Comedian and content creator Timothy Kimani Ndegwa, popularly known as Njugush, recently revealed an incident when his acting career almost came to a stop due to cash flow issues.

Njugush shared that these challenges emerged during the COVID-19 period when he was making his debut on the show Through Thick and Thin (TTNT).

He said that the show not only left him with a financial hole in his pockets but also plunged him into debt that he struggled to repay.

During an interview with the Convo Podcast, Njugush explained that the TTNT idea came from people expressing a desire to have a live experience with him.

Njugush and his team usually explore ways to monetize their content, whether on YouTube or Instagram. The idea of a live experience presented a new opportunity.

“I was like can we do 500 people max? We went on to do 3,800 people at Garden City it was crazy. Then Covid hit,” he narrated.

The first show, TTNT 1 left him in debt of over Sh. 6 million from a service provider. He explained that COVID-19 was an unforeseen eventuality which abruptly stopped all shows from happening.

This would mean that all the money he would make from promotional content would get into servicing his loan. Njugush, however, made a mistake in approaching a shylock for help in clearing out the loan.

“We made a blunder and took money from a shylock. This is a shylock that we knew and couldn’t evade him. We took out a loan of Sh. 400,000 at 30% interest rate,” he said.

Njugush: How a drunkard in matatu helped me pursue journalism degree

Pandemic restrictions prevented Njugush from organizing another live show to quickly clear his debt with both the shylock and the service provider.

Njugush explained that he had to renegotiate his terms of repayment with the shylock, who agreed to waive the interest payments.

He had to find an innovative solution. This led to the idea of having people purchase tickets on a website, for access to a recorded version of TTNT, which turned out successful.

“That was how now TTNT 2 was able to take care of TTNT 1 and beyond because we also did the same with TTNT 3. Doing live recordings and selling them,” he said.

TTNT 4 exposed the crew to new markets, which they did and eventually came to close the show in Nairobi. Njugush noted that the driving factor in the success of all his TTNT shows is his strong audience.