Comedian Don Andre performs at a comedy show. Instead of crying over his perceived misfortunes, Andre invites his audience to laugh at his pain. PHOTO/COURTESY PHILIP MATOGO
In the 2005 film, Hitch, actor Will Smith plays the part of Alex “Hitch” Hitchens, a professional “date doctor” who makes a living teaching men how to woo the prospective loves of their lives. Hitch is so smooth that he could roughen up satin by simply being compared with it.
In one scene, he tells a lady: “Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death.”
This is all very well, but what if you are called a thief by somebody who has stolen up next to you? And what if you are suddenly deemed a cheat because somebody’s mind is playing tricks on them?
The breakup
Comedian Don Andre knows the feeling. He was so deeply in love that he sank, but when he came up for air, the love of his life was no longer there.
“There’s a breakup I had,” Don Andre says, promising not to embroider the truth. “Funny enough, I didn’t even know we had broken up for like two months. Me, I was in the relationship but I didn’t know I was in it alone.”
He then drops his voice a register. “So there was this chick, I will skip the name, she was beautiful and nice. She was one of my first girlfriends. We had a thing, we were in love. Things were going on very well until one time I met her in town, around Uganda House. She was there on the street standing and then I walked up to her and I was like, “Hey, yo what happened?”
Then he went on. “You no longer communicate the way you used to, I said to her. By then, I didn’t know about things like ghosting. So I was being ghosted but I didn’t know and I was just persisting. So I was like ‘Yo, what’s up? What’s happening? I don’t feel the love anymore.’”
Andre’s girlfriend then looked at him vacantly. “She told me ‘but we broke up.’ I was like ‘Yo, when?’ She said, ‘like two months ago’!”
Andre was stunned.
“I was shocked and I was still there trying to figure out things. Then her mum finds me talking to her and comes and whispers to her about how she should be careful as Kampala has a lot of Bafere [conmen],” he says, adding: “So my planned mother-in-law saw me and saw a mufere. I was nursing a heartbreak and then they call me again a mufere.”
Wacky world
Don Andre’s world is filled with such bizarre episodes. But instead of crying over his perceived misfortunes, he invites his audience to laugh at his pain. In doing so, he dusts off a standup comedy routine, which leaves his audiences in stitches and puts him in good stead for his “Unemployed But Funny” comedy special on August 30.
Seemingly at ease on the stage, his calm presence, casual tone, faux-autobiographical subject matter guides his performance to storylines instead of punchlines, unhurriedly. Before long, though, he has brought down the house.
Born Andrew Odongo, he is a man of many parts—a stand-up comedian, story creator, writer, script supervisor, actor and voice over artist.
However, he is best known as a stand-up comedian, a career he began in 2016. Back then, he hit the ground running by working with production companies such as Nabwiso Films (U) Limited, a top Ugandan film production company. This early success convinced him to do a half-hour Comedy Special in 2019.
Since then, he has worked with major comedy platforms in East Africa, including Pablo Live, Comedy Files, Another Comedy Club, Stand-up Collective (Kenya), Seka Live (Rwanda), Comedy Store Ug, among others. He has performed at different comedy festivals around Africa like Simuka Comedy Festival (Zimbabwe), Nairobi Comedy Festival (Kenya) and Kampala Comedy Festival (Uganda).
Currently, he writes for the surpassingly popular comedienne Anne Kansiime. Previously, he and Kansiime collaborated on a stand-up comedy platform called “Chalk on Jokes” whose focus was on promoting mental health among young people by using the levitating power of humour.
“Chalk on Jokes” saw him perform in several educational institutions, including a nursery school that was inside a church.
Becoming funny
Andre attended Kiswa Primary School, St Kizito Senior Secondary-Bugolobi, Bishop Cipriano Kihangire Secondary School and Kyambogo University all in Kampala.
“I grew up in Nakawa Quarters, which doesn’t exist now,” he says.
“[I realised I had something] when my family and friends always laughed so hard at my stupid statements and could say ‘why don’t you try comedy, you’re funny,’” he adds.
After which, he dropped the dockside comedian routine in favour of mining the golden depths of the stand-up comedy stage. And he has never looked back.
Today, he’s a bona fide comedy star. He featured on Showmax, an ad-free video-on-demand service that brings you a wide array of series, movies, documentaries, Showmax Originals, children’s shows, and English Premier League games.
Andre also runs a monthly comedy showcase called “Funny Bunny Comedy Club.”
“Every time I perform, the highlight of my career gets higher, being on stage gives me so much joy, and now that I travel to preach comedy to other countries [this] makes me the happiest,” he reveals.
Being a humble funny man, Andre hasn’t forgotten those whose shoulders he stood on to rise to the heights of a soaring career.
“Daniel Omara inspires me because he makes comedy seem like a course that never ends, puts in a lot of thoughts into a joke. I also admire Trevor Noah,” he shares.
Although he has achieved a lot in the last eight years, he promises even more.
“Don Andre is here to stay, my future plans, of course, include having children, making a positive impact in the comedy industry for the younger generation, being wealthy and filling everyone’s world with my comedy,” he says.
