Nite of Laughs: DKB redeems GH

In my preview of the show, published here last week, I indicated why it was very important that DKB would rise to the occasion to deliver an impressive performance not only for his own sake (to clear the doubt people have about his comedy abilities), but most importantly for the sake of the entire Ghanaian comedy industry.

Saturday night arrived. The show had started earlier and there had been one music performance and one comedy performance before host for the night, Amanda Jissih, introduced DKB as the next performer.

Amanda hit him on the bum as they went past each other on the stage. That and the fact that the applause for his introduction was muted must have unnerved DKB a bit as he stood on the stage to try to make the almost 2,000 people he would call compatriots laugh for the next 30 minutes or so.

You could hear a pin drop when the DKB show got underway. Predictively and rightly as an ice breaker his first joke was about the ordeal he had to go through since he slapped Zainab in the BBA house. But it wasn’t funny or at least the audience thought it wasn’t and so didn’t laugh much. It did not bother DKB as he moved on to the next joke.

At this stage the tension had gone down. DKB found the line of jokes his audience liked and he virtually fed them from his palm. He realized that playing up the ethnic, tribal and quasi-religious idiosyncratic nature of the Ghanaian was working like magic and so he hammered it.

He made jokes about Gas, Ashantis, Ewes, Zongo boys and even had a few thrown at politicians. His narration of how Rawlings would react to the person who said “tweaa” while he was delivering a speech at a KVIP inauguration was fantastic and even more fantastic was how Mahama would have responded to that by increasing prices of goods.

At this stage the audience was laughing at every single joke he cracked as they couldn’t help it anymore. Some, including yours truly, couldn’t help but give an occasional standing ovation when the joke hit home very strongly.

If there was any criticism about his performance on the night it had to be the fact that he over did the vulgar jokes. One or two would have been okay but he rode his luck by dropping a few more than was necessary. But since no one complained in the audience it’s probably okay.

My initial grading of DKB’s performance was an 8/10 but after watching all the performances and reflected on them as I was driving home I revised that to give him an 8.2/10 for an absolutely fantastic performance!

The first comedy act on the night was by Funny Bone who did very well with his jokes. His reintroduction of himself when he didn’t get the needed applause the first time from the audience was a rehashed joke but it still cracked the audience so much.

He held the audience spell bound from the beginning till the very end when his depiction of a typical western love song and a West African version left almost every single audience member on the floor. On my scorecard Funny Bone managed a 7.5/10 score.

Until last Saturday night, Dan D’Humorous had not performed in Ghana or I had not seen him perform until then. However, when he mounted the stage in his brown jacket over white shirt and black pants and brown shoes, he exuded confidence.

His confidence, tone of voice and style came across to me as a younger Gordons with hair on his head. He had new jokes and old jokes and he delivered both very well to draw huge laughter from the audience.

For example, the joke about the guy who decided to marry a Fulani girl and was whipped on the back with “koboko” instead of paying bride price was “passco” but well delivered. He scored 8/10 on my card.

Okey Bakassi was just okay on the night. He was the biggest culprit in the area of delivering “passco” jokes and though he drew sporadic laughter from the audience I wasn’t very pleased with his overall performance. Perhaps it’s due to my familiarity to his and his act. I scored him 7/10.

The final comedy act on the night was by Bovi. I can watch that guy all day and never get bored. He is an amazing comedian and every opportunity I have to see him, I will make sure I utilise it very well. It seems to me that apart from Akpororo, Bovi is the Nigerian comedian who has impressed me the most over the last two years at the 1000 Laughs series.

He was very impressive on the night again, touching on different subjects and hitting home with every single one of them from the beginning when he started slowly till he fired up in the middle and carried it to a crescendo to the very end. I loved his show and scored him 8/10.

It was not only a night of comedy as there was music as well. The music act that impressed the audience the most was from Wiyaala. The young lady is on a rise as a good performing artiste and Saturday night was a good testimony of what she can do when given a stage and a microphone. She performed three of her songs – one from an upcoming album – and she was immense with all of them. Above all else her waist gyrating is something you will never forget!

Another artiste on the night was Akwaboah who also opened the entire show with his performance. The little bit I saw was okay. Nana Tuffuor also showed up to perform some of his vintage songs to the enjoyment of the audience.

The host Amanda was very crisp and straight to the point; her brevity was a refreshing change to George Quaye’s verbosity. Thankfully it was one of the few Charterhouse events that the host didn’t change her costume needlessly ever so often!

I thought the interview arrangement where Amanda tried to interact with each of the comedians when he had finished his act was not necessary. Sure it completed the set but it pushed the band to the extreme right so much that some of the people in the audience couldn’t see the band. If they insisted on the interview, Amanda could have done it standing by the comedian.

The MTN sponsored “Nite of 1018 Laughs and Music” wouldn’t have been a Charterhouse event if it had started on time, would it? After the last of such shows they were commended for starting very close to the time, albeit slightly late, and then they reverted to type last Saturday night.

However, everything else that happened at the Conference Centre would not matter because it was the night on which DKB silenced his critics and proved that Ghanaian comedy was still alive. Hopefully, it wasn’t just a flash in the pan.

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