer a few pointers to the NACZ on how they can improve their hosting skills and finally put some glitz into proceedings.
One of the biggest observations I have made about the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and their award ceremony is that they seem to take themselves way too seriously.
Yes, it is a fact that the Nama awards are the most prestigious in the land. And yes, the Namas are the biggest accolade in the Arts genre, but they is simply no reason to formalise the ceremony.
You are allowed to have fun organising and hosting an awards ceremony. The three most important words when hosting an event is “planning, planning, planning”. The minute the ceremony ends, planning for the next event should immediately begin. Yes, you can take a minute or two to soak in the praise or criticism but the minute that ends, planning for the next event should start.
However, I find it extremely funny that the nominees of the event are yet to be announced or finalised. The biggest advantage with forward planning is that it allows for time to make an event out of the nominee unveiling and the actual event.
Another important aspect of organising the stellar awards event is choosing the ideal hosts. The Americans, who stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of award shows, have made the hosting gigs of award ceremonies a big thing.
I have nothing against the likes Tich Mataz and other previous hosts but they simply do not have what it takes to liven up such a star-studded event.
While Tich, whom I believe has hosted more than his fair share of these events, is always elegantly dressed and speaks with such eloquence, the guy has the wit of a wet towel.
Comedians have proven to be good hosts and I believe it is high time we give them a try.
I hear Carl Joshua Ncube is supposed to be one of the “funniest acts” in the country; maybe NACZ should give the guy a call.
Opening monologues are also a very important part of any hosting gig but they should not be too long; instead they should be precise, funny and most importantly relevant. Ricky Gervais made a fool of himself insulting and making fun of his guest, all in jest mind you, during last week’s Golden Globes.
Ratings plummeted yet again, they were a couple of suspect wins and the show was not that much memorable but everyone was talking about after was how entertaining the Brit was with his unique blend of crude humour.
Before him Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, arguably the two funniest women alive, had hosted the gig for three years straight and together the three comedians have hosted the show for seven straight years.
Gervais’ controversial appeal and Fey and Poehler’s wit, more often than not, hid the show’s weaknesses and shortcomings.
Note to the NACZ: Controversy is not always a bad thing!
Award show banter is another aspect of award shows we are yet to grasp and as such there are two main ways of going about it. We can either go with the scripted banter route, which depends largely on delivery and that can be very difficult.
The live performances in the history of these events have been deplorable. Lacking in creativity, lousy sound systems and sometimes lip syncing are some of the heinous crimes that have been committed on stage.
Here, proper selection of live acts and forward planning can help curb this trend. The public can also help by at least making an effort to dress to impress, maybe only then will the red carpet mean something in Zimbabwe.
