Pablo marks a decade of jokes

Kenneth Kimuli is a journalist by training but is more known for his stand up comedy than his radio job. COURTESY PHOTO

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Kenneth Kimuli popularly known as Pablo among his fans celebrates 10 years in the comedy industry today. Lydia Ainomugisha caught up with him for his take on his journey and life as a comedian

Kenneth Kimuli better known by his stage name Pablo, is witty. One can’t help laughing at how he turns everything around him into a joke even when having a formal interview.
But this has been Pablo’s life since childhood. He recalls as a child, he used to tell jokes to his peers. Like the idiom, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, perhaps he just inherited his rib-tickling character from his parents.
He says his parents were humorists of their generation. Before his parents passed on, his house was always warm and full of jokes.
“My dad would tell you about three stories on an evening and you would fail to choose your best because they were all funny,” he narrates with a beaming smile. “My mother was an entertainment prefect at Tororo Girls School.”
But that didn’t start with his parents, Pablo adds, because his grandfather married his grandmother at 14 because she was the best dancer in their village.
Background
Born to the late Steven Isingoma and Enid Kirungi Isingoma, Kimuli was raised by his uncle, Robert Mushagara in Mbarara District.
With a dream to be a journalist, he was admitted to Makerere University to do a Bachelor of Commerce, an offer he turned down, opting for a diploma at Uganda Management Institute (UMI).
But before he reported to UMI, a relative told him about a journalism course at Namasagali University. He packed his bags to Kamuli. At Namasagali, he did a Bachelor of Mass Media, Journalism and Creative Writing.
Becoming a comedian
In 2004, as a freelance writer at Daily Monitor, Pablo was assigned to go and check out a new comedy group that was starting out in town. That is how he met with the Theatre Factory under veteran actor Philip Luswata. He kept going back to meet them during their rehearsals.
At the rehearsals, Pablo often gave them a few tips and told them stories they could integrate into comedy. They would later to extend an invitation asking him to join them. His cousin Kwezi Kaganda was already part of the group, and he reassured him that all will be okay.
Julius Lugaaya, a director at Theatre Factory says, “When we created Theatre Factory we were creating an opportunity for young people to exploit their talent and shine”. Pablo is actually one of the fruits of the group.
His first performance was at TLC restaurant on George Street in Kampala. He jokes that the cast was bigger than the audience on the night. He took a stage name Rukandema, a village boy from Mbarara but his boss, Belinda Obura at Power FM had advised him to use Pablo on radio.
“People who watched me perform related my voice to Power FM’s Pablo and said I speak like Pablo. They soon adopted the name and started calling me Pablo marking the end of Kenneth or Rukandema.”

First pay
Pablo’s first pay was a silver platter of rice from Travis Kazibwe commonly known as Dr Tee who ran TLC. Then, that’s how the cast was rewarded for putting up a good performance. Soon the audience grew as fans invited friends to the shows. Dr. Tee would later start charging them Shs1,000. The charge soon rose to Shs3,500 before the crew shifted to the National Theatre.

First joke
Pablo says his first joke in the comedy industry was about himself. For the many people who have watched him know this joke because he repeats it very often.
“I knew I would become a comedian the day I was born. After giving birth to me, my father walked into the maternity ward on that day, took one look at me and asked my mum: is this a joke? And here I am a living joke,” he tells laughing audiences.
He said he chose to start with himself because he believes that although there are lots of things to satirise about in the world, the best joke anybody can tell is about themselves.
Pablo tells societal jokes relating to everyday life and growing up in the village but he is never vulgar like many comedians who have made a career from being uncouth. To this, he says, he is not a big fun of below the belt jokes because there is a thin line between fame and shame.
Far from his Christian background, the father of two boys says he choese these kinds of jokes because one doesn’t have to be a Christian to have values.

Crafting jokes
Ten years in the industry is quite a long time so, some fans have often complained about hearing the same jokes.
Kimuli admits to this and says this sometimes happens. “Even the best comedians repeat jokes after sometime. There is nowhere we read a script of jokes so creating new material can be quite challenging. We however know that a joke told twice is never funny so always I endeavour to have new ones,” he explains. It is even much worse given that there is always the same audience that appreciates comedy.

Surviving in the industry
Apart from staging comedy nights every last Friday of the month at National Theatre, Pablo says comedians look for other lucrative ways to make money.
“Comedy is steadily being accepted, especially among the elites, so some corporate companies pay us through commissions to make jokes in their interest,” he tells of how comedians make extra money.
Through social media, some people watch his video clips and invite him abroad to perform. He says it is at these international performances that he is told they met him first through his youtube clips. Pablo, 35, has performed in Zambia, Tanzania, United States, South Sudan, Kenya and Nigeria.

Challenges
Like any other business, comedy too has its trials. On top of the list is the lack of a copyright law enforcement and hence plagiarism is unabated. There are weak laws protecting one from telling other people’s jokes.
The most recent was at the launch of the recent Big Brother Africa reality show when Arthur, a Rwandan housemate told a joke Pablo knows is his own. Social media was awash with criticism to the housemate but this soon died out without punitive measures. The other problem is that people hardly ever take him seriously even when he goes out for a business discussion. This is a story of many a comedian.

Future plans
After 10 years in the industry, Pablo says he never gets tired of being a comedian. He only plans on making his career even better. Some of his future plans include a comedy club and this is work in progress.
At the moment, he and Herbert Ssegujja known as Mendo are mentoring young comedians under a group, comfort clinic. They have so far mentored 12 people and the beneficiaries are already performing at Waikiki every Thursday under a group Punchliners.
Mendo who mimicks President Museveni says he and Pablo started this group in 2012 after he returned from the American Comedy Institute in United States of America. He says he looks at Pablo as his comedy buddy, mentor and father of professional standup comedy because he was the first Ugandan to do this kind of comedy at National Theatre.
Pablo adds, “I got training in comedy so I want to also mentor other people to do it at a professional level. “I want to revolutionalise comedy and make it a formidable force to reckon with,” he says.