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Innovation won’t wear out comedians in the market
2006-09-23 08:49:26
By Robert Odundo
Many modern local comedy acts fall flat because they lack wit and creativity but ’Bambo’ and the like still carry the day if they have to do something extra.
This is not a joke. An American comedian once revealed that he suffered from a recurrent dream in which his gag writers had deserted him, leaving him flatfooted and unfunny on stage.
Many of those involved in the institution of laughter would agree that a joke is not a laughing matter, and earning a living on laughs has always had its hazards.
Ask Babu Ayubu, Steve Nyerere, Mzee Small, Mzee Jongo, Pembe and King Majuto, just to mention some of the people in the world of usanii — art or comics — and they would tell you that it requires keeping pace with innovation and being modern, otherwise one would wake up and find oneself outpaced with time and antics/humour applied archaic.
For example, when Lenny Bruce, the scurrilous American comic and author of ”How to talk Dirty and Influence people”, performed at a London nightclub, a riot broke out.
The manager of the establishment was punched on the nose by an outraged patron and the comedian pelted with eggs.
With characteristic insouciance, the comedian, who was nick-named ”Dirty Mouth”, later described the show as ”great hit” and thanked the audience for giving him a ”standing ovulation”.
To entertain the public is as old as human beings and if in doubt ask Remmy Ongala now a born again Christian only focusing on hymns.
Ongala known as ”Sura mbaya” would say that music is not hooliganism, it’s for soothing, entertaining and so forth.
Remember in the Bible, King David was always being entertained by harps and flutes apart from comedians who had to appease him.
King Saul, his predecessor had terrible brain retardation and had also to employ a comedian to ”relieve” him the stress. All these show comics are part of life.
Laughter can even be fatal, and a British television viewer was said to have died of excessive mirth occasioned by watching a favourite show featuring laughs. But in the true spirit of never-say-die good humour, his wife wrote to the producers thanking them for having made her husband’s last moments hilarious.
No one is rehearsing with his/her life, therefore it is pointless to die of boredom and this would only come close if our comedians have decided to become copycats ad refuse to become original and go the natural way to flatness and monotony.
Comedy, as we know, or knew it, has become a thing of the past if originality is not sought, because the array of latter-day comedians at the comedy cocktails literally fail to deliver the punch line. They instead stick to the traditionally schoolboy shows which appeal mostly to children.
Our so-called stand-up comedians have either refused to be creative, or they are simply not witty. And the fact that most of those actors who participate in the comedy cocktails are learned, simply proves that creativity is not taught but calls for ingenuity.
It is common knowledge that comedy can’t thrive without wit, and the Kaole group for example have proved that beyond doubt.
It is because of originality that has backed also the ”Splended group entertainers” to survive in the market and sell their style of slapstick humour and stand-up comedy standing the test of time.
According to a renowned writer, Rayner Ngonji, stand-up comedy is perhaps the easiest field of entertainment for new talent to enter, because many smaller venues hold events where the inexperienced can perform comedy before a live audience.
However, perhaps more than any other performer, the stand-up comedians is at the mercy of the audience, which is an integral element of the act.
A truly adept stand-up comedian must nimbly play off the mood and taste of any particular audience, and adjust his or her routine accordingly. The test of a master stand-up comedian is the ability to not only face down a ”heckler” but win over and entertain the rest of the crowd with a resort.
Lack of wit is solely responsible for the fickle performance of many groups now facing natural death, despite their fanfares which made them very popular for a while, and are now struggling to make a comeback.
They have left the stage to street comedians and funny acrobats who, though less educated, have managed to adapt to the times and remain relevant, as is evident from the number of passers by who stop to listen to them.
Unlike street comedians with ”stage managed pregnancies” and faces coated with black soot, many entertaining groups with educated comedians tend to rely so much on politicians, who only come and go and leave them flatfooted without advancing their groups and lives.
Lately they have been trying to reinvent themselves by doing ”impressionist” acts of imitating how leaders or other luminaries talk and this is very encouraging, but they need to do more because this is their areas of specialisation.
An impressionist, as the word suggests, is a performer whose act consists of giving the ’impression’ of being someone else by imitating that person’s voice and mannerism. But our comedians lose out on this when they try to dress like the people they are parodying.
Kaole group say that an impressionist usually refers to a comedian who specialises in such performance, and who had developed a wide repertoire of impressions, and regularly seeks to add to them often to keep pace with current events.
Someone who imitates one particular person without claiming a wide range, such as a look-alike, is instead just an impersonator.
Usually, the most ”impressive” aspect of the performance is the vocal infidelity to the target - usually a politician or famous entertainers.
Props such as hats, wigs or glasses can be employed but these are now considered old fashion and cumbersome: the voice is expected to carry the act.
Another factor that has made our comedians unfunny is the fact that they are not satirical and tend to rely on direct jokes to tickle audiences.
Many foreign shows are very comical and really entertaining like Will and Grace, Just shoot me, All of us, Two Guys and a Girl, Two and a Half Men, Jack and Jill, Even Stevens, My wife and kids, Ned and Stacy, Boy meets World, Malcolm in the Middle and others have been on our TV screens, and manage to grip their audiences because of the satirical lines thrown in to spice up the acts.
A whole story line needs to be a joke - as our comedians try to make them, even though it helps if it’s funny, but the satirical lives make the audience think, and some even get the joke long after the show is over, and laugh on their own.
”Cracking jokes is not a laughing matter as it takes a lot of hard work and innovatiness to make people laugh.
The comical scene has been invaded by many clowns who do not know that making people laugh is serious business, and it’s easier to be a clown”, says Ndaki, a fun’s stalwart, adding: ”In stand-up comedy you have to sit down and think”.
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