I received threats, I was devastated – OB Amponsah opens up on ‘Mahama joke’

Stand-up comedian OB Amponsah has disclosed he was traumatized by the barrage of insults and criticisms heaped on him by some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) following a joke he told about the party’s flag-bearer.

The comedian who has entertained many Ghanaians and foreigners alike with his craft recounting his ordeal to GhanaWeb said the attacks broke him to the extent that he contemplated calling it quits.

“It was tough,” he admitted. “There was a point I cried. The threats were crazy. I don’t know how they got my number. When they call you and they don’t get you, they text you the insults. A lot of concerns… At a point, I was scared for my [life]. But I had some NDC folks calling me that they’re trying to calm nerves. It really got to me.”

The popular comedian during a performance at this year’s edition of Decemba2Rememba made light of many things, including names and meanings as well as the impact of names on people where he mentioned that the name ‘Mahama’ is synonymous with corruption in Hausa.

Deemed an expensive joke, a salvo of attacks hit OB Amponsah on Thursday, December 26 – few hours to his performance at the ‘Night of 1026 Laughs & Music’.

There were concerns he would not be able to deliver considering how he had been verbally abused but the comedian did not disappoint as he blew the audience away with his witty jokes.

On how he nailed it in the midst of the brouhaha, the comedian cum optometrist divulged it was not as easy as it seemed.

“Some said I killed ‘1026 Laughs’ but I wasn’t me on the stage. Ideally, I’ll have fun but on 1026 Laughs, I was telling jokes and people were laughing. It took a lot of strength. It was tough. I could have been suicidal or something. There’re ideas that came in my mind. I almost quit comedy,” he said.

“It took a lot psychologically. I think Ghanaian acts need psychologists to fine-tune [their] minds before [they] go on stage because I really needed that yesterday. I was down. I was broken.”