Ten months ago, Vincent Mutwiri, alias Vinnie Baite, was donning a particularly faded stripped pair of trousers, a floral shirt, and a jungle-green marvin hat. The Thursday sun was going down.
The fraying nature of his outfit camouflaged with the twilight, golden rays of the sun. It was by coincidence that he was wearing this outfit, but it was more of the only option “because then, I didn’t have the luxury of a good wardrobe,” he told the Sunday Nation on Thursday.
The trousers, he says, cost him Sh200 while the shirt has a long story: “I borrowed it from my friend who had borrowed it from another friend. It’s now mine and part of my brand.”
“Initially, it was just one. Saa hii niko na shati mbili (Now I have two),” he explained, adding that it now is among his most treasured valuables.
Routinely, he would shoot skits. What he didn’t know, however, was that the video he was about to shoot was the ultimate door-opener and that the clothes he was wearing would be his signature.
On that evening, he asked one of his friends, Caleb Simiyu, to get into the set with him. Having met in 2018, they became acquaintances.
Vincent Mutwiri popularly known as Vinnie Baite with his signature shirt and trouser.
His only role would be to affirm whatever he said. Then they set the camera rolling and they jumped on set. And voila, a skit that went viral was made!
“Whenever I said ‘kana-flow’, he would say ‘yes’ or its equivalents whenever necessary,” said Vinnie.
On that evening, he explained, it was a ‘story za jaba’ (tales of miraa chewers). As usual, he posted late in the night before he retired to bed. The next morning as he was running his errands, several people were reaching out to praise him for the clip.
That was the moment, he said, he knew he had unlocked another character worth exploring in his comedy. And that was the beginning of the changing fortunes. And the much-needed breakthrough finally came.
“Story za Jaba, I realised, was a fertile unexplored land that I decided to explore,” said Vinnie. “I’ve since ventured into other characters.”
Being a literature student, he has endeavoured to put into use all he learnt at Maseno University. But there is one underrated lesson from university too: the value of friendship in college and the connections people need when done with higher learning.
He believes the four years in the university should not be all about academics.
“I incorporate several stylistic devices in my comedy from hidden meanings to alliteration. However, puns are the most conspicuous ones,” he said. “After all, I was still fresh from campus, and the literature lessons were still fresh in my head.”
Success
He owes his success to the pandemic. “Were it not for Covid-19, I doubt people would have had time to watch and share my clips,” he said.
From the moment his clip went viral, he posted fresh videos daily for three consecutive months.
“Consistency, I was taught, is the unwritten rule of success. And how I yearned for a breakthrough? I knew not doing so would be akin to letting myself down,” he said.
Born and bred in Meru, the heart of miraa farming, Vinnie comes from a family of seven. Except for university, he studied in the village. “I wanted to pursue film technology but I was placed in a BA literature class. I decided to make the best of it,” he said.
For him, humour is intrinsic and he knew it by heart. His skits have propelled him to stardom in a way he never expected. Yet it wasn’t an overnight rise. Before he gave up on auditions, he had gone for “Churchill Show” trials from 2016 to 2018. He gave up in 2019.
The feedback was always: “Keep working on yourself and show up next time.”
But as fate would have it, after his stars aligned, Churchill Show signed him up. Before then, while in college, he was part of ‘Laughter Overdose’, a student-run stand-up comedy show.
Last month, he was in Tanzania for a media tour and “creating connections”. He said he will be returning there in May “to pull a mega show”.
Upon graduation, he moved to Nairobi where he lived in Kawangware. He knew too well that he was not ready to return to his rural home.
At Maseno, he sold shoes and jewellery to survive. From the proceeds, he would pay for his tuition and accommodation fees. In Kawangare, in the not-so-posh setting, he decided to sell shoes as he figured out his life.
Cash-strapped, and only living a day at a time, it only took three months for his fortunes to change.
For the skits, there are never prior preparations.
“It happens naturally. We just get on the set and get the camera rolling,” he said.
Signature lines
Interestingly, Vinnie is in a six-year-old relationship.
“But my girlfriend is okay with me saying I’m single,” he said, lighting up, then before blurting out his signature clincher “achana nayo” (forget about it).
Achana nayo and other popular phrases he uses in his clips, like “moral lesson”, have quickly become his signature lines. He said he is in the process of copyrighting some of them.
His production team comprises seven people, all creatives. Most were total strangers before the skits brought them together. Some are his campus friends with whom they acted at the travelling theatre club in Maseno.
“This is one team with whom we’re rising literally from the dust,” he said. “This is the team I hope to keep forever.” BY DAILY NATION