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08.08.2008 General News

National Theatre roared with laughter

By Jacquiline Afua Bondzie - Ghanaian Chronicle
National Theatre roared with laughter
08.08.2008 LISTEN

The premises of the National Theatre roared with laughter, when four Nigerian comedians, namely Okey Bakassi, Lakpacious Bosse, Julius Agwu and Gordon, including Ghana's own Yaw Sakyi, mounted the stage last Saturday, to treat the audience to several rounds of hilarious jokes and observations, all in the name of the Night of a 1006 Laughs.

This time, Charterhouse lived to its promise, that the night would be an unforgettable one, for the audience which trooped that to the show. An indeed, all comedians at the show, proved on stage, that their titles as comedians was well deserved.

After queuing for almost an hour past the starting time of the show, at the entrance of theatre for tickets to be checked, a situation the organizers are sometimes noted for 'lateness', your Train Driver finally made it through the hustle and bustle at the entrance to the auditorium.

It was the good live band music from the Shabo Crew Band, which calmed the irritated nerves of your exciting Chronicle Entertainment Train Driver. Listening to the band play quality high-life tunes, left your Train Driver in anticipation on how the rest of the show was going to turn out to be.

First to mount the stage, was the immaculately-dressed internationally acclaimed comedian, Gordon, in a black suite with a nice black shirt. His familiarity with the word halleluiah, made the crowd speculate if he was in to preach, but unknown to all, he came prepared with several jokes up his sleeve, which were soon to send everyone laughing.

The comedian, on seeing two Europeans in the front row, was quick to note that Ghanaians have a loving way of welcoming foreigners especially, those we call whites or 'obroni,' as they are affectionately called in Ghana.

Unlike Nigerians, for the reason that in Nigeria on seeing a European, one thinks of how much you can swindle from that person, and if the Europeans are two, then the Nigerian begins to multiply the fortune from both, to this the audience could not help, but laugh.

He went on to share his experiences in the United Kingdom (UK) not long ago. According to him, on his arrival at the Heathrow Airport and was going through the necessary checks, the immigration officer, who was obviously a British, told him to stand aside, even though he was clad in designer wear from head to toe, completing his designed looks with a 'D&G' belt, not dog and goat he clarified, but Dolce and Gabbana.

This made him wonder if the immigration officer had any respect for the progress in his life lately, which was evident from his appearance, he decided to pretend not to understand the English language, used by the officer to query him.

When he was asked his purpose of coming to the UK, he responded in his formulated language, thus there was the need for interpretation from a fellow Nigerian, which was not fruitful, because the interpreter could not understand what he was saying.

He said this went on for a while, until the immigration officer said, “because you don't understand English, and cannot answer basic questions, for security reasons I am sorry you have to be deported back home,” at this point, he begun to recollect all the hustle and bustle he had to go through at the embassy before acquiring his visa, and the fortune he spent on buying his ticket.

He decided to snap out of his invented accent, hence he told the officer in English that he could understand and can even interpret the English language, if only he will not be deported back to Nigeria.

After telling one joke after the other, Gordon bid his audience farewell, with his usual halleluiah word.

Next to mount the stage was Yaw Sakyi, his presence on stage made your Chronicle Entertainment Driver wonder what he was doing there. Maybe he had lost his way to the studios of TV Africa, where he does well as a host on his entertainment show, many wondered.

Soon, he begun to prove that, not only was he good at hosting his TV show, but was a fine comedian, and this year being an election year, he saw his target as the political parties and their flag bearers, therefore political leaders from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Convention Peoples Party (CPP), were discussed by him.

Yaw went on, and undeniably his performance was applauded by the audience, till he ended his session with a rendition of Agya Koo's joke, about the pastor and his wife who attended church to worship, despite the pastor having a lover in his church, thus leading to an encounter between his wife and his lover during prayers.

The joke was very funny, except the language he used in communicating, which was Twi, deterred the foreigners in the auditorium from understanding. It was no surprise, when your Entertainment Driver was approached by an Ivorian, to explain why most people were laughing at the joke, and what it meant in English.

Then came the turn of the 350 kg lady, Lakpacious Bosse, her first attack on stage was on Ghanaians, she was so bitter about the fact that although Ghanaians were experts in welcoming foreigners, her welcome was very unpleasant and unfair, because she was being branded 350 kg, when in reality she weighed 348 kg only.

She went to ask men why they wanted to build big houses, own fat accounts, drive and cruise in huge cars, but when it comes to choosing ladies they want slim ones, and not the fat or overweight ones like her.

Lakpacious encouraged all the fat or plump ladies in the auditorium, not be intimidated by the skinny and dried boned ladies around, instead help the thin ladies pray to Elisha to make their dry bones arise and grow again, adding that all plump ladies should take consolation in the fact that some day, the skinny ladies will definitely grow plump.

She explained that whoever did not laugh at the jokes from comedians, was not at fault, as it is not that the jokes are not funny, but the fact was, that person's problems were bigger than the jokes.

She exited the stage expressing amazement at when people tell her to watch her weight, because every morning she takes a chair and sits in front of her mirror naked for an hour, to watch her weight, so her question was how do people want her to watch her weight again?

Okey Bakassi was next to dish out his plate of jokes, actually, Okey has been to Ghana on a number of occasions, as such he was not new to the audience, who wondered what his jokes were about.

According to him, flatulence or issues concerning bad air emitted by people was his specialty, he recounted the issue of his friend Ben, whose profession was driving, and had a former boss who had a very huge belly.

The problem the driver had with his boss, was that anytime the boss went for meetings, he stayed behind to have lunch, and always returned with his belly oversized, after sitting in the car with the air-conditioning turned on, he begins to snore after 10 minutes and in process releases bad air.

This went on for so long the driver decided to retaliate, so on one fine afternoon, when he took his boss to his meeting, he went for lunch and ordered two plates of beans, with four eggs, and drank Andrews Liver Salt to wash it down.

Later, while driving his boss, who was asleep as usual, he felt nature's call and could not help but discharge terrible air, this immediately woke his boss from his nap, right away he ordered him to turn off the air conditioner, and roll down the windows for fresh air.

The driver smilingly acknowledged in his mind that it was a drawn game, between him and his boss, this joke left the audience rolling out of their seats with laughter.

To bring down the curtains was the man Julius Agwu, his presence on stage was received with loud applause, because the jokes he told were very funny and entertaining.

Last Saturday's comedy night, proved that the organizers had learnt their lessons from what happened in previous shows, and comments from critics, especially the one that brought down the Ghanaian-based in U.S. comedian, Michael Blankson, whose vulgar jokes sent him off stage with disappointment from his audience.

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