ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Pablo

Please give a round of applause to our top three contestants,” said StandUp Uganda show host Rachael Kay during the studio recording of the show at Theatre La Bonita on Saturday. The studio audience was watching the second last recording of the show on Saturday. The show started screening on M-Net on March 9 and the third episode will be screened this evening at 8p.m. The winner of the competition will be announced in May. The TV audience will decide who takes the top prize of $10,000 (around Shs19.6m) by voting for their funniest contender. Out of over 300 hopefuls, only three lads, student Daniel Omara, actor Kenneth Kimuli a.k.a Pablo and engineer Patrick Idringe are still in the fray. Daniel is real, original and he works it good with his ghetto-inspired jokes plus some stories about people from northern Uganda. Patrick has been rocking with his ‘silly’ stories, especially about people who love their liquor. Pablo is the public’s favourite in that even when he fails to drive a joke home, the audience is patient until he delivers and he’s always given a rapturous applause. It’s still hard to tell who will win the money, but it seems like it’s between Daniel and Pablo. When the top three came on stage on Friday, it was clear that Patrick would be happy to leave with a bronze medal. Daniel owns the winning style but the gold could go to Pablo for his popularity and composure on stage. The judges Joe Parker, Abbey Mukiibi and Kaaya Kagimu Mukasa were happy with the effort the top three had put in to reach that stage. The three have been consistent throughout the competition with each of them tasting the bonus $100 (Shs196,000), which is given to the most interesting character of a particular episode. The show started in January with auditions where 20 contenders were picked out of a horde of pretenders who wanted to give their best shot at becoming the country’s funniest person. The 20 spent a month in comedy workshops, tutored by different comedy specialists from Uganda, Zambia and South Africa. When the competition started, the number grew smaller by the day as the unimpressive characters got dropped from the show. The show got more interesting and tighter at the top eight stage with Herbert Ssegujja a.k.a Mendo, Kenneth Tusuubira, Emmanuel Ssebakigye, Mercilous Opio Katanda, Kizito Makanga, Pablo, Daniel and Patrick tussling it out. Kenneth, Herbert and Emmanuel seemed to be on the money, but committed serious comedy crimes of failing to make the audience laugh and being sent home was the penalty. We shall tell the last comic standing in May.

Other Stories - 25/03/2009