My parents only supported my comedy career when I made money - Desagu

Piece by: Elizabeth Ngigi
Lifestyle

Online comedian Henry Desagu, whose real name is Ithagu Kibicho, says his parents did not support his comedy career when he started because they wanted him to have a "good" job.

"Growing up with my parents, they knew I was a comedian because I did some comedy in church back then," Desagu said. He continued,

"My late dad wanted me to be in a good white-collar job in a good office. When I started majoring in comedy, they were so upset and totally against it."

However, things changed when Desagu started making his name in the industry. "They realised I was doing well and I had started changing their lifestyles. That is when they appreciated what I was doing," he said.

Desagu took his comedy to the next level when he joined Kenyatta University to pursue a Bachelor of Economics degree.

"I registered a comedy theatre group that propelled me into the comedy world. Sometimes I failed in the auditions and I was chased because of my body size. Others wanted me to impersonate people which up to now, I can't."

Desagu later started acting in theatre shows but realised he was not making any progress, so he decided to come up with his own content and started vlogging.

"My journey in comedy was quite difficult as I tried to penetrate the industry," he recounts. One of his popular comedy pieces was the Team Mafisi one. "When I was creating my brand name, there was the trending topic of Team Mafisi, and I felt the boy child was manipulated," he said.

"The whole concept of Team Mafisi Sacco was born out of the increasing number of sponsors. I decided to create a resistance unit to serve as a voice for the common boy child. The objective was to stop these old guys from preying on our girls. In everything we do, there is a lot of reality."

The flipside to his career is being perceived to be doing so well in the industry, while not actually thriving financially.

"Everyone, including your friends, knows you have money and they expect you to give them money," he said.

He appreciates that people are watching his content and although he also has haters who troll him, he says he is fine because they are also his fans.