August is already shaping up to be an incredible month for stand-up comedy in Kenya. We’ve got the Nairobi International Comedy Festival coming up from the 12th to the 17th, Maina Munene is bringing his African Dream Tour to Alliance Française on the 9th, TY Gachira is recording his special, Millennials in Denial on the 10th, and David Machira and The People Agreed to Do This is up on the 9th as well. But before all that, July 31st gave us something else, The Roast of Kamene Goro.
I’ve always enjoyed roasts. There’s something brilliant about watching personalities’ egos torn to shreds by seasoned comedians. It takes guts, and it works best when it’s equal parts brutal and hilarious.
What made this one even better, and slightly more uncomfortable, was that Kamene’s family was there. Her mother was right there watching everything unfold.
The show went down at the Red Room, put together by D&R Studios.
The recorded version will drop around the second week of August on Madfun and PhiliTV where you can also find The Roast of Bensoul.
Like I said, it's an interesting month for stand-up. Since it’s coming out soon, I’ll try to keep this as spoiler-light as possible. Some jokes just need to be heard, not retold.
Kick off
By the time I settled in, Mwaniki Mwageria was already onstage as the MC. He ran through a few house rules, but really, like that ad that pops up before a YouTube video, it was more of an information dump for future events.
After that, the DJ stepped in, not bad, but nothing special. Think of background noise as you continue to doom-scroll on your phones.
Roastmaster
Then roastmaster Kisiangani took over, and things kicked into gear.
He made what was happening clear in regard to filming, kept the energy high, and immediately jumped into improv crowd work. And by that I mean roasting anyone he could set his eyes on, Kamene’s brother, Gerald Langiri, the “SDA” guy, even Eugene Mbugua. No one was safe. The funny thing is that he randomly kept circling back to them all night.
His introductions for the roasters and roastees were spot-on, kept the crowd engaged between sets, and stayed sharp when the cameras weren’t ready. Some of his jokes were definitely on the ribaldry side, but it’s a roast, and the most important and impressive thing is that he made most of it funny.
Opening acts
Ezra Keros went first. Good material, but the delivery didn’t really land. His jokes had smart setups, biblical names, dating struggles, and awkward sexual encounters, but they lost steam because the timing was off. He needed more punch in the delivery to match the energy in the room.
Then, like that ad that pops up out of nowhere in the middle of a YouTube video, Matata, the Kenyan-Norwegian dance group, hit the stage after Ezra's set. Total curveball. For a minute, I was worried, this was supposed to be a roast, not a concert.
Luckily, they didn’t overstay their welcome.
Seranoy understood the energy in the room. His pacing was clean, delivery sharp. His confidence with his material, his rhythm, and stage personality made his set one of the most entertaining of the evening.
He had the audience hooked. Whether his bits were on the deaf, Sauti Sol, midgets, or the Kenyan middle class, he had the room from the start.
John Ribia followed. The first thing I noticed was the suit. He looked like he had just left the office. His energy was toned down, and while some of his early bits landed, jokes about white people, dictators, oral sex, bleaching, the set lost momentum toward the end.
In contrast to Seranoy, it felt like he didn’t quite lock in with the room.
Main event: The roast
Kisiangani came back on to reset the tone, then introduced the roasters and Kamene herself. But he didn’t just call them up; he roasted each one as they walked up. From Ty Gachira’s receding hairline to Mike One’s patchy beard to George's outfit and condition.
Stan Saleh was first. He went in on everyone, Mike One’s name, Emmanuel’s height, George Waweru’s skin tone. But when he turned to Kamene, he didn't hold back.
From law school, King Kalala, dating advice, to a Ruto reference, it was brutal and hilarious, yes, but knowing Kamene’s mum was in the audience made every punchline land a little harder. Stan was the perfect person to open the roast.
George Waweru came in next, dressed all in white. He kicked things off by roasting the room itself, the security guards, and whatever was in front of him. Then he went after Emmanuel’s media job, Ty’s film career, Stan’s nickname, and Mike One’s general irrelevance. His deliveries are always on point.
But his real highlight was how far he pushed the roast of Kamene. He covered her media career, personal life, surgeries, exes, and even threw in omena and body count jokes.
George had a clear understanding of the essence of what a roast is supposed to be: funny, boundaryless, but focused.
Mike One followed with a tight set. He started with quick jabs at Emmanuel, Ty, Stan, and George, leaning into family jokes, cancelled shows, and gender jabs. For Kamene, he hit on weight, past coworkers, that infamous Ethics video, and closed with a beautifully set up and delivered bit on “7.5.”
Ty Gachira, like Seranoy, took advantage of the audience, leaning into the room’s energy and immediately starting by roasting the crowd, which included popular individuals like Gerald, Savara, and Matata. For his peers, Emmanuel, Mike, Stan, and George, he used their familiarity to land some of the funniest moments.
What made his set work was how tuned in he was to the room.
He went with the audience’s energy and kept it going by hyping them up and pacing his set properly.
When it came to Kamene, he went in all guns blazing, starting with her hips, her exes, her relationship drama, somehow baby oil, omena, even Eugene Mbugua caught some stray bullets.
The Oscar Sudi closer brought the house down. Keep in mind Kamene’s mother was in the room when all this was going down.
Kamene’s right of reply
Now, this is where it all came full circle. Kisiangani gave Kamene a proper intro. She stepped up with her flowery crown and a mic, properly leveraging the “I’m a shy person” persona to get comfortable on stage.
I could tell she was very nervous at first, but then something clicked. She leaned into her public persona, shouted out her followers, and bit by bit, started tearing everyone apart.
Ty got roasted for being “second-best”. Kisiangani got it for his age. For George, she went for a girlfriend and a knee joke. Stan got jokes about his cardigan, beard, and somehow Kibe came up. Mike One got teased for his name and beard ,too.
The best part, I thought, was watching her confidence build. In the second half of her set, she stopped holding back. She started using the stage, getting animated, and showing, not just telling.
Closing
Three hours later, everyone came back onstage for a bow. Mwaniki jumped in with one last round of event plugs, like the ad at the end of a YouTube video.
The roast was a lot of fun. Everyone went in, and Kamene handled it better than most would. Getting roasted in front of your family is no small feat. The only thing I’d have added? A couple of female comics in the mix.
It has nothing to do with gender equality, there are female stand-up comedians who would have swept the floor with everyone in that room.
