There is a kind of love-hate relationship between Ghanaian comedians and the entertainment media. The kind has over the years raised tempers, especially from the comedians who suspect that despite all they have done to elevate that aspect of the arts, the media still does not give them the due respect.
Before we got to this place, some people in the media had held the view that many of the comedians we had, especially the stand-up comedians, were not funny.
At the time the leading characters were David Oscar, Foster Koobi and a few others. Those were the graduates of the Charterhouse-organised comedy reality show as part of Stars of the Future.
I must admit that some of the criticisms were too hard. Most of those criticisms were not constructive enough to give room for the budding talents of the only comedians we had to grow fully well to the point that we would enjoy what they gave us.
The reason, if one may find it, was because many consumers of comedy had been exposed to the Nigerian comedians like Gbenga Adeyinka, Gordons, Basket Mouth, Klint da Drunk and a host of others who always graced the 1000 Laugh and Music stage.
We were comparing the budding Ghanaian comedians to the very well established Nigerian comedians who has been doing this for well over a decade before these young men got into the game. But there was the need for a standard and the Nigerians came handy!
The comedians at the time did not take kindly to this tagging by the media. The most known face for comedy at the time, call him the poster boy comedy, was David Oscar and he met the critics head on. He demanded that they were shown some respect as they were doing their best.
As things would be, the comedians took things into their own hands and started organising their own events. They would go on tours to campuses and other places to have their own shows and no matter how it came off, they were living their comedic lives as they wish. Even if they were not invited to the big stage of the music and laugh series, they would brighten the corner where they were.
When he came back from the Big Brother house, DKB found a way to join this new uprising in the comedy space. He was part of the bandwagon that would go to campuses and organise comedy events at the Silverbird at the Accra Mall to hone their career.
I think the moment that changed most of this things and in the favour of the Ghanaian comedian had to be when Funny Face slayed it on the big stage in 2010 when he managed to ensure that the Ghanaian comedian would have his place among well-established Nigerian comedians.
There were then other opportunities for others on that stage over the years. There were times when they were made to act as hosts and other times appear as performers throughout the period. Meanwhile, the show was still ongoing on campuses and the small stages.
Overtime, other comedy shows came to rival the one organised by Charterhouse. There were some that couldn’t survive and the eventual output were not very great. Then also came the one organised by Nabil Alhassan and his Event Factory not too long ago.
Over time, all these shows gave opportunity to the Ghanaian comedian and gradually they were building their profile and act as well as art to sell to us their craft.
The new breed of comedians such as DKB, Foster (who has been around through all these phases), Khemikal, OB, Jacinta Ocansey and the squad thus had the opportunity to hone their craft properly.
