Jalang’o, Sanaipei, Prezzo to be featured in new comedy show ‘Roast House’
Comedian-turn-politician Felix Odiwour aka Jalang’o, singer-actress Sanaipei Tande and rapper Prezzo are among more than two dozen Kenyan entertainers who are set to feature in a one-of-a-kind comedy show that premieres on Showmax next week.
The show will see the celebrities take the hot seat as their peers come with a series of brutal and hilarious roasts. The show dubbed Roast House celebrates different public figures in Kenya through jokes and take downs performed by comedians from Standup Collective.
The show will have 10 episodes of 24 minutes each, where the comedians throw out good-natured jokes on different topics, themes and situations at the expense of the public figure or celebrity in the hot seat. From activist Boniface Mwangi to Soul Generation artistes Nviiri the Storyteller and Bensoul, to rapper Prezzo, no one will be safe on Roast House.
Live recordings of the show were done at Number 7 Club at Koinange Street, Nairobi. Roast House is co-produced by Eugene Mbugua’s D&R Studios and Standup Collective’s team of comedians.
Speaking about how the idea for Roast House came about, Standup Collective co-founder Doug Mutai said Mbugua would attend their comedy shows, usually with his celebrity friends, and they would end up interrogating them in a crowd work format.
“Eventually we agreed to do a regular pro-amateur show on Tuesday nights at Number 7 called Laugh Attack . Eugene suggested we launch with a roast of Bien (Sauti Sol) and Rimbui. This would coincide with the debut of their Baldman project launch. The roast went really well. In fact, the audience thought we didn’t roast them enough. Another discussion in January led to the idea for us to package the roast properly,” he said.
Doug is among a team of comedians who will be taking the stage to roast celebrities in Roast House. Others include Ty Ngachira, host of NTV’s primetime show Too Much Information with Ty Ngachira, Amandeep Jagde, Justine Wanda, Ruth Nyambura, George Waweru, David Macharia, Maina Murumba, John Ribia, Eric Lu Savali, Bashir Yusuf, Emmanuel Kisiangani, Maina Munene, Stan Saleh, Jack Nanjero, Davy Kimanzi and Darren Collins.
While Standup Collective has existed since 2018, this is the first time the group is getting a chance to be on a big platform like Showmax.
“Being able to get Standup Collective on a major platform like Showmax honestly feels like home. It’s been a long time coming and we feel this is just the start of an even bigger impact. What’s even more exciting is our work now reaching Showmax subscribers across Africa. This aligns with our goal to showcase our work to the rest of the continen,” Doug said.
Standup Collective is an off-shoot of Saturday Night Comedy – Nairobi, which was launched in 2018 as the incubators of English language and experimental comedy within and beyond Kenya.