One of the fastest-rising young comics in Nairobi, Bellamy Curtis, was recently thrown into the deep end when he was tasked with hosting the famous Winedown Wednesday open mic on November 27.
Given the sheer number of people the mic attracts on a weekly basis, and its status as one of the longest-running open mics in Africa, hosting the night was always going to be a mammoth task.
For further context, Bellamy has been in the scene for a little less than a year. That, coupled with his deadpan style of delivery are not exactly strengths when it comes to captaining one of the more high-pressure rooms in the scene.
So, how did he fair?
Short answer, also taking into consideration some of the factors listed above, he did hold his own. And that’s more than enough for a newbie. More experienced comics have struggled to even hold the crowd long enough on certain nights. Bellamy did just fine.
But he begs to differ.
“I hated it.” That was his assessment of the whole hosting escapade. But then, comics are generally self-critical people, so that assessment couldn’t have been more in order.
“I tried some crowd work, but it sucked.” He added, which again was fair enough.
Bottom line is; captaining one of the best-attended comedy nights in the country for the first time and finishing the night unscathed would be a huge ego-booster for any young comic.
Someone once said that comedy is the only job in the world where you’re supposed to figure it out as you go; and as nervy as it might have gotten in certain stretches, Bellamy did figure it out by the end of the night. Our only hope is that he learnt something from the challenge; because we did learn something.
