Ghanaian Comedians Cannot Fill Accra International Conference Centre

Ghanaian Comedians Cannot Fill the Accra International Conference Centre and this was the headline to a news article just three months back on Peace FM Online. This is how it reports it:

"Chief Executive Officer of Event Factory Ghana Limited, Nabil Alhassan has said it is not possible to hold a comedy show at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) with only Ghanaian comedians and have the auditorium full to capacity.

Nabil, speaking on Pluzz FM’s AM Pluzz after successfully organising ‘The Lords of the Ribs season 3’ which featured comedians from Ghana and Nigeria said, although some Ghanaian comedians are a delight to watch, the industry is still growing.

His answer to a question by host, Sammy Flex, as to whether there can be a full auditorium should organisers put only Ghanaian comedians on the bill was a direct ‘no’.

“Absolutely no because it’s very difficult for Ghanaians to accept certain things. The Ghanaian comedy is now growing. Some people are finding it difficult to accept that our comedians are funny. But when they come to such events, they realise our comedians are good,” he said.

According to Nabil, even getting half of the auditorium full will not be an easy task; reason foreign comedians would have to be featured.

“For you to entice the Ghanaian, you have to add something extra, something foreign. If you want to do a Ghanaian comedy, it will be very difficult to have half of the auditorium full,” he noted.

“Our artistes can make it happen; not our comedians. We can give it a try..........."

Three months down the lane, on July 9th, Ghana's King of Comedy, DKB, hosted the first ever one man comedy show at the National Theatre and guess what, the show which had only Ghanaian acts saw the place packed to capacity. I believe Ghanaians had a good time and for the first time, each act had a standing ovation. The godfather of Comedy, KSM, attested to the fact the industry has developed over the years. Aside DKB, most of the acts were not too familiar with Ghanaians and getting a full auditorium with people standing was amazing.

Now, real supports real. Nigeria built their comedians we invite and pay huge sums of money by using them cos it was affordable for them. While they built theirs, we sat here and killed ours, got them to perform and sold their brand to us. Now they're making it international and we can no longer afford the Basketmouths, Bovis, Bakaseys and what have you.

We never tried but we say it's not possible. We don't support our own but we expect them to make it big. I'm now confident that the industry has come to stay and with marketing minded comedians like DKB, Romanus, Sarkodie, Ajeezay, Khemikal, James Brown, Halfco, Jacinta, Tee Kay, McDon, Lekzy, Chopsticks, Kalybos, Jeneral Ntatia and Doc, OB, Nino and others, the industry has a very bright future.

I remember when some years ago I wrote about the comedy industry and it's ability to gel. I had insults from people on Twitter. I guess today, these same period would be sitting somewhere and say "them dey force ooooo." On this note, I say a big thank you to all patrons of Ghana Comedy and the forefathers on whom their labour we build; KSM, Fritz Baffuor, Tommy Annan, David Oscar, you've set the foundation and the current generation would build an empire on it.

Like E.L would say, "Next time you hear GH COMEDY, put some respek pon it."

God Bless Ghana Comedy
God Bless Ghanaian Comedians
God Bless All Industry Stakeholders