The show itself was for about 800 Kenyans. The only white folks were there to see me. On the televised version, my wife is on screen as much as I am. When I mentioned her in my set, they panned straight to her … “Like, well, that white woman must be his wife.” It was also SO LONG. It was about 5 hours, even though they only air 45 minutes. And, I spent a lot of that time backstage with the musical guest, a former Sudanese child soldier turned international hip-hop star. That, honestly, was the highlight of the night.
The Comic’s Comic has a great recounting by standup John Ramsey on his performance on Churchill Live, a Kenyan talk show regularly viewed by 10 million people, a full quarter of Kenya’s population. Rather than do his standard material, he ended up learning Swahili and really studying what makes Kenyan humor different than American humor. Here’s a taste of his story:
The whole thing is really interesting and well worth the read, so go check it out.
