A-Plus Moves Into Comedy

There is a new wind blowing on Ghana’s entertainment scene as popular musician A-Plus, known in private life as Kwame Asare Obeng, is signaling a possible exit from his music career in the not-too-distant future.

News-One can say that A-Plus, instead of coming out with an album this year, is launching a career in broadcasting. He will be outdooring a new TV programme at the weekend.

The entertainment TV magazine, which will have both music and comedy segments, is dubbed ‘The A-Plus Show’ and will be launched at School of Performing Arts Drama Studio, University of Ghana-Legon, this Sunday, February 27.

The musician, who was recently reported to be dating host of Metro TV’s Morning Ride, Anita Owusu, was spotted on Monday evening in his new unregistered black Chrysler 300C while putting things together for the launching ceremony of his TV show.

Politicians from both divide, as well as A-Plus’s pals, are expected to patronize the ceremony. The launching ceremony is being put together by Konsule Entertainment and eTV Ghana, which will be airing the programme.

A-Plus told News-One yesterday that the programme would air weekly. “It is all about comedy and music. Every week I will be doing a 15-minute standup comedy. We will have a segment for artistes and another for guests. There will also be another segment called The Adventures of Mr. Siawu.

Mr. Siawu is going to be a very controversial character. Every day he will do something new,” he explained the content of the programme.

A-Plus admitted that he was a political satirist but denied his new show would have a political undertone. “Oh it won’t be political; we are just going to look at the funny part of everything in general. Sometimes we can even look at the difference between Daily Guide and The Lens newspapers. One day, I can just pick Daily Guide and Lens, look at how both papers reported the same story.”

He said his reason for coming out with the TV programme was because he wanted to break new barriers in the entertainment industry, and categorically denied the obvious perception that he might be saying goodbye to his music career. “Being in showbiz is not like playing football where the goalkeeper can’t come out. The goalkeeper is restricted to the goal post but being a musician in showbiz does not mean you are restricted to only music.

“You must always try and move on from that point. I think music is like a stepping stone to move on to other things. Because if you are old and you are in your 50s, you can’t still be jumping on stage and you will even be out of fashion. As you grow, you try to do something new so that you will be current and be relevant. It is just like acting a movie.

If you are a baby you play baby roles. If you grow up as a young boy, you play teenage roles and finally when you become a fully grown man, you play adult roles. Even when you die, you can play the role of a dead person. I am not leaving music but I am trying to do different things. My interest is standup comedy which is what I love to do.

I want to do it and later have my own big shows, not only in Ghana but internationally,” he explained and concluded he would release a single soon.