Larry Asego is a radio and TV presenter, stand-up comedian, a sportsman, thespian and most importantly a father.
He shares his success story below:
Who exactly is Larry Asego?
Larry Asego is many things but I will just mention a few. I am a Kenyan born in 1980 in a family of one father, two mothers and ten siblings. I am a sportsman, theatre lover, French teacher, radio and TV presenter, and a father.
I was born in Kocholia Hospital located near Busia. My father was a trucker and used to travel quite a bit in the region.
My mother, on the other hand, was working for the Kenya Prison Department in Busia. She tells me that I almost died during birth, though she has never told me the exact cause of the mishap. All she told me was that she ran for almost a kilometer to the hospital. She remains my hero.
That single act of bravery during my most vulnerable period of my life has made me have a lot of respect for women. That is why I volunteered to assist women organizations such as Wrap and Covaw from a very tender age.
How was it like being brought up and going to school in Kibera?
My dad relocated to Nairobi when I was still young. We settled in Kibera where I was enrolled at Olympic Primary School, arguably Nairobi’s poorest school. My mum later on became a teacher at the same school. She was a disciplinarian by day and a mother after school. That, of course, did not stop me from being a cheeky and mischievous boy.
I loved drawing a cartoon of my teacher who will remain unnamed. One time, I also placed a packet of milk on her seat and without her checking, she sat on it. No one dared to expose the culprit. Well, now she knows who did it. I cleared Class Eight in 1994 before joining Highway Secondary School, again commuting daily from Kibera.
Life in Kibera was (and I still believe is) fun. Actually, I think it’s the best neighborhood in the city. Every community in Kenya is represented in Kibera.
I went on to study French at Alliance Française and later a Bachelor of Education in French and Linguistics at the University of Nairobi.
How did you get into radio?
After high school, I had a stint at Alliance Française, where I met Heartstrings Kenya. I started to acting alongside Churchill and Jalang’o. In 2008, Kiss 100 wanted to hire a presenter, Jalang’o and I went in for an interview. The station went on to hire both of us at the same time and the rest, as they say is history.
Contrary to what many think, radio is hard work. It involves a lot of research before your presentation. It’s make or break once you go on air.
Fortunately, I have a supportive team of experienced radio journalists such as Caroline Mutoko, Kalekye Mumo etc. They offered constructive criticism until I became a better presenter by the day.
And how did you get into television..?
It had always been my desire to have my own stand up show that was different from what was already there. Most of the shows had several artistes on the set.
I wanted a show that would actually run for two hours with me as the sole presenter. However, everyone I talked to said such a move was too ambitious — that no one had ever done such a thing.
Yet, therein lay my strategy. The fact that no one had done it before in Kenya meant it was time someone tried it. That person was me.
I prepared the initial episodes for more than a year and a half to come up with something that would keep people on their seats for a couple of hours.
The script was initially intended for the stage not TV. However, it turned out well the moment it hit the TV screen as the Hot Seat. Entertaining a Kenyan audience for two hours is not a laughing matter. The reception I received in the program’s initial stages showed that Kenyans were ready for the show.
It is through TV that I came to host one of my favorite shows; the Guinness Football Challenge together with Flavia Tumusiime. It enabled me to meet some greatest African football players such as Rigobert Song, Kalusha Bwalya and Marcel Desailly.
Actually, I come from a sporting family. A number of my siblings are well known sportsmen and women. I played rugby before, culminating in having surgery on both of my knees.
In 2009, I started a charity known as We Got Balls. It is a simple outfit. I just sourced the balls and handed them over to young teams.
Football is perhaps the only sport that unites regardless of one’s race, tribe or nationality. It is the only way a team from India can meet one from Pakistan, or Iraq and Iran. Locally, tribes are put aside when cheering the national team Harambee Stars.
Together with a few friends, we thought it wise to visit the entire country giving balls to young people in an effort to forge national unity.
The thing is that some people think you can only do good things for people if you are looking for a political seat. That is not what I do.
As Kenyans, we have to always work together and help each other whenever our help is needed.
Source: The Standard