The search for Uganda’s funniest
Mar 05, 2009
THE first recording of Stand Up Uganda, the televised talent search from M-Net, started last Wednesday on a high note. <br>There were five comics with the first batch comprising only male contestestants.
By Nigel Nassar and Ernest Bazanye
THE first recording of Stand Up Uganda, the televised talent search from M-Net, started last Wednesday on a high note.
There were five comics with the first batch comprising only male contestestants.
Henry Tushabe’s idea was to recite a carefully memorised joke about how it was his grandfather, not Speke, who discovered the source of the Nile, while making faces.
The act was annoying. That joke is as old as the Nile itself, and besides, did he have to make faces? That was the beginning of what would last five days from Wednesday till Sunday, coupled with moments from trying-hard-to-be-funny to some really funny ones.
There were six recording sessions with the best comedian in each, chosen by a celebrity guest of that session, taking home $100 (sh195,000).
Navio, the Klear Kut rapper, gave the money to Kenneth Tusubira, the day’s second best, instead of Kenneth “Pablo†Kimuli, who beat all the five by far.
He denied Pablo the money on grounds that the Theatre Factory comedian already had a name in comedy.
It is just as well that Big Brother’s Morris Mugisha, the celebrity guest of a subsequent session, gave Pablo the $100.
The judges; Abbey Mukiibi, South Africa’s Joe Parker and Kaya Kagimu were the Paula Abdul-kind — encouraging during the first four sessions.
But after cutting the contestants down to 12, we saw the Simon Cowells creeping out of the wood works; with Mukiibi saying to a contestant he did not have any talent and should not be on the show, while Kagimu told another, “…you lost me, what exactly were you doing?†Parker too was not any nicer with his “what happened to you?â€
And that is how we came to the top eight in the last two sessions. So in the next session, which begins on Wednesday March 18, all eyes will be on the eight contestants.
They are Kenneth “Pablo†Kimuli, Herbert Mendo (a teacher) whose impressions of President Yoweri Museveni have made him Pablo’s biggest threat so far) and Kenneth Tusubira, a musician.
Others are Daniel Omara, Patrick Idringi, Mercilus Opio, Emmanuel Ssebakigye and Kizito Makanga. These can get better with the training they are undergoing before the next recording.
M-Net will screen the launch of the Ugandan comedy series on Monday, March 9, at 8:00pm.
THE first recording of Stand Up Uganda, the televised talent search from M-Net, started last Wednesday on a high note.
There were five comics with the first batch comprising only male contestestants.
Henry Tushabe’s idea was to recite a carefully memorised joke about how it was his grandfather, not Speke, who discovered the source of the Nile, while making faces.
The act was annoying. That joke is as old as the Nile itself, and besides, did he have to make faces? That was the beginning of what would last five days from Wednesday till Sunday, coupled with moments from trying-hard-to-be-funny to some really funny ones.
There were six recording sessions with the best comedian in each, chosen by a celebrity guest of that session, taking home $100 (sh195,000).
Navio, the Klear Kut rapper, gave the money to Kenneth Tusubira, the day’s second best, instead of Kenneth “Pablo†Kimuli, who beat all the five by far.
He denied Pablo the money on grounds that the Theatre Factory comedian already had a name in comedy.
It is just as well that Big Brother’s Morris Mugisha, the celebrity guest of a subsequent session, gave Pablo the $100.
The judges; Abbey Mukiibi, South Africa’s Joe Parker and Kaya Kagimu were the Paula Abdul-kind — encouraging during the first four sessions.
But after cutting the contestants down to 12, we saw the Simon Cowells creeping out of the wood works; with Mukiibi saying to a contestant he did not have any talent and should not be on the show, while Kagimu told another, “…you lost me, what exactly were you doing?†Parker too was not any nicer with his “what happened to you?â€
And that is how we came to the top eight in the last two sessions. So in the next session, which begins on Wednesday March 18, all eyes will be on the eight contestants.
They are Kenneth “Pablo†Kimuli, Herbert Mendo (a teacher) whose impressions of President Yoweri Museveni have made him Pablo’s biggest threat so far) and Kenneth Tusubira, a musician.
Others are Daniel Omara, Patrick Idringi, Mercilus Opio, Emmanuel Ssebakigye and Kizito Makanga. These can get better with the training they are undergoing before the next recording.
M-Net will screen the launch of the Ugandan comedy series on Monday, March 9, at 8:00pm.