Over the weekend, he ventured into the uncharted territory of comedy at the National theatre. As Muhammad Kakembo writes, Dr Spire, as he is popularly known, possesses an unlimited repertoire of skills.
When information circulated last week that The Observer columnist and cartoonist, Dr Spire Jimmy Ssentongo was to hold a stand-up comedy show at the National theatre, the question was; is Spire funny?
Those who go to comedy go there to laugh; then the conundrum is, can a university teacher of philosophy make anyone laugh? Well, based on how people were laughing throughout his hour-and-a-half show last Friday at the National theatre, the verdict was that Spire is actually not only funny but very funny.
Spire, best known for his political satirical writings and cartoons, proved himself that you can actually be many things in one. Although he says he will not be doing comedy again, Ssentongo managed to capture and hold his audience for 90 minutes, cracking jokes mainly about Uganda’s political life and his experience while he was under quarantine during the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The show that started at 8:30pm with curtain raisers such as Dr Hillary Okello of the Fun Factory saw Spire hitting the stage at 9:30pm, excited about the number of people he was seeing in the theatre. He started by joking about Dr Okello, of whom he said that despite the fact that he did sciences at A-level and went ahead and pursued a medical course, he was his curtain raiser, him who had done geography and history.
“We are told that sciences don’t lie, but I think we have living evidence here.”
Ssentongo said that before the show, he was worried about whether people would turn up because whoever he called to them about it thought he was joking.
“Thank you, people, for coming; this is really overwhelming. Seeing this audience, I think we have the most democratic government that we have ever had; this couldn’t happen during the regime of Idi Amin. Of course, if I don’t want them to switch off the electricity, I have to start by thanking them.”
The show, which was both in English and Luganda, went on until 11pm, with Spire talking about what motivates him to draw the cartoons that he does, how these cartoons affect the people they are about, and how they have reacted to them.
One of the four segments was for cartoon drawing, with the audience identifying the people he was drawing. Spire also used the show to call upon fellow academics to get involved in the worries of their communities. He said an academic who is beneficial to society is one who amplifies the suffering of his or her people in order to get a solution.
“I think there are some colleagues of mine from academia in the audience who are still in doubt. There are many who were asking me, “What are you going to do there?” You are putting academia in disrepute by coming to the theatre to do comedy, something some look down upon.ut I’m quite uncomfortable with that attitude because some of us have the privilege of acquiring education,” Ssentongo said.
“I think it’s unfair to cut yourself off from society because you have three degrees. I think it’s even criminal. Society should see our relevance beyond the classroom. When people are going through their everyday struggles, they should see us adding our voices. If you are playing safe, whose child do you want to risk?
“This is not me being a comedian; I’m putting on the other jacket.”
Other than whether he could be funny, the organizers were also anxious about whether people would actually turn up. Turn up indeed they did, as the National theatre was full to capacity despite the tickets selling for Shs 50,000, somewhat higher than what is normally paid to attend such shows.
The audience was mainly made up of middle-class Ugandans, including academics, politicians, students and those in civil society, among others. Notable among those who are attending are National Unity Platform president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, and David Lewis Rubongoya, the secretary general.
Writing on his Twitter page, Kyagulanyi thanked Ssentongo for the show.
“Last night at the National Theatre, Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo of Spire Cartoons treated us to such an amazing night of so much comedy, laughter, and learning. He used cartoons, humour, and anecdotes to speak about the many things that have gone wrong in our country.
He took a swipe at the ruling class that has normalized corruption and misrule.”
“But he did not spare us either. He roasted us with different jokes. He reminded Eddy Mutwe of how he narrated his torture experience, which was both funny and sad. He challenged us to work harder and faster on the cause; otherwise, by the time we get into government, there will be no more iron sheets. Very importantly, he called on the academy not to remain comfortable while our country sinks. Thank you so much, Spire. Pure edutainment,” he added.
mmkakembo@gmail.com
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