Before Thursday 8th February 2024, not a lot of Comedy had been going on at Wasp and Sprout cafe in Loresho Ridge. Even the idea of a stand-up comedy night (or day) in the low-key Leafy Suburb seemed implausible.
Fast forward to May 2024 and we’ve already had four shows at the family-owned establishment, one of them boasting a line-up of international performers from Tanzania and South Africa. A curious soul might ask; how did this come to be? Should this happen, a good samaritan, who is privy to what may have happened might say, “I’ll give you a brief timeline.”
To that end, here is a brief timeline: On the 8th of February, 2024, Irishman Luke McGuiness announced a surprise show at Wasp and Sprout. This would be a foreshadowing of things to come. The show was dubbed Blacklisted; A Storytellers evening and that’s exactly what it was; comedians adapted their usual material to suit a storytelling format. The show was a hit. The success of the first storytellers’ evening led to a second Blacklisted on Thursday 11th April.
A couple of weeks after the second Storytellers Evening, which was just as successful as the first one, Punchline Comedy Club, Nairobi, in preparation for the Distant Relatives Comedy Festival, announced a pop-up show that featured several young comedians at the establishment. This too was a foreshadowing of things to come.
A week later, another pop-up show took place, but this time, it was even bigger as it featured International comedians from South Africa and Tanzania who had flown in for the Festival. The show faired excellently and resonated well with the audience.
A cynic may quip, “That’s it for the relationship between Wasp and Sprout and Comedy, right?” The answer would be a big “no”. Word on the street is a third Blacklisted is in the works and might take place later this month. Not just that, but a few other Comedy outfits are rumored to be planning a raft of Comedy nights at the newest Comedy Hub in town, Wasp And Sprout.
