Editor’s Note: This is a review that appeared on a Kenyan website about our very own Patrick Idringi Salvado aka Shrek aka Idi Amin Dada.
…..Finally the potty mouth threw in the towel and introduced some comedian from Uganda called “Salvado”.
Never heard of him, but the clutch of Ugandan media in the room cheered riotously. I honestly didn’t think he would hack the diverse demographic in that room. I knew he would embarrass us East Africans.
He stealthily walked up to the stage wearing a goofy smile, dramatically surveying the crowd as if surprised at it’s size, and telling Kagiso who had introduced him as “this next motherfucker” that he isn’t a “motherfucker” (hehe) in that Ugandan accent that they use to call clothes “Clothez.”
Salvado had that everyday-people face. Seemed like the guy you would ask to watch over your drink in a bar so you can dart into the men’s.
“I have never stood in a room with so many white people,” he opened the gambit, “I feel like Obama.” Kakaka! Crowd laughed and he was off to the races.
Here is the thing with Salvado; he was not just hilarious, he was hysterical. Every joke was delivered with the right punch. Laughter drowned the room. Everything – tables, chairs – floated in this mirth.
You laughed so hard and even before you could recover you actually feel another one building up under your shoes, like a seismic wave.
His material was fresh, clever and delivered with a hidden smile. I laughed until I teared up. Even when he was making Ugandan jokes, he still managed to make everybody relate. From a certain point on, the room succumbed and conspired to make him funnier. You could feel the room root for him, this chubby-ish, largely unknown man from Uganda.
At some point he made the cardinal mistake of telling a stolen joke. For a comedian, stealing a joke that is already online is like borrowing someone else’s boxers. This level of callous laziness for a man of his immense talent astonished me.
Salvado, if you are reading this, that joke about Indians and them giving a discount on time isn’t yours, my brother. Don’t set that precedence.
He had some sex jokes too, and everybody loves a funny sex joke, but the difference is that he wasn’t too explicit. The thing with sex jokes is that you have to let the audience imagine the more gritty imagery, unless you are performing to a group of virgins.
When he got off the stage, to a standing ovation, I wondered as I wiped my tears away, if we were to put one of our own comedians up on a multicultural stage like that, would they be able to crack it?I pictured the Mtumishi guys singing their hearts out, and an American chap turning to a French chap and asking, “By the way, did they ever make a sequel of The Gods Must be Crazy?”