17 Kenyan comedians, 10 Kenyan celebrities, one stage, and a series of brutal and hilarious roasts. Welcome to Roast House, a one-of-a-kind comedy show in Kenya, on Showmax.

Roast House celebrates different public figures in Kenya through jokes and “takedowns” performed by the group of comedians from Standup Collective. 

The show comprises 10 episodes of 24 minutes each. The comedians throw out good-natured jokes on different topics, themes, and situations at the expense of the public figure in the hot seat. 

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Roast House: Binge on Showmax

From activist Boniface Mwangi to singer-actress Sainapei Tande, to Soul Generation artists Nviiri the Storyteller and Bensoul, to rapper Prezzo and hip hop group P-Unit, no one is safe here. The live recording was done at Number 7 Club at Koinange Street, Nairobi.

Roast House is co-produced by Eugene Mbugua’s D&R Studios and Stand-Up Collective’s team of comedians.

Speaking about how the idea for Roast House came about, Doug Mutai, who is also the co-founder of Standup Collective said, “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. Another discussion in January led to the idea for us to package the roast properly.”

Comedians

Doug is among the team of comedians who takes the stage to roast celebrities in Roast House. Others include; Ty Ngachira, host of NTV’s primetime show Too Much Information with 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.

While Standup Collective has existed since 2018, this is the first time the group is on a bigger platform like Showmax.

“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.”

Standup Collective is an off-shoot of Saturday Night Comedy–Nairobi. They launched it in 2018 as the incubator of the English language and experimental comedy in Kenya and beyond.