Eric Omondi is a Kenyan comedian and MC. He is also the CEO of Big Tyme Entertainment. He was voted as the Best Comedian Africa African Entertainment Awards 2018. He is among the pioneers of YouTube entertainment in Kenya as the content platform moved from being an alternative to a key income earner for content creators.
Eric Omondi education and age
One of Kenya’s best stand-up comedians was born in September 17, 1977. He attended Daystar University where he attained a first degree in Communications, and it is when here that he started honing his skills as an entertainer.
Breakout to the big entertainment stage
The rib-cracker that he was, Eric Omondi had probably made up his mind to pursue stand-up comedy and not make use of his expensive degree. Yes, Daystar is a private university and very expensive. So, one day in December 2008 he attended a nyama choma festival that would be a precursor to the famous Storymoja Literary Festival. It is at this meat eating festival that he got a chance to give an amusing rendition of the story In the Land of The Kitchen based on a children’s storybook by the same name and written by playwright Oluoch Madiang.
By this time, the Churchill Show, Kenya’s biggest laugh industry production was a regular on NTV. The show’s main man Daniel Ndambuki, a product of the Redykyullas entertainment crew year’s earlier would give chance to upcoming comedians to spice up his show and break monotony, and that’s how Eric Omondi found himself on the big stage.
His antics would make Eric the second most important rib-cracker on the show which meant his slots took more time, and h indeed entertained Kenyans.
DID YOU KNOW: Before getting on the comedy stage, Eric was given a chance to prove his prowess in News Anchoring at NTV? Well, that didn’t go well because his career as a reporter lasted only two weeks. “They kicked me out after just one story. I was told I wasn’t good enough and I felt very bad,’ he would later say.
Why Eric Omondi left the Churchill Show
Eric Omondi left the Churchill Show, East Africa’s most watched programme in the past ten years, after three seasons. He starred on it between 2013 when it returned to the screens for the second time till around the end of 2015 when he left to build his own brand.
During his time, there were more upcoming comedians who were starting to steal the limelight on the show. People also thought Eric had run out of creativity, even though such shows aired on TV at prime time are usually limiting to content creators.
“Churchill nurtured me but it got to a point when he had so many budding comedians in the show. I felt like a 42-year-old who lives with their mother. I also felt like I was eating up the space of young upcoming artistes,” Eric would say in an interview with TV personality Larry Madowo.
So, he left and started his own TV show on rival KTN, which called Hawayuni, in resonance to his trademark stage greeting. The show unfortunately did not take off as expected and it had to fold up.
During all this time on TV, Eric would host many events both at the national and international level. He claimed that in 2016 he travelled to 11 countries and held shows in 19 cities. He also had a short-lived show on a Tanzanian TV station, an opportunity he attributes to Bongo star Diamond Platinumz who also invited him to host an all-white party for his then wife Zari. Over 10,000 people attended the party.
Eric Omondi controversies
Eric Omondi is no stranger to controversies. It is probably one of the things that keeps his name in the limelight. He is the foremost defender of the Churchill brand which had been accused of not paying its comedians leading to stress and suicides.
“He never paid me, but I didn’t want the money however by the time I was half-season, I was making millions,” he said. “I’m actually the one who is supposed to pay Churchill because he put me where I am today, not the other way round.”
Eric provoked mixed reactions when he accused fellow comedians of living a high life beyond their means and also not using their talents to open avenues for themselves in the new media era.
The comedian who is a Manchester United fan has also been embroiled in running battles with the Kenya Film Classification Board because of his YouTube wife material show. The then KFCB CEO accused Eric of spreading immorality with his show that was full of half-clad women with acts of sexual innuendos, and went ahead to ban it, asking YouTube to take it offline. Eric hit back at the ‘moral prefect’ asking him to mind his own business. YouTube did not react, even though Eric was arrested and later released.
Eric has also had a mix of controversies in his relationships with various women, some of whom were part of the Wife Material cast.
Recently, the self-proclaimed president of Comedy Africa has had run-ins with law enforcers being arrested at one time during protests at Parliament buildings in Nairobi. He locked himself in a cage and promised to go n hunger strike unless Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) passed a bill that required Kenyan broadcasters to air 75% local content and improve pay for local artists.
Eric Omondi love life
Interested in Eric Omondi wife? The comedian has never really been married in the real sense of the word. He hyped his controversial show Wife Material saying the winner would be his wife. He has dated several women, siring kids with some.
He once had an Italian fiancée Chantal Grazioli whom Eric praised for her amazing cooking skills. “She loves cooking. I have eaten things that I have never eaten before,” Omondi said.
Eric Omondi also has a son with beleaguered former TV personality Jackie Maribe. The two dated for a short while from 2012 when they met at a company party when they were both working at Radio Africa Group.
Omondi caused a stir on social media in November 2021 when he claimed that Maribe had refused a DNA test which he had begged for for seven years. He even went ahead to allege that Maribe’s son was Sam Ogina’s.
Soon after the altercations on social media, Eric, Maribe and their son would post pictures of them together on Instagram and even go on vacation at the Maasai Mara. Jackie also accused Eric of being a deadbeat dad.
Wife Material winner Monicah Ayen who was supposedly Eric’s wife in 2021 ‘dumped’ him after the comedian enabled rumours of him dating singer Miss P.
“I’m disappointed with the fact that he knew I was patient and took advantage of that. It is the fact that I supported him even if he was wrong. He brought me all the way from my country to make me feel like I have to fight my way through his heart,” said the model from South Sudan.
Miss P would also dump Eric later on after the comedian got involved with politician Jimmi Wanjigi’s campaign. There hasn’t been word about the rumoured pregnancies of the singer yet.
Eric Omondi net worth
It is evident Eric Omondi is one of the most successful stand-up comedians in Kenya. He has hosted numerous local and international shows for which it is said he charges top dollar. He is also the owner of Big Tyme Entertainment which produces his shows including Wife Material, has a huge following on social media and YouTube where he does endorsements and gets gigs with big moneyed artistes. His recent engagement with wealthy politician Jimmi Wanjigi saw him being gifted a Chrysler Crossfire.
It is difficult to ascertain whether Eric Omondi owns or rents in the posh Karen Estate, where he once claimed to have bought a multimillion-shilling house only to say it was a ploy to pull a crowd to his Wife Material show. But he says he can feed some of the more successful musicians such as Sauti Sol.
