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Hilary Okello is everything he thinks he is - funny

This was Hilary Okelo’s second show and he was well-prepared for it. Photos/Courtesy

What you need to know:

  • The comedian’s skits rotated around several topics, including his school days to personal life, and if there is one thing he has learnt throughout his six-year journey, it is relating with the audience.

Last Friday evening, comedian Hilary Okello proved yet again that stand-up comedy as he staged his second stand-up show, Funny on Purpose at the National Theatre.  
Clad in an all-white outfit, the man of the moment stepped on stage at 9pm with a hip hop instrumental beat playing in the background while the fully-packed auditorium welcomed him with a thunderous applause. 
Being a storyteller, Okello’s skits rotated around several topics including his school days to personal life and if there is one thing he has learnt throughout his six-year journey, it is relating with the audience. Throughout his time on stage, he involved the audience, throwing a few jibes at certain people in the front rows.  

Okello explained the difference between bright kids at school and the dumb ones, giving an example of his old classmate who always read a literature novel two minutes to a chemistry exam, while those like him (dumb ones), would instead try to revise four text books in the last moments of an exam. 
“Clever kids did not mind where they sat because they sat with their brains. The challenge with you and me is that where you sit is important because you have to connect with the bright ones. Your mind has to connect with someone bright,” he said, sending the audience into laughter. 

The 2017 Next Top Comedian participant also explained the difference between going to the staff room and being taken to the staff room. 


“If a teacher sends you to the staffroom to pick chalk, that is going to the classroom but being taken to the staffroom was never good. First of all, before entering the staffroom, you have one case but when you enter, they become several cases. There will be a teacher who will complain about your grades, another about your disrespectful ways and before you can explain yourself, a teacher who does not know you and why you are in the staffroom, will pick a cane and ask you to lie down.”

The other interesting skit was about pets. He joked about how someone who is broke has no right to own a dog because the suffering extends to the poor animal and when a thief comes, instead of protecting you, the dog will instead direct the thieves where you keep the money. 
Other topics he dived into included the hardships of buying condoms and the drama around it in supermarkets. 
Okello was introduced on stage by a man he confessed to look up to – fellow comedian Patrick ‘Salvado’ Idringi - who gave him a proper introduction, saying he is one of the most consistent comedians he has ever met. 
Don Andre, Conrad, Gad Accordion and Daniel Omara had opened the stage for Okello, while Timothy Nyanzi hosted the show that was produced by Mark Gordon.