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Entertainment of Sunday, 31 July 2016

Source: David Mawuli

How Ajeezay is changing Ghana comedy with the Internet

Ajeezay with OkyeameKwame play videoAjeezay with OkyeameKwame

Unlike some years back when comedians were given comedy platforms such as “Key Soap Concert Party” to showcase their talents for a peanut, comedy in Ghana has changed drastically.

This change was due to the Internet. Many Ghanaian stand-up comedians launched their career through the Internet by making vines, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter videos.

One of them is Ajeezay.

He is just a young man in his twenties who is making a dramatic change to Ghana comedy with the Internet. As someone who didn’t have access to the Internet at the early stage of his life, it’s quite intriguing the way he is making a gargantuan career success using this powerful medium.

He started by making divergent or contradictory interpretations of trending issues in Ghana; therefore, he gained the title “Nonfa King” – meaning, ‘king of contradictory statements’. Then he started making fun of celebrities, especially those in the music industry.

He makes fun of their personal lives, controversies, lyrics in their songs, music videos, and so on. But, these celebrities he makes fun of don’t get offended. They rather retweet, share or even post on their social media pages themselves.

The masses have accepted his ostentatious pastiche on the Internet and day in, day out, he embraces new followers on his social media pages.

I saw Ajeezay try to even get 10 followers a day on his social media pages, especially Instagram. I remember teasing him anytime I hit a new milestone on Instagram. When I reached 10,000 followers on Instagram a few months ago, he called me to congratulate me and threw a challenge at me that he would “overtake me in a few days”.

Today, he has reached almost 20,000 followers on Instagram, and remarkable followers on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Among his followers include celebrities and the entertainment industry stakeholders. The likes of Samini, Shatta Wale, E.L, Sammy Forson and Appietus have endorsed and shared his funny skits.

I caught up with the stand-up comedian to find out when he ventured into comedy and his passion for putting smiles on the faces of Ghanaian netizens with his funny skits.

We discussed how he came up with his name “Ajeezay”, childhood memories on comedy, when he started accessing the Internet, having parental reinforcement, his biggest source of inspiration, how he comes up with his skits and how he picks the celebrities, how he is building a relationship with the likes of Shatta Wale, Samini, E.L, and other top stars and how many times he shoots his videos and more on Pulse TV.

Aside soap operas, it’s rare to see Ghanaians rushing to watch comedy shows on TV. This is because, there are a lot of funny skits on the Internet, and Ajeezay is one of the greatest contributors.

Watch the entire conversation in the video attached.