Allan Kibuka at the beginning of his performance on Friday night.
Happy K performs. Teacher Mpamire engages the crowd. Photos | Isaac Ssejjombwe.
Comedian Allan Kibuka alias Optional Allan will always be proud of where he comes from. He was born in the ghettos of Mulago and doesn’t shy away from that fact.
In fact, even when he stages his shows, he lets everyone know about his roots, thus the moniker, ‘The Mulago Boy.’ Which is also the name of his annual stand up shows.
On Friday, he held the second edition of That Boy From Mulago at the National Theater. Not forgetting his ghetto roots, his backdrop was littered like many of the streets you could find in Mulago, weird writings and drawings that were not so random.
From slogans such as wuhuu wuhuu to the naming of the different Mulago Zones such as Doctor’s Village, Katale, Nsooba and Bakery among others, it was clear the show producers, Nineteen Media were trying to stay true to the Mulago theme.
This year, there were a number of things they did different, from the choice of supporting acts to the way they chose to introduce the man of the night.
For instance, this time round they opened with a short documentary that featured members of his family and other people, the comedian grew up with.
But it was the sound of Bobi Wine, Nubian Lee and Navio’s ghetto anthem Number One that set the pace for Allan’s act. The song talks about coming from dire situations to being celebrated by masses. Besides all that, Allan has never shied away from his admiration of Bobi Wine.
Seated on a movable staircase, Allan was ready for his audience as the curtains were going up, he could hardly help himself, but sing along to the song and so did his audience, until they got to Navio’s lines.
“Ebyo ebisigadde sibimanyi,” he said to an audience that bust into a hearty laughter. By this time, most of them were on their feet, clapping, chanting….even before he started .
Most of them were his family members, friends and ardent fans so Allan was in safe hands. It wasn’t an audience he would struggle to impress.
“We used to come to the National Theatre for tours but now it is where we are performing from,” he said.
Allan tackled different jokes but mostly some of his best over the years. His set was engaging that at some point, he asked the audience to bear with him on some joke because of his mother’s presence. He was describing a joke of how VJ Junior and Jingo narrate love story movies with Junior being descriptive and making you feel like you are part of the script which Jingo doesn’t do.
The comedian wondered what his mother was thinking seeing him on that stage saying all this.
“Now my mother is there asking herself why she wasted her money paying for fees for me to end up doing this but this is my office. I also don’t know what you do in your different sacco groups because that is also your office,” he said.
His time on stage was however, short-lived. He did only one session and ended the show just when people were still enjoying themselves.
He was however, not the only performer on the stage, he got the support of comedians like Okello Okello Odongo, Jajja Bruce, Kalela, Cotilda and a surprise act coming in from Teacher Mpamire.
Happy Kyazze too didn’t disappoint with his Saxophone doing tracks like secret lover, Voila and his own composition Sanyu Peke Yake.
