My Life as a Performing Artist

My life as artiste was not planned but rather born of necessity. Four months before I was enrolled in Safari Park Hotel as a dancer, I had been fired from my first job as an electrician in Simmers restaurant in the city center of Nairobi. Two weeks towards the end of the 4 months, I had been served with an eviction notice to vacate my single room in Umoja estate in Eastland. Eastland, largely known as eastlando in the slung, harbors a mixture of both middle low class and low-class citizens. The low middle class mostly are government workers and over time taken over by the mix and low-class hustlers. I had arrears from the last two months. I had survived by avoiding my landlord by simply dodging around and staying out late till midnight before coming to the house. An audition was ongoing and I asked to be allowed to try my luck as well. So, when they gave me a chance to try it, I gave it my all.

See I was so pumped, I needed this job. Anything at all that could put food on my table. I was tired of asking for handouts from friends and relatives. Literally the day before the audition, the dinner that I ate was from gate crashing a wedding. In Kenya this is an invitation to all. If you ever did yours in Kenya just know that you have invited everybody unless you have security to guard the gates and push uninvited away.

At the audition the supervisor is tired of seeing the same thing from everybody and now asks me to do something different like a summersault or something”. Just so you know, the last time I had tried something like was way back, when I was like 10 years old or there about. But you see here, I had nothing to lose man. I had no meals to go back to and was looking at an eviction in two weeks. I will be damned if lost this opportunity. I had hit rock bottom so to speak I was desperate enough to do anything to make money. Yes, I was scared shitless but that is not what I said. I told him I could do it. I psyched myself up mentally and told people to move out of my way and I went for it. Well, I did turn in the air except my head was just a few inches off the ground. I barely landed on my feet as part of my bum connected to the floor. Everyone gasped, shocked that I would even dare to pull such a stunt with no skill at all. The supervisor asked if I was okay. You would think he will have mercy and not to ask me to repeat. That is exactly what he asked me to do. He asked if I could do it again; a little hesitant I said I could. Moving backwards to create even more space, he looked at me and I think he got scared. He asked me to stop for a second. “Are sure you can do this?” what I heard was, go home if you can’t do it. I shouted, yes yes I can. With all the courage and bravery that I could summon I went for it again. I ran and leaped up in the air, summersaulted and there I was standing on my feet. Everybody stood up clapping and cheering some screaming out loud, “yeah”. I stood there, I couldn’t move, it was like I was glued on the floor. I heard the voice over the claps saying, “Well, young man you just proved how much you want this job. You have your chance for now. You have two weeks to catch up. If you don’t, unfortunately even with your devil determination I will not be able to keep you then”. And he left the room. I tried to wipe my tears to hide my emotions but everybody seemed to know exactly what was going on. That is how I began my artistic life.

Six months down the line I was training acrobatics with a few of my friends and within the next 6 months we transitioned fully from dancing into acrobatic training. This is when life became interesting. The 3 of us had just quit our jobs to train as acrobats and it is not like we were going to college or a school of acrobatics, we were out here training on our own and following and borrowing heavily from other acrobatic groups that we knew from around us. We went in heavy and with no hold back. We trained like there was no tomorrow, two times in the day and long hours.

This went on for 6 months none stop. This process prepared us enough for the time to come. In the first 6 months we had a boost from a well-wisher of ksh 30000, an equivalent of USD 300. After 6 months we ran out of cash and we now had to work to get the money for food, house and anything else. As we progressed in our practice things started becoming really hard for us. This is when we realized how art and specifically how acrobats were perceived around town. We barely made any money despite our offers to audition or perform without payment the first show. In some places and cases, we had to settle for a plate of rice and water and called it a day. I mean it was better than nothing if you ask me. We fought on hard and never gave up, always reminding ourselves, that one day is going to be pay day and especially when it was the hardest. Days came and went by, in some days I remember I only had 20 shillings in my pocket as we were walking back home from Dandora, one of our training centers. I was so hungry and tired that I wanted to spend it to buy a donut by the road side. My friend reminded me that it was the only cash we had and we better keep it for super later that evening. 10 shillings was enough for the two of us to buy “Mandondo” boiled beans which we would then eat with ugali and the remaining ten enough for a joint to bury our problems. The morning will sort itself out and life went on.

The hard work bore fruits. And within the next 1 year we hit the lime light as the upcoming artistes and sure our pay day came to pass. We got our first contract outside the country after 2 years and four months of sweat and tears. It was hard work and we were so happy to see that heavens had finally accepted our nothing offering but prayers and sweat and offered us this chance to venture out and earn a substantial amount of money out of our careers.

My life as an artiste was born out of necessity. I just needed a job or something to earn money to buy mostly food and then shelter. Four months would seem like years when you don’t have anything to do to get money for even basic needs. When you have been in such a position in life mentorship becomes very important. Most people who have made it in life have done so with the help of others who have been through the same or closely similar situation. We had none of that and we moved from one hole to the next or from the frying pan to the fire as someone would put it, both different in the outlook but basically the same in the ways of our approach.

In our next phase as performers, we made good money. The blue print from which we operated from as people totally dictated our approach here. As people who were searching for and striving to eke a living in the previous phase, how do you think we fared? See, when it came to money most of us still operated from the very blue print we received or perceived when we were young. Such that we were still looking for money even when we had it or have a way of making it. Wallace D. Wattles in his book the science getting rich he wrote “We are programmed in 3 primary ways involving cash:

• Verbal programming: what you heard when you were young.
• What you saw when you were young.
• Specific incidences: what you experienced when you were young?”

Some people because of this blue print of scarcity, have vowed not to be broke and devised ways to look for money in every way possible and sometimes unfortunately with total disregard to what is the right way of earning or making money. Such people will easily make lots of money and lose it just as fast and or not be able to save it or do anything tangible with it. If your blue print led you to believe that good money was unattainable to you or your family, you would then work so hard just to prove them wrong. There is nothing wrong with either ways of making money just that you might think differently if you knew where your motivation was rooted. If you have not gone back in time to understand what your blue print about money is, there is a chance you are operating from default which would be your early childhood believe about money and this might be the reason money is such a complicated issue for you as a person.

As an artiste money was a big issue for me. I don’t think I was well equipped to handle it. Money came through my hands and left without me noticing what had happened. In a short span of time when I thought I had it, I lost it. I did not gamble or was I a spent thrift but somehow, I could hardly hold money down, let alone find a way to grow it. Because of my limiting belief of scarcity, I could not bring myself to go beyond holding money in the bank. I shied away from any investment ideas and I had very convincing reasons as to why this would not work for me and for us as an artistic group which was always on the move. My fear of losing money stopped me from talking to financial advisors and friends. People who could give me ideas and could have moved me from where I was to make my money work for me.

Now I look back and I can’t help thinking how far I could be now if I had started investing in my early days of earning. However, every lesson has its time of revealing itself to you and if this is yours, then you will seek the relevant information that will help you move in the right direction. Take time to understand what your subconscious thoughts are about money. Make conscious choices about how to go about advancing yourself as a person and influencing people closest to you positively.