THE STAGE AESTHETICS OF ATUNYOTA ALLELUYA AKPOBOME (ALI BABA)'S STAND-UP COMEDY

Stand-up Comedy is an art in which a comedian performs by interacting directly with an audience. It has been in existence since classical Greek and Yoruba monarchical history. It was not regarded in Nigeria as a serious art until the emergence of Atunyota Alleluya Akpobome (Ali Baba) in the early 1990s when it transformed into an industry. Existing literature on Stand-up Comedy have focused on the historical perspectives, performer’s delivery and business management, with little attention paid to stage aesthetics. This study, therefore, investigated the stage aesthetics of Ali Baba’s Stand-up Comedy, with a view to documenting his contribution to the entertainment industry in Nigeria. Henri Bergson’s theory of laughter was adopted, while ethnographic and case study designs were utilised. Participant observation was used during 2018 Ali Baba’s spontaneity series. The researcher watched Ali Baba’s January 1st Concert and purposively selected audio-visual recordings of Ali Baba’s shows from the 1990s when he came into comedy business till 2021. The study found that Ali Baba’s appearance on the Nigerian comic scene ushered in a radical transition and transformation of Nigerian Stand-up Comedy into an innovative and economically empowering industry. The success of Ali-Baba’s Stand-up Comedy business depended significantly on branding, packaging and marketing strategies. The study further revealed Ali Baba’s Stand-up Comedy as an experimentation of the concept of socio-aesthetic harmony, marrying aestheticism with functionalism. This essay concludes that the success story of Nigerian Stand-up Comedy is incomplete without mentioning the stage aesthetics of Ali Baba’s Stand-up Comedy.