An engineer who makes people laugh behind stage

Nice Budandi is the Operations Manager of Comedy Knights, the country’s pioneer stand-up comedy outfit. Humble and quiet, the 24-year-old engineering graduate has been part of the group since 2010. Moses Opobo had a chat with him. Tell us about Nice. I grew up from Uganda where I did my primary studies and then came in Rwanda for my secondary school. I studied from Lycée de Kigali for my secondary and then joined KIST for university where I graduated from in 2014 in civil and environmental engineering. Nice Budandi. Even though I studied science I have always been inspired to work in project and event management and I think that’s where my future belongs. Are you a comedian? I am not a stage comedian but I do make people laugh behind the stage and I have been working with comedians for the last four years. When and how did you end up with the Comedy Knights? It’s a story that goes back in high school at Lycée de Kigali, when I met Arthur Nkusi (director of Comedy Knights). I joined that school on propose to develop my talent in whatever that was going on there. Every club I joined I found that guy Arthur and he was always the best so I thought of joining him. I knew we would come up with something good, we started doing comedy in class rooms, I used to write and he would act and then we would collect money in our class room, and then after Senior Six Comedy Knights was formed and we kept going, this time not in writing but in organizing the Comedy Knights events, As operations manager, what do you do for the group? I work a lot in organizing the event, coordination, and communication. I make sure the artworks and all the advertising materials are ready and of good standard, the ones sponsors will like and attract people to come to the show, communicate with the media and all about the back stage work making sure the comedians gets everything they need to perform well. As a person who works for a comedy group, tell us one or two sick jokes As I told you I reserve all my jokes for back stage so for the next show come back stage and I will give you the best of my jokes. What stresses you the most? What stresses me the most when organizing the shows is the worry if people are going to come. For me the main target is the number of people that attend the show so before the show am always advertising doing all the best I can to make sure people know about the show. Generally I don’t get stressed a lot because I enjoy every moment of working with comedians and the entire process of organizing the event. What is Comedy Knights up to? It is organising a show called Arthur Amplified on May 9, in honor of one of the most famous comedians, radio personality, actor, dancer and Rwanda’s debut representative in Big Brother Africa 9 ‘Hotshots’ reality TV show - Arthur Nkusi. His intentions are to showcase to fans all his talent in one show packed with humor. He will perform for one hour featuring the rest of the Comedy Knights crew. Roberto, the man with the hit song Amarulah all the way from Zambia, and Ray Signature from Uganda will also perform. The show will be hosted by former Big Brother Hotshots – Louis from Namibia, and Kacey Moore from Ghana. Basically, comedy meets all kinds of art on one stage. Arthur will be performing with a live band and various dancers. Roberto is ready and can’t wait to get to Kigali where he wants to make a name with his new hit Amarulah. He will touch down in Kigali on 8th May, the same day as the Big Brother Hotshots. They have all promised to entertain Kigali to the fullest.

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An engineer who makes people laugh behind stage