Stand-up comedians from Ghana

A Ghanaian comic is rarely only a comic. Stand-up sits alongside radio, television hosting, acting and filmed skits, and the same person usually does all of it: OB Amponsah, DKB and Funny Face each work across that whole range, so a career gets measured in shows hosted and series appeared in as much as in hours on stage.

English and Akan are both in play and they are not interchangeable. The official language carries most of what gets written down, while Akan, whose Twi dialects roughly four in five Ghanaians speak as a first or second language, carries the wordplay. Ajeezay built a following on one-liners in local slang, a style with its own name at home, and that kind of joke does not survive being moved into English.

The map runs wider than the capital. Funny Face comes from Jamestown in old Accra, David Oscar Dogbe was born in Koforidua and later pushed a campaign to get newer comedians taken seriously, and the towns attached to Ghanaian comics reach out to Kumasi, Tema and Wiamoase. Some of the training is formal: Clemento Suarez and David Oscar Dogbe both studied at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana, and an awards circuit, the GH Comedy Awards among them, keeps score.

One route out is old and well worn. Michael Blackson was born in Accra and built his stand-up career in the United States, working there as a Ghanaian-American act, which is a different proposition from the comics who stayed and hold an audience in two languages at home.