Africa laughs
Actor Patricko Mujuuka couldn’t hold back his laughter. Photo by EDDIE CHICCO
Put Nigeria’s Basket Mouth, Kenya’s Eric Omondi, Zimbabwe’s Carl Joshua, Uganda’s Salvado Idringi, Ann Kansiime, Alex Muhangi and Mendo Sevo on one stage with emcee Mich Egwang and you will be sure to leave Kampala intoxicated with bouts of laughter. Rib shattering laughter, tear dropping hilarity in “full-full condition” at that! And boy did the stand-up comedians tickle the city during the Club beer sponsored Africa Laughs show, hosted by the Krackers Comedy Outfit at Imperial Royale Hotel on Friday.
Coming only days after Pablo and the Continental Comedian show that brought Nigeria’s Klint da Drunk to town (there’s something about Nigerian comedians and Kampala of late), one would imagine Kampalans had had enough but the show had almost twice as more people as the previous show; over 800, with the hall packed beyond capacity. And yes, perhaps they even laughed more.
Well, some of our own did their best at recycling and cracking predictable jokes with Alex Muhangi giving 100 reasons to keep a Ugandan woman, “Whenever she gets annoyed, give her your ATM card and pin code.” Fine this got the ladies screaming but Muhangi was not at his best, at least for the night. Oh yes, he went to the point of replaying Prince Emma’s joke, shared days ago at Klint’s show; of a man who died and was shown a clock in heaven that records all the lies we tell while alive and President Yoweri Museveni’s was moving so fast that God took it to his office as a fan.
Same joke, same characters, different places. It took the intervention of Ann Kansiime, whose cheeky, ‘local’ and comical demeanor of a village Mukiga girl throwing jibes at top female musicians like Jackie Chandiru of the Gold Digger fame put the audience in typical comedy mood. The type of mood that Zimbabwe’s Carl Joshua benefited from saying, “Ugandan women are so beautiful that I feel like marrying Straka and Uganda Cranes is the best team in the world.”
Kenyan Eric Omondi, the light skinned, rogue like boy who claims to come a spitting distance away from Barrack Obama’s residence in Kenya, could perhaps have been the man of the night, if whispers after the show that ended at midnight are anything to go by.
There was just something about him, his jokes coming naturally on stage and the feel-at-home way he did his thing that engaged the crowd. And true, Omondi served a cocktail of jokes, from school mottos like “school fees negotiable” to waiters who take customers’ orders around the table only to reveal, “But we only have Fanta.”
Having picked pace, after Salvador Idringi taking the house back to nursery school rhymes, and his fiancé coming on stage to act a part, the well lit, serene stage was now set for Basket Mouth, who stepped on stage, clad in jeans, jacket and shirt. The former church choir instrumentalist exuded that “I have mastered my art” confidence, not letting his Nigerian accent get on the way of warming his audience. Like Omondi, his jokes too come off as natural.
The father of two thrilled many with differences between whites and blacks, and the usual suspect; women, “If you call a woman and she tells you she’s not fine, curse the gods, that is a bill.” Oops! Basket meant to get really nasty, with obscene jokes that still cracked ribs, attracting public demand for his viral Two Things comic story. But for a show that ended at midnight, some bedroom jokes might just have been a good weekend dose.
