By Dixon Bond Okello
There is no room at all for laziness in the art of comedy. The business of comedy is serious, fluid, dynamic and fast-paced. It takes only the talented comedians to keep up. One challenge that the stand-up comedian has to deal with, is keeping up with the volume of jokes that flood social media.
Comedians who are on social media should know that there are certain expectations their followers have. Besides parading the tickets for shows and their managers’ contacts for bookings, followers on social media, expect some witty lines once in a while from them,the same way they expect news updates from media houses.
It has become very difficult for some stand-up comedians in Uganda today to actually “crack ribs” or “generate thousands of laughter”. Some stand-up comedians try to justify their inability to make people laugh by saying that if some people do not laugh at their jokes, it is not because their jokes are not funny but because the listeners have personal problems that outweigh the strength of their jokes. It therefore, rests on the stand-up comedians to sharpen their skills by avoiding repetition of jokes
But the truth is that most Ugandan comedians fail to identify the climax of a joke. The only selling point left for a stand-up comedian(now that almost every Ugandan is a comedian) is his or her persona on stage. For instance, Anne Kansiime’s jokes are ordinary but she does the extra-ordinary with her voice, accent and “silly laughter”… Patrick Idringi Salvado’s jokes are slices of life, but become jokes through his modulation. Mc Kapale is not fluent in English, but knows how to engage the audience with his “silly” Luganda jokes
Yes, stand-up comedians have to rise up to the billing.