7 of Nairobi’s Most Hilarious People
The world of comedy in Kenya is vast, it has many entry points and ways of participating. If you’ve been even a casual follower of the comedy space you’re probably acquainted with the likes of Daniel Ndambuki, frequently known as Churchill, and Eric Omondi. These men have been pioneers in the space and have been the most familiar faces in Comedy in Kenya for decades. Sketch and stand-up comedy are the most popular forms of comedic performance in Kenya, often with an emphasis on slapstick and physical humour. Many Kenyan comedians have grown and gained great popularity in this arena over the last decade. But there’s a new crop of comedians and artists in the space who are changing the way audiences in Kenya think about comedy.
With a stronger focus on storytelling and crowdwork, these comedians are building relationships with their audiences and engaging with them as peers rather than simply as performers. In this article I give you a little insight into some of Nairobi’s most notable comedians shaping the comedy landscape today.
Justine Wanda is quickly becoming a household name. From her online satirical news series “Fake Woke With Justine”, where she comments on the happenings of the country. From unfair government rulings, to misguided rules and regulations Justine uses her wit and punny satire to draw attention to the state of our political sphere. The series’ creation was born from her frustrations with her former job and its abusive labour laws. Justine wanted the chance to explain her frustrations in a way that every Kenyan would be able to understand and hopefully become more educated on the spaces they were occupying. She engages regularly with the people that inform her research, her pharmacist, the boda guy, she is in constant conversation trying to understand the truths on the ground.
Justine also regularly gets stage time performing as a stand-up comedian. Stand-up became the avenue through which she could channel her energy at the frustrations with her 9-5 job. It was 2017 and she was one act in a variety show and completely bombed her performance. The crux of Justine’s early career was balancing the chaos of her performance abilities with the stories around her punchlines. She would often find herself, swinging a little too hard into the world of dark humour. Justine often pulled from her background and real life experiences, but found often that audiences would teeter very quickly into the world of pity. Over the course of her career, this comic has begun to grasp the ability to balance the audiences feelings in her storytelling. Her performance and stage presence, as well as structure and the relationship she builds with the crowd have built her into a fan favourite.
Season 3 of “Fake Woke with Justine” is under way, soon coming to a screen near you.
Most “funny” friends in the friend group at some point hear the statement, “You should be a comedian!”. And for the most part that is really not true. Not every funny person can do stand-up. But in the case of Doug Mutai it actually worked. Getting into comedy in his last year of college hadn’t been his plan but when on a whim he decided to give it a shot, everything began falling into place. He started out, freestyling or improvising his shows, coming up with all his material on the spot, taking pleasure in seeing how he could make strangers laugh at his jokes. As time went on, and he started getting on at more and more open mics he realised he could actually prepare his sets and be intentional with the stories he was telling. Noticing what worked and what didn’t allowed him to curate a set that worked across multiple stages.
Doug is a pioneer as far as stand-up comedy in Nairobi is concerned. Having been in the game for the last 13 years, with part of his career existing in Canada where he went to school and then Nairobi where he’s set roots now. He came back to Nairobi in 2015 to really start understanding what the comedy scene in Nairobi was like. He began researching and meeting with other comedians in the space, Emmanuel Kisiangani and Brian Onjoro, and started talks of where they could each fit into the space.
Fast forward 7 years and Standup Collective is an alive and thriving group of comics shaping the landscape of comedy in the country. With shows in and outside of the capital city the group’s efforts are concentrated on elevating the standard of what good comedy can be. Much of the comedy in Kenya was built to work for TV, sketches and comedy with a bit more spectacle is what audiences are more equipped to consume. But Doug and Standup Collective are working to build more of a club comedy culture. “Nairobi Laugh Bar”, one of Nairobi’s first comedy clubs. Check them out at Chemi Chemi every Wednesday and Friday for their comedy open mics and Saturdays for a paid show full of hilarious comics.
For those long time fans of comedy in Nairobi, or those just getting started, you should check out the Nairobi International Comedy Festival. This 3 day festival happening in celebration and recognition of this growing artform will take place from April 10th to 13th. You can get your tickets here.
Born in Nairobi, raised on Netflix this next comedian is usually a surprise to most audiences. His deadpan humour and strong American accent mean he often stands out on the lineup. David Macharia, has only been doing comedy for the last 5 years, 4 if we account for the year Covid took from us. His entry into the space came at a young age, he was only 20 when he felt he was ready to try his hand at professional comedy. The young comic had always grown up funny, generally regarded as the stereotypical class clown. David spent much of his time in class trying to make his teachers laugh. As a child he recognised that if he could get the teachers to laugh, he had the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, he could continue getting the attention in class he desired and wouldn’t have to get in trouble for it. Making the adults in his life see the humour in his ways, was a challenge his young mind took pride in and was really the fuel that got him into doing standup.
A sentiment expressed among many of the comics I spoke to, was the idea that a comic doesn’t really find their voice until you’ve been at it, for about 10 years. In that regard David is still nascent in his journey and is enjoying his time learning his skill and shaping his comedic voice on stage. David’s comedy can be characterised by his quick wit and ability to cleverly oscillate between the benign and the violent. Comedy is a mastery of this skill. If a joke is too benign it lacks character, if it is too violent it becomes offensive and audiences are no longer open to siding with you. In his storytelling and idea sharing David relies on his relationship with the audience to move quickly between those two extremes, allowing them to trust him enough in the mundane, to follow him to his more extreme ideas, often about culture, identity, and his observations of the world. This skill has positioned him well to be considered one of Nairobi’s most fiery roasters, having featured on Showmax’s “Roast House” and being brought out to roast some of your favourite Kenyan personalities.The 10-episode series featured a different Kenyan celebrity/notable person and many of the comics featured on this list participated in bringing the vision to life.“Roast House” was the first of its kind as far as a roast show goes, and David came out on top, using his quick retorts and witty banter kept not only the audience on their toes, but the celebrities as well. David is the guy to get when you want to poke some fun at your events.
David has several standup shows coming up this month. Make sure to check them out on his Instagram page.
A natural talent, Ruth is one the newest fast-rising comics in the standup scene that I had a chance to speak to. I had the chance to speak to. Her start in the art came in March of 2021. And she’s seen growth in the space others can only dream of. Having been introduced to the world of stand-up comedy in 2020, after finding the Stand-up Collective online, Ruth immediately felt a connection to the craft. Stand up comedy in Kenya has seen an increase in the last couple of years. Many comedians have begun embracing this style of storytelling as a way to express ideas outside of the usual sketch comedy we’re used to in our country. As I spoke to Ruth she mentioned how she appreciates the intellectual nature of stand up. Her ability to observe the world and the thoughts and habits of people around her, came naturally and it gave her satisfaction to begin getting on stage just as a hobby.
Ruth’s foray into the world of stand-up comedy states as a test. She was having fun trying out this new skill she enjoyed and unlike many began seeing almost immediate success. She attributes much of her appeal to her reliability and fresh perspective as a woman in the space. The world of stand-up comedy is densely populated with men and this offers comics like Ruth the opportunity to come in and fill gaps in perspective. Her experiences with work, family, and relationships for example are uniquely different from many of her peers and this gave her a leg up as she started. Despite her joining the comedy scene later in the game, Ruth is highly knowledgeable of her craft. She speaks of the mix of art, skill and personality that is stand-up comedy. How one is able to leverage this, will determine how “good” or "not good” they will be at engaging a crowd. She’s done her due diligence to understand both the science and art of comedy. She states, “The art [of comedy] is knowing how to navigate the themes, your wording and expression. The science is understanding the structure and timing of a joke.” A good comic balances these two ideas with confidence.
Ruth has recently been nominated for a Kalasha Award for Best performance in a TV comedy for her episode of Comedy Riot on Showmax. You can vote for her on the Startimes app.
Amandeep Jagde, or as he is more commonly known, Aman, is not a veteran comic, though the young comic does have quite a bit of experience as far as the Kenyan stand-up comedy world is concerned, this comedian feels he still has so much to learn. Like most people starting out at something they’ve never tried before, Aman felt that he was not very good. Though he knew he was funny or rather knew he liked making people laugh from a young age, learning the ropes of stage performance was difficult for the former quiet kid. His friend group, as he grew more confident, knew him as a heckler. He didn’t draw too much attention but really appreciated the chance to make his friends laugh. The remnants of this confidence are what propelled him to first take the stage and attempt public speaking. He bombed, as they say in the comedy world. But the 5 minutes that he took on stage at a function at his university garnered the attention of Kenyan comedy heavyweight Churchill. From this attention grew the opportunity to perform on his wildly popular television show.
“Your story is the only one not being told.” Aman embraces this idea in his comedy. Personal stories and observational humour drive his storytelling. Aman doles out fresh moments of dark comedy, and irreverent banter with the audience, his satirical and sarcastic nature draw audiences into Aman’s comedy. The comedian has learnt the balance of performing jokes that although might be considered “risky” still has the audience comfortable enough to laugh. Shock value and “edgy humour” for edginess sakes lack a finesse that often leaves crowd’s feeling unsure of where they stand with the comic and Aman has mastered the art of warming up his crowd and tight walking the line between insult and jest.
Check Aman out live on his Youtube channel here.
Emmanuel is one of this scene’s comedy OGs. Having started in 2013, he and Doug are the longest standing comics on our list, and have seen the most ups and downs as far as making a career in comedy last here in Nairobi. Many of the younger comics on this list, attribute their ability “make it” in the space to these two comedians and the work they’ve done to create a culture around comedy in the city.
Emmanuel began on stage, as a result of watching a Trevor Noah special and simply believing he could also do it. He started getting on stage and practising his skill, despite the idea he had that he might get up and immediately start killing it. This of course did not happen but it humbled him and made him work harder. He managed to make enough progress figuring out how to work a room and tap into the energy created on stage and began work on The Churchill Show for 4 years. This specific style of comedy only resonated with him for so long before he eventually quit to see what else was out there. Emmanuel had a desire to tell stories differently. To engage with audiences in a way more comfortable and natural to him. Slower paced, story based standup comedy appealed to him more. But in the same way Doug could not find room to try practising this, Emmanuel felt alone in his pursuance of the comedy he wanted. So after a trip to South Africa to observe the comedy down there, he came back with a plan. Adjacently but still with the encouragement of Doug, he also began running open mics, for other comics like himself to get into the habit of standup comedy, especially comedy mostly in English.
Emmanuel’s comedy is centred around many of his own life experiences and believes that the best jokes are ones that you can relate to and speak to authentically. He notes that when he started speaking from his own life, he realised that there’s always someone who will either relate to you or who’s been curious about that experience. He believes it is important in order to build a relationship with the audience. In his job often as a host for either open mics or paid shows, he has had to exercise this a great deal and definitely moves as an authority in the space.
You can check out Emmanuel’s monthly show on Fridays at Kez Organics, as well as on his podcast, The Kisiangani Podcast on Youtube.
You might know him from his time on NTV’s “Too Much Information with Ty Ngachira'' or his headlined episode of “Comedy Riot” on Showmax, or even his skits online, either way you’ve come to know about him, he’s not somebody you’re going to forget. Having been doing comedy for approximately 7 years, Ty has been around the block a few times. But this was not the path he thought he would take. His university days were spent writing and performing spoken word poetry as well as competing in poetry slams. His work was well-received in the many churches he would often perform in, with many judges commenting on the humorous nature of his pieces. As he continued developing his poetry, audiences began demanding more defined stand up comedy. Ty says he got into telling jokes on stage by accident.
But in December 2018, he dived in full force and got his first paid gig as a stand-up comedian at the improv show BYSSF, a showcase where many of our most notable Kenyan talents have gotten their start. His early comedy could be generally defined by his heavy use of puns and word play. He also had a strong grasp of accents and found that that style of humour came naturally to him and that the audiences really liked that. As time has gone on, he’s been intentional about further developing his skill as a storyteller. Ty began exploring interesting and new ways to use tags (short jokes in the middle of a story), to enhance his time on stage. Much of comedy is observation, the ability to witness and report on the everyday affairs of our lives. And many comedians have the ability to rest there, at simple observation. Ty speaks of his growth in comedy and attributes it to when he was able to start weaving in his own opinions into his jokes Where the story you're telling isn’t simply a recounting but an experience with value to be extracted. He takes time to garner his own opinion and this is what keeps audiences coming back for more.
Ty will be shooting his first live-taping of a comedy special on the 6th of April at the Louis Leakey Auditorium in Nairobi, make sure to get your ticket at this link.
