Emma cracks up Racheal when they met. Photo By Faiswal Kasirye
(Racheal and Emmanuel spent their afternoon laughing and sharing their life stories at Virgin Island Bugolobi)
Hey, how are you?
I’m very fine thank you!
Sorry for asking but do you love your job?
I love my job very much. Why did you ask?
I mean people get to boo you sometimes or you might say something offensive.
I don’t get booed, but there are times when the audience is unresponsive to my presence and I feel so uncomfortable. Like one time two years ago when I had just started, I went on stage and the audience was disorganised and making a lot of noise, trust me I got cold feet but eventually won them back. Since then nothing that dreadful has happened.
What do you think led you down this path of being a comedian?
Seriously I have loved Mr Bean since I was just a toddler. I used to imitate his acts and make his faces in front of my parents and they found it very hilarious. Another case was during my school time, I used to crack jokes in class besides being very good in drama especially when I was still at Katikamu SDA. Those moments when my friends found me irresistably funny fueled my trip into comedy.
How do you get new content every time?
That’s one of my biggest challenges! There are basically three means, first, I read alot, from roadside posters, banners, warnings on walls to magazines, newspapers, everything as long as it’s literature. Secondly, I observe situations and certain moments and then I make humour out of them. Also, by watching other comedy acts doing their thing. I have an assorted collection of standup videos of international acts at home just to be in sync with the rest of the world. However, for the case of acting, I was inspired by the Ebonies because I watched them as I grew up and they made me want to do what they did on TV.
When did you start acting?
I think I was in P.6. The play was about the shortest man in the Bible Zachariah and I was playing the ‘Jesus’ character. I continued acting drama even in secondary. At some point in Katikamu, I played a witch doctor. That was around 2005.
When did you join crackers?
I joined Crackers in 2009 as one of the directors with Alex Muhangi, Daniel Omara and Patrick Idringi. Right after the StandUp Uganda competitions, Indringi suggested that we make a standup comedy group because then there wasn’t any big standup comedy group around.
Now the competition has grown, not so?
We don’t call it competition, it’s a family of humour chefs.
