Respect our craft, leave the posting of our content to us – OB Amponsah to patrons

Stand-up comedian OB Amponsah has made a passionate appeal to persons who patronize comedy to not film and upload content as the act cripples comedians and the industry as a whole.

In a social media post, the comedian who has garnered a huge following as a result of how witty he is mentioned that unlike a particular song which can be performed at different events repeatedly, the narrative is not the same with comedy hence, patrons who are proud of comedians, in their bid to project the act of comedy, should refrain from filming and uploading comedy shows.

"Comedians struggle a lot before we are able to come up with hit jokes, and the thing about jokes is that you cannot tell the same joke to the same people more than twice... It gets stale," he said.

"When you come to comedy shows and you enjoy our sets, tweet or blog that we are funny and leave the posting of our content to us. Spare some few words of praise on your popular blogs for us," OB Amponsah rather suggested.

Below is his full post.

What bloggers and some comedy patrons fail to realize is that there is a difference between posting the art of musicians and that of comedians.

Music never gets old. Kuami Eugene can sing "Angela" at different events to the same people and these people will never get tired of it.

It's not the same when it comes to comedy. Comedians struggle a lot before we are able to come up with hit jokes, and the thing about jokes is that you cannot tell the same joke to the same people more than twice... It gets stale.

So if you decide to cover a comedian's set and post all of it online for free without his or her consent, though he may get some exposure, you are inadvertently depriving the comic of his livelihood. In advanced settings, phones are not even allowed at comedy specials.

When you visit the YouTube channels of comedians, you will find a number of videos the comedian has released himself; these videos he believes are ready for the free consumption of the public. These videos we wouldn't have issues with if anybody copied and posted them.

So please, when you come to comedy shows and you enjoy our sets, tweet or blog that we are funny and leave the posting of our content to us. Spare some few words of praise on your popular blogs for us.

Like musicians, we also have sole ownership of our content, unless otherwise stated in the contracts we sign with the event organizers. So please respect our craft and help us grow as well.

Akpe.