Jalang’o, Prezzo to face the hot seat in Roast House premiering on Showmax

A total of 17 comedians, 10 other celebrities are from July expected to face the hot seat on one stage and be on the receiving end of a series of brutal and hilarious roasts.

This is courtesy of Roast House, a comedy show in Kenya which is expected to premiere on Showmax on July 14, 2022.

According to Showmax, Roast House will celebrate different public figures in Kenya through jokes and “take downs” performed by a group of comedians from the Standup Collective.

The show has 10 episodes of 24 minutes each, in which the comedians unleash roasts on different topics, themes and situations on public figures or celebrities in the hot seat.

No one will be safe and among those set to be roasted include activist Boniface Mwangi to singer-actress Sainapei Tande, comedian Jalang’o, Sol Generation artists Nviiri the Storyteller and Bensoul, rapper Prezzo and hip hop group P-Unit.

The live recording for Roast House was done at Number 7 Club along Koinange Street, Nairobi and is co-produced by Eugene Mbugua’s D&R Studios and Stand-Up Collective.

On how the idea for Roast House was mooted, Doug Mutai, who is also the co-founder of Standup Collective, had a very interesting answer.

“Eugene would attend our comedy shows, usually with his celebrity friends and we'd end up interrogating them in a crowd work format. Eventually we agreed to do a regular pro-amateur show on Tuesday nights at Number 7 called Laugh Attack Tuesdays. Eugene suggested we launch with a roast of Bien (Sauti Sol) and Rimbui. This would coincide with the debut of their Baldman project launch. The roast went really well. In fact, the audience thought we didn't roast them enough. Another discussion in January led to the idea for us to package the roast properly,” Mutai said.

Doug is among comedians who will be taking the stage to roast celebrities in Roast House.

Others include Ty Ngachira, Amandeep Jagde, Justine Wanda, Ruth Nyambura, George Waweru, David Macharia, Maina Murumba, John Ribia, Eric Lu Savali, Bashir Yusuf, Emmanuel Kisiangani, Maina Munene, Stan Saleh, Jack Nanjero, Davy Kimanzi and Darren Collins.

Standup Collective was formed in 2018 and their debut on Showmax will also see them launch The Comedy Central Roast of Khanyi Mbau on Showmax in August 2022.

“Being able to get Standup Collective on a major platform like Showmax honestly feels like home. It's been a long time coming and we feel this is just the start of an even bigger impact,” Doug said. “What’s even more exciting is our work now reaching Showmax subscribers across Africa. This aligns with our goal to showcase our work to the rest of the continent,” he added.

Standup Collective is an off-shoot of Saturday Night Comedy – Nairobi which was launched in 2018 as the incubators of English language and experimental comedy in Kenya.