My Take On Comedy ‘Business’ In Ghana

Comedy in Ghana has somehow changed but not drastically. It is part of the creative industry that somehow thrives by bringing ‘foreigners’ in to keep that arm of the industry relevant. I don’t blame organizers when they pay ‘outsiders’ to do that job because comedians are not in the system (I mean the type we can also export).

Thankfully, we’ve grown past some comedians dressing like masquerades and scarecrows – they now wear suit. Not a bad change. But the question still remains, the ‘comedians’ we have in Ghana, are they comedians or trying to be a comedian?

Comedy is all about nurturing a talent. Comedy is natural; it is in-born – not learnt. Some people have so much wit in them so much as anything they say comes out as humour. Someone who is good is good (think KSM); they don’t try too hard to please their audience or ‘push’ their audience to grab the funny side of what they’re saying because their wit and humour flows naturally.

When the ability is there to relay any message in a comical and witty way, it is just a matter of working on that ability or talent. You don’t learn comedy because to make people laugh is truthfully not an easy ‘job’ so if you’re not good at the job, change it. If one should go to a comedy school to learn comedy; a not-funny person need not apply because you cannot teach anybody to be funny.

In my honest opinion, you cannot teach a person to be funny. It is either a person is funny or not. Good comedians tend to be incredibly smart individuals; they are keen observers of social trends, have a uniquely original view of everyday life and are gifted at scripting content. It is for resilient, humorous and very enterprising minds and unfortunately, a few comedians in Ghana (how many comedians/comediennes do we have anyway) do not possess those qualities.

Some of these ‘comedians’ based on the lifestyle they see that showbiz people live, figure that ‘doing comedy’ is something worth doing for a living. Some of them don’t have the talent; some don’t have the passion. Even the ones with the talent and potentials don’t work on that talent into an innovative successful career.

If Ghanaian comedians complain about being side-lined by event organizers; it’s either they are not working on their talent or they are just not comedians. People pay to have a good time and laugh and not yawn and keep looking at the time the programme will wrap up…