Why Teacher Wanjiku’s Show Flopped

Teacher Wanjiku premiered her show to the disappointment of everyone. I attempted to reach her for a comment on Friday but my calls went unanswered. I don’t blame her. Her’s is beginning to read like the tale of Eric Omondi and “Hawayu”, the abortive show he heralded. But why can’t Teacher Wanjiku seem to get her show off the ground? Well, I don’t think there is any one main reason. I think this is about the culmination of alot of bad things and sadly for her, Murphy’s Law.

to illustrate my point, I will draw on stand up comics from abroad -both continental and international.
For starters, Teacher Wanjiku is a role. She is one character. A character can hardly carry a show. You need versatility otherwise your show ends up being one-dimensional. And a one dimensional show gets boring pretty fast. It will be Teacher Wanjiku telling and retelling different versions of the same joke over and over again. Sad.
Look at Dave Chappelle. He embodied multiple personalities for his show. He was a crack head when necessary and Dave Chappelle for other skits.

He could call on different individuals -although he played all the roles- to keep things fresh and funny. Teacher Wanjiku is simply Teacher Wanjiku. Try getting LOLs 3 weeks into your show Teacher. Trust that they’ll dry up faster than Chege Miati’s elbows in this heat.

 

Another reason why Teacher Wanjiku is struggling is because her content is paper thin aswell. Any good comedian should be able to poke fun at what is facing society at the moment. She needs to be able to draw from a wide range of subject matter but I do not see her -or any Kenyan comedian for that matter- taking that risk. Look at Basketmouth for the illustration. You need to be versatile when it comes to subject matter. Basketmouth goes at everything and everyone and though sometimes he takes the joke too far -as with the rape joke incident, I would rather a comedian willing to take risks than one scared of them.

 

And finally, Teacher Wanjiku has displayed cowardice. She wants to hide from Ghafla and act like everything is alright instead of poking fun at her failure. The show is only an episode old so she should pick herself up, learn her lessons and move on. Instead, what with dodging all my calls and her husband cum manager feigning lack of internet, she is burying her head in the sand.

The moral of this story is:

1. diversify

2. take risks with the subject matter

3. stop running away from your failure, learn from them