Churchill Show losses run into millions as recording done without audience
Comedian Daniel Ndambuki aka Churchill has shared his distressing experience after his comedians were forced to perform behind closed doors for the first time in the more than one and a half-decades his show has been airing.
Churchill Show which airs on NTV every Sunday night is one of the events that has born the brunt of the Friday ban by the government on public gatherings in a bid to tame the fast spreading coronavirus outbreak.
Ndambuki has been forced to record his popular weekly live show without the estimated paying audience of 1,000 people, leaving him counting huge losses in lost revenue from tickets not purchased.
“It was like a rehearsal, we missed the audience, and I am sure they too missed us,” he exclusively told Nairobi News.
“Unajua show ni watu (a show is about the audience). It is a performance, we need the applause, reaction to make it a full act. The audience is part of the act.”
Ndambuki, who is also a radio presenter, added that about a hundred of his employees, including those managing the sound, stage, light, have been affected by the ban due to the threat posed by the new virus.
He was not ready to divulge the financial losses but Nairobi News estimates the same would run into millions of shillings, considering the gate takings and sponsors who are consistently associated with the show.
That one of a kind show by Churchill will air on NTV on Sunday from 8pm.