Prospects and career opportunities in Nigerian stand-up comedy

Abstract

Stand-up comedy is basically an art form that is devoted to getting immediate laughs from an audience. It aims at achieving laughter as well as satirise deviant behaviours all with the intent to sustain social order. In Nigeria, it has become a very huge industry. This paper discusses the various career opportunities associated with stand-up comedy as an art form. It undertakes a survivalist appreciation of the career options which stand-up comedy can offer against the backdrop of the alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria. The need for Nigerian stand-up comics to be exposed cannot be overemphasised as it would aid them to discover themselves as well as the career opportunities in the art of stand-up comedy. The study establishes the fact that the standup comedian can as well double as a writer, a psychotherapist, a politician, a brand ambassador, an event manager and a content developer, amongst others. Consequently, the paper advocates the need to develop stand-up comedy courses in relation to entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities.