When organising an event, deciding the master of ceremony is crucial. What used to be mere communicating of the schedule at the event is now changing into a career for some people. 

Today, the master of ceremony has to be more of an entertainer. They have to be able to handle unexpected situations with confidence and ensure that everything runs smoothly.  

The New Times' Doreen Umutesi spoke to prominent emcees about their most memorable blunders. 

Anitah Pendo

"I have had two most memorable blunders as an emcee. The first instance was during the Miss Rwanda 2012 that was held in Gikondo. One of the organisers passed me a note to welcome an official and I ended up reading the wrong title of the official. When I went back stage, the same organiser blamed me for the mistake.  I then had to go back on stage and clarify. I did it in a joking manner to lighten the situation. 

The other blunder was when the DJ refused to play a song an artiste had requested. When I tried to intervene, the DJ responded in a rude manner. I talked to the organisers to deal with him directly.

Anitah has been an emcee at several high end shows including National Day celebrations, Miss Rwanda, concerts for International stars and many more. Anitah says she plans for every event.

"I always mind a lot about the outfit that I wear to the event. For example for road shows, it means I will require dancing and engaging the audience so I must have my dancing shoes on which is not the case for corporate shows,” she says.   Currently, she is the emcee at all the 2014 Primus Guma Guma Superstar road shows nationwide.

Lion Manzi

It was last year during the album launch of Christopher [Muneza] when I cracked a joke about the microphone and I realised it was not going well as I was halfway through the joke. 

I was introducing him and I realised that the microphone was setup really high for Christopher’s height. I walked to the microphone and said "wait a minute he is not this tall”. I pulled the microphone down too much, which made it seem like I was making fun of his height — which was not the case. When he was done with his performance, I asked the audience to pray for me regarding what I had done, which they found funny. 

The one thing I try not to mess up is people’s names and titles. The only way I have been able to do this is having my notes correct. 

I make sure that I know the target audience of the event to prepare the proper material.  I walk around the event and study the audience before I get on stage. 

Regarding how much Lion earns per event, he says that it varies but his minimum charge is Rwf150,000. 

Sandrine Isheja Butera

The most outstanding blunder in my emceeing career was during the National Youth Convention in 2012. I was introducing the Minster of Youth and ICT and I totally forgot how they say ICT in Kinyarwanda. It was not a good feeling. But each day we learn from our mistakes and perfect what we do.  

I work closely with event organisers so that I don’t make blunders because of lack of information. I make it a point to know my target audience above other things because the interaction that I will have with them will be the basis of whether I did a great job. 

Emceeing is not only about presenting the programme, it requires creating the mood and a good mood makes a great event. 

There are some events where I was approached to become an emcee and I turned down the proposals because I felt I didn’t have the experience. I was once approached to emcee at a Gusaba (customary wedding) and I turned down the offer because it required a lot of experience given the technicalities of cultural events. For instance, I don’t know a lot of riddles and rhymes in Kinyarwanda.

Sandrine has emceed at several events but her biggest event was the 2013 Development Journalism Awards held at the Kigali Serena Hotel in December 2013. 

Arthur Nkusi

If I’m to be specific, it was at an event organised by Ishyo Arts that was held at Serena Hotel where they were awarding actors and actresses. On reaching the venue, I discovered that the organisers had not put everything in order. For example, the people to be awarded hadn’t arrived, neither had the artists that were supposed to perform. 

Being a comedian, the organisers asked me to perform, yet I was hired as an emcee. I performed stand up comedy for 20 minutes thinking the organisers were putting everything in place. When I went back stage, I discovered they hadn’t finished organising the awards to be presented. It was the first time I had seen such disorganisation. I was asked to go back on stage for more stand-up comedy, and I decided not to go back to the stage until they were through with whatever they were doing. It took almost an hour and the audience sat there listening to music. As the master of ceremony it hurt me, but I needed to help organise to start the event. 

I have been facing challenges because people hire me as an emcee and they end up wanting stand-up comedy. I have learned to draw a line in the contract with the client. I crack a joke or two each time I come on stage but I don’t exceed longer than two minutes.