Artist of the Week: Brian Onjoro
“I stood there, grounded and looked at that engineering class. Then I turned and looked at the Kenya National Theatre and my heart was pulled to the theatre.”
Brian Onjoro, a stand-up comedian based in Nairobi sat across our writer at the UP Magazine offices’ balcony and over the course of twenty to thirty minutes, the University of Nairobi Engineering student turned comedian rattled a plethora of inspirational messages and mantras that he has lived by.
“My parents were furious. To date my mum is till at me and it has never resonated in her how I quit an engineering course to make people laugh. Insane? Mad? Nope she thought am possessed and she has since been seeking the help of the clergy to intervene and cast out the ‘demons of comedy,” Brian Onjoro continues. He seems to get a kick out of it.
For over two years, Brian Onjoro took the courage to move to a totally different and new hemisphere he felt he had the passion for comedy, his heart was at home on stage making people laugh.
“Being a comedian in Kenya and Nairobi for that matter is quite tough. There are no laid out structures. We mostly depend on one godfather Daniel ‘Churchill’ Ndambuki and that alone is not sustainable,he nonetheless inspires me with his Churchill Show and what he has done for comedy in Kenya”
So why would a young man leave behind a promising career, along with advice from friends and family, to pursue a career he had never been exposed to?
Because Onjoro is not like everyone else. Blessed with the amazing ability to crack jokes that people can resonate with- and sticking to his principle of not doing tribal jokes terming them a cliché- this young man who is inspired by anyone who is starting something new out there is a man on a mission; a mission only he can accomplish, “…to branch out as an African comedian brand export!”. The arduous process of trying to eke a living out of comedy would begin in earnest for Brain Onjoro at the KBC’s ‘Last Laugh Competition’ that sought to nurture comedy talent in the grassroots, he blossomed and flourished, even went ahead to win.
Call him a trailblazer, a maverick, a pioneer, insane or even comedy possessed whatever the title, Onjoro has his eyes set on the price firmly. He knows even a blink can set him off target!
He is already working on a comedy show set to be aired on KBC dubbed ‘The Comedy Arena’, he is bringing down Juniper Kitchen with a show dubbed Nairobi Laughs this August and his next project is a one man comedy show, ‘Underdog Complex’- that will see him crisscross the county with the mission to make people laugh.
