'America's Got Talent' Golden Buzzer Comic Learnmore Is Hoping to Laugh His Way to $1 Million

No comedian has yet won America’s Got Talent in the 18 previous seasons it’s been on the air, but in Season 19, Zimbabwean funny man Learnmore Jonasi, who captured Terry Crews’ Golden Buzzer, is hoping to break the drought.

Truth be told, he’s the only standup among this season’s nine Golden Buzzers, so that could be the good news in that there isn’t a lot of competition. Plus, the fact that he is truly talented won’t hurt.

Following his audition, Simon Cowell told him, “I actually think you’re one of the funniest people we’ve had over the years.”

And Howie Mandel said, “We are so glad you’re here. Standup comedy is so hard as it is but to come from another country where English isn’t even your first language, not only did you communicate with everybody but tickled everybody, made everybody laugh, you are truly amazing.”

With compliments like that, you would have thought that Howie would have hit the Golden Buzzer for Learnmore, but it was actually Terry who did so.

“Honestly speaking,” Learnmore tells Parade in this exclusive interview, “I thought maybe I was going to get a Golden Buzzer from Howie because he always pushes for comedians. But then it ended up being Terry, which was a bonus to me, honestly. So, I was excited about that.”

Related: See the Golden Buzzer Act that Simon Cowell Says Is 'One of the Funniest People' Ever

The reason it was a bonus is that Learnmore has been a fan of Terry’s ever since, as a young boy growing up in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe, he watched him in the movie White Chicks, especially his breakdance moves. Winning Terry’s buzzer gave Learmore the opportunity to tell the AGT host how he had inspired him as an artist to try to write material that will translate to everybody’s world.

“I used to mimic him in all the breakdancing, especially expressions and all of that,” Learnmore says. “So, when I met him, to me it was so surreal. I was like, ‘Oh, here’s the guy that I used to watch when I was a kid.’ It was such an amazing moment just getting to talk to him a little bit. It was like I knew him from way back because there’s so much that we had in common. I was just like, ‘Oh, wow.’”

For his audition, Learnmore riffed on the comparison between life in his small village in Zimbabwe to life in America. For his performance tonight, he’s going to do more of that but also add more about adjusting to life in the U.S.

“It’s going to be a surprise, honestly,” he says. “I’ll be talking about my experience more in America and also, where I come from because that’s a part of who I am. Where I come from is part of my identity. So, I’m always looking at everything from the point of view of somebody that grew up in Chimanimani village. It’s always in there.”

And if he should win the $1 million, Learnmore plans to use a goodly portion of it to improve the state of the arts in his community.

“I want to bring back the arts, especially I want to start a nonprofit that helps young kids discover their talent, things that I wished I had had when I was growing up,” he says. “I also want to get into filmmaking. I want people in my village to start making films, writing, directing, all of that so that I can empower the people in my village to finally tell our own stories. So that’s the idea.”

And as caring and unselfish as that is, Learnmore is still human, so he will be spending some of the money buying things for himself.

“What are you talking about! I want to buy a lot for myself. I’m going to buy nice outfits. I’m going to spoil myself, but also give back,” he adds.

Related: Find Out Who Went Home on ‘America’s Got Talent’ Night 2 and Who Made the Semifinals!

Also during our Zoom chat, Learnmore talked about how his grandfather influenced him to get into comedy in the first place, how he came to America and then to AGT, and his dream of playing arenas and making comedy specials.

You grew up in a small village. I don’t think there’s a lot of comedians there. What was it that made you think, “Oh, I’m funny, I can do this”?

I fell in love with the idea of giving people an opportunity to laugh. I remember this specific day where I told myself I want to become a comedian. It was when my grandfather was worried about where he was going to get money to pay for my school fees and buy food. I remember him talking to my grandmother, getting worried and stressed. And the moment he turned on his TV, he started laughing.

So, to me as a kid, I was like, “Why, how are you laughing, and you are stressed? How is that possible?” I fell in love with that. I’ve always wanted to make people feel the same way that I saw my grandfather feeling, so that’s how I fell in love with comedy. And then I was one of the first-generation comedians.

But then you decided to bring your act to America. How did that happen?

I’ve always wanted to come to America. I feel like everything I’ve been doing back home in Zimbabwe, in Africa, was to prepare me to come here to America and be able to use my skills that I’ve learned back home in the American industry.

I’m glad that America’s Got Talent is one of those stages that gave me an opportunity in this country. So now I’m here because of AGT and just touring around America. It’s pretty amazing.

I looked it up. Zimbabwe has 16 official languages. English is one of them, though. Did you speak English before you came here?

Yes.

How many other languages do you speak?

So, I spoke English because it’s one of our languages. Also, I learned how to speak English from just watching stand-up comedy. It wasn’t really a good, traditional education, but I learned how to educate myself from watching TV, just watching comedians and learning different things from comedians.

I speak six languages. I speak Shona, Ndebele. I speak Xhosa, that’s one of our South African languages, a bit of Zulu. I speak Swahili, English.

Related: Alex Sampson on Taking the AGT Stage With a Song He Wrote Per Simon Cowell's Advice

You could have gotten a job as a translator.

I’m not fluent, but I can speak them. I might need to know how to write them.

Obviously AGT is this huge stage where millions of people get to see you. Why did you decide that this was the right time now to audition for it?

I came to America, and I was trying to do some open mic, trying to break into the industry. And nobody was taking me seriously really. You know, it was one of those "Oh, yeah, a comedian from Africa. Oh, nice." They never really saw me on any big stage. So when I submitted one of my tapes to AGT, they loved it. Everybody just loved it, and it worked out. By the time I went on AGT, I was ready. I feel like that time I knew who I was. I knew my story, where I come from. I could represent my people better. So it was perfect timing. It wasn’t planned; it was just a nice timing for me.

There’s Yvonne Orji, a comedian from Nigeria, and she is so funny. She was on Insecure with Issa Rae but she’s had HBO specials. My point being that there are successful comedians from Africa here in the States. Is that the dream? Do you want to get to the point where you’re making a comedy special?

Definitely. I’ve always wanted to be an African comedian with a global fan base. At some point I want to do world tours. I want to do arenas. I want to perform everywhere. I want to perform in China. I want to make everybody laugh. So, for me, I also want to tell my African story because nobody has ever really come from Zimbabwe and spoken about Zimbabwe like that, you know. So, I feel like this is my chance to be able to talk about it in that way and educate a little bit through comedy. So that’s the dream, global comedian. I want to perform everywhere.

Yvonne talks about how strict her parents were and her life experiences. It was just so universal, it just worked.

All African countries are similar in terms of the culture, in that there are similarities in terms of the things that we believe in. So, that’s how I can get to perform all over Africa and speak six languages because we understand each other. So, when I came to America, I had to start over and relearn the culture and communication in America. It is so different.

What is your life like in America? You live in Pittsburgh, why Pittsburgh of all places?

For me to come to America, there was a foundation that invited me to America. They found me during lockdown on a Zoom show. And they were like, “We would like you to come to Pittsburgh to visit there and just try and get into the industry in America. So, they helped me apply for my visa and all of that stuff, so I stayed with them in Pittsburgh for a year.

I fell in love with Pittsburgh, and I was like, “I’m just going to stay,” and I’m still there now and I love it. It’s nice. It’s very quiet. Because I perform around America a lot, I like to come back to Pittsburgh where it’s quiet and I can relax and write more and then go back on the road.

America's Got Talent airs Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

Next, Everything We Know About Season 19 of America's Got Talent