Monday, March 19, 2012

‘My mother thinks I should get a proper office job’


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Jane (Aimee Ongeso) and Marvin (Daniel Ndambuki) in Ray Cooney's comedy, A Husband for Breakfast, in 2008. Photo/FILE
Jane (Aimee Ongeso) and Marvin (Daniel Ndambuki) in Ray Cooney's comedy, A
Husband for Breakfast, in 2008. Photo/FILE 
By KAMAU MUTUNGA
Posted  Monday, March 19  2012 at  00:00
IN SUMMARY
  • A decade ago, actors were a forlorn, perpetually broke lot that milled around the Kenya National Theatre waiting for whoever from the lot had landed a role in some production to buy lunch and probably some beer. Now many of them rule the airwaves as the careers that father and mother did not approve, bring in the bacon.
Daniel “Churchill” Ndambuki:

Radio comedian at Classic 105 FM and host of the ‘Churchill Live’ show on NTV
High school dream: To be a doctor. Reason? To wear a white coat and a stethoscope while brushing shoulders with pretty nurses.
But I almost blew up a chemistry class and was taken out by policemen — and out went my dream of becoming a doctor.
Father: Wanted me to be a pilot.
Deviation: Acting was an accident and being a comedian was a journey. Director George Tyson (now in Tanzania) introduced me to theatre and advised that I “perfect my craft and money will follow”.
Wahome Mutahi: Gave me the name “Churchill”. Stagecraft: I have acted in more than 100 productions. Acting provides the basics — like stage presence and how to read the mood of the audience, besides the third eye to see what others don’t see. Then when you tell it to them, they think you are funny.
Radio: Is the “theatre of the mind” and stage experience helps in creating characters on air.
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Fringe benefits: Commercials for Omo, Strepsils, and Safaricom.
Misconception: That acting is a joke. Even in school, it is a “by the way”, for jokers in class. Yet, it is a serious industry. Entertainment is big business in America.
Mother: Has heard of my fame but she still thinks I should get a “proper job besides making people laugh in Nairobi.”
She never knows what to tell her friends about what I do for a living.
Parents: Want us to achieve the dreams they never achieved, yet some deejays today earn as much as Sh2 million a month.
Students: Should not kill themselves for failing in school. Life is not about grades.
Teachers: They kill students’ morale by telling them they will amount to nothing just because they failed in physics. But what did Wayne Rooney score in physics? Or Usain Bolt in math?
Advice: One needs passion and self-drive as success is five per cent talent and 95 per cent hard work. 
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Angel Waruinge: Is “Miss Morgan” in Tahidi High TV drama
High school dream: To be a journalist or lawyer because “I had confidence and was good at debating.”
Education: Majored in journalism. Worked briefly on television, but found the work too routine. Needed a challenge, something new.
Deviation: Accidentally stumbled into acting. I acted different roles, could feel the effect on the audience, and I got paid for it.
Stagecraft: Did 40 productions, then got into Tahidi High, which gave me more exposure. The stage built my personality, confidence, and command of language, which helps me on screen.
Challenge: The audience does not separate the character and you as a person. And there is little privacy.
Fringe benefits: I have visited Nigeria and Ghana, besides a role in Lost in Africa, an international film. I have also done product endorsements and television adverts.
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Advice: Doctor, lawyer, engineer… are just titles to make parents proud. Do something you are passionate about. Follow your talent. I became an actress, but I have a degree.
Kazungu Matano: Plays “Cleopas Awinja”, a radio comedian on QFM FM and “Otoyo” in Papa Shirandula.
High school dream: None.
Mother: Wanted me to be a traffic policeman and still asks when I will get a proper job.
Deviation: Was scouted from stage by “Papa Shirandula” (Charles Bukeko).
Side talents: Speaks Turkana, Kalenjin, and fluent Dholuo (which he uses in Dholuo plays.)
Stagecraft: Theatre is where talent is tapped for commercials and TV shows. It has helped me to nurture the creativity and spontaneity required on radio since one has to create pictures with words on air and for the roles I get in commercials and voice-overs. 



On education: Bachelor of Arts graduate. Theatre is not a career without education, which you will need to negotiate contracts and improve scripts.
Odd job: Once worked as an untrained teacher.
Misconception: That white-collar jobs are the real jobs, yet I make more money as an MC in some 300 weddings.
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Jacqueline Nyaminde: “Wilbroda” in Papa Shirandula on Citizen TV
High school dream: To be a musician, and I do back-up vocals for Makadem.
Deviation: Being discovered by Eddy Wangamuti.
Fringe benefits: Radio voice-overs, commercials, and road shows. Challenges: Late night rehearsals and competitive market and one has to do market research to know what people want, the kind of jokes they want to hear.
Stagecraft: Instills confidence, sharpens an actress, helps in delivering accurate punch lines, making it easy to do the same on screen.
Does acting pay?: Go to the Kenya National Theatre and see the kind of cars artistes are driving, the houses they live in, their lifestyle.
Schools: Should nurture talent like St Mary’s School, Nairobi. Look at Kanji Mbugua, Eric Wainaina (Edward Kwach, Charles Ouda, and Aaron Rimbui), who went there.
Wisdom for the ages: We cannot all be lawyers or doctors — who need entertainment and that is what we provide. Follow your dreams.
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Hellena Waithera: Plays ‘Gabby’ in Tabasamu
High school dream: To be an economist. 
Education: B-Com student in Human Resources, University of Nairobi.
Stagecraft: Theatre gives you the discipline. It is not a hobby, but a job like any other.
Challenges: I had to prove I could act by inviting my mum to shows at Alliance Francaise. She is my number one fan today.
Parents: They underplay talent. And society doesn’t encourage people to focus on talent.
Fringe benefits: Did the “Fungua Roho Yako” commercial.
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Nick Ndeda: Presenter at Hot 96 FM, plays “King” in Higher Learning TV series on NTV.
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High school dream: To be an actor.
Education: Psychology and journalism double major at USIU. Psychology helps me to understand characters, while journalism comes in handy when doing radio and television productions, and when shooting films and writing scripts.
Stagecraft: It is a platform for creating networks that get one on screen. It helps my career on radio as it is easier to think on my feet in case anything goes wrong on air.
Misconception: That acting is easy. It is not. It is very involving.
Advice: Make the most of your talent; it is your life.
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Caroline Ngorobi: Plays “Selena” in Mali on NTV
High school dream: To be a broadcast journalist because I thought it was glamorous. 
Education: Communication and Arabic Studies, University of Nairobi.
Deviation: First appeared as Mary, the spoilt teenager in Ray Cooney’s Wife Begins at Forty.
Stagecraft: It is a confidence booster. It gives you exposure to producers who come to watch plays.
Challenges: Acting is more difficult than an eight to five job due to crazy working hours.
Do crying scenes require cutting onions beneath the eyes? No. It is not about tears, but emotions and the situation has to be right.
Misconception: Acting is self-taught. Like being a shopkeeper or an M-Pesa agent. People think one acts when all else fails. But it is a career just like engineering or law and not for the “less bright”.
Fringe benefits: Dramas for Deutsche Welle Radio, voice-overs, and community theatre.
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Challenges: Taking low-budget productions as the industry is still growing and sometimes pay is not good.
Parents: Are supportive. But I am still encouraged to apply for jobs.
Light side: I say I am an actress and the person ask, “and what else?”
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Nice Githinji: Plays “Lisa” in Changing Times on KTN.
High School dream: To be a lawyer, but settled on international relations, and I intend to go back and complete it.
Deviation: First appeared in Richard Stockwell’s Bad Blood and has since appeared in plays such as First Things First, films like Benta, and TV dramas Better Days, Guy Centre, and Makutano Junction.
Stagecraft: When you act on stage, screen is easy. You learn how to translate your character. It is through acting that you can become a producer and director. And that does not come overnight. 
Side talent: Hosting karaoke nights.
Misconception: That because you acted as a drunk in school drama festivals, you can act professionally. The two are very different. In professional acting, you have to be as real as possible.
Challenges: There are no (actors’) unions and the government does not recognise the industry. If it did, there would be better bargaining power.
Students: It is not their fault to pick traditional careers. It is our system that trains people to go to school, to get employed.
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Charles Kiarie: Radio presenter, Saturday Music and Sports, Capital FM
Childhood dream: To be a lawyer (after watching them in films) and a pilot (because the family lived in Pangani where he saw military planes fly by from the Moi Airbase in the hood).
High school dream: To be an actor.
Stagecraft: Learnt voice projection and developed a reading culture. Radio provides one with real-life situations.
Scholarship: Theatre and dramatic arts, but my mother also told me to study marketing.
Fringe benefits: Commercial voice-overs and documentaries.
Misconception: About acting is changing since it can buy one a car or service mortgage.
Wish: If I was paid more to act on stage, I would quit radio.
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Makbul Mohammed: Radio presenter, The Drive Show, Capital FM.
High school dream: To pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree and join my dad in business. 
Education: Degree in public relations.
Deviation: I loved acting. The late James Falkland told me I had potential. I never imagined how hard it would be.
Stagecraft: It gave me the discipline to bring out a character that I use on radio where, like on stage, creativity and timing are required.
Challenges: Patience. You can do two voice-overs in a year, and hundreds of auditions, but no job.
Fringe Benefits: TV commercials for KCB and Barclays Bank.
Students: They like the safety of the tried and tested careers. No one teaches them to tap into their passions. Acting opens doors for many people. Think of Jimi Gathu and Janet Kanini-Ikua.
For those who do not think acting is a career?: I tell them to look at the life of “Papa Shirandula” (Charles Bukeko) and tell me what they think.

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