Gone are the days when aspiring entertainers waited on long queues on talent shows, hoping to get selected. Today, those with and without the talent have the free platform of Instagram to express themselves to the world to the adoration or derision of other users. And success hasn’t been far from those who have found their place in the hearts of other users.
As with every new way of achieving success, many have flocked to the social network to showcase their talent or the non-existence of it. Sometimes, it gets hard to find the gems among the sea of pebbles, but fear not, we got you. Here is the list of 10 out of several talented Nigerian Instagram comedians.
Best Nigerian Instagram Comedians You Should Follow:
1 Maraji (@maraji_)
Gloria Oloruntobi’s rise to the summit of social media entertainment is one worthy of study. Her act is one of the most wholesome acts among Instagram comedians. She found her niche in finding the comical in the regular interactions in Nigerian life. Practically anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes in the country can relate with her act. Her creativity further solidifies her as the best among her peers.
2. Craze Clown (@crazeclown)
Craze Clown is part of the traditional skit comedy community on Instagram. In his elderly man routine, dressed in an off-white agbada and a cap that is customarily known to the Yoruba tribe. He delivers structured hilarity to followers with an efficiency that has earned him over 2.3m followers and regular sponsored posts from various brands. He’s up there among the best Nigerian Instagram comedians. Certainly in terms of success.
3. Woli Agba (@woliagba_ayoajewole)
Ayo Ajewole popularly known as Woli Agba may have started his entertainment career as part of the famous Alfa Sule group that took the southwest by storm a few years back. He has obviously gone out on his own and has done quite well for himself. His act revolves around religion from which he started his comedic career and in a mostly religious country like Nigeria, he’s certainly not suffering from a lack of audience.
4. Josh Alfred (@josh2funny)
There is a weird subgenre in the Nigerian Instagram Comedy scene. It is the cross-dressing comedian and Josh is one of the leading proponents of it. For some reason, these group of comedians believe dressing like the opposite sex is a hilarious element. Well, if their popularity is anything to go, they might be right. If people find a grown man dressing up in a green native dress with a scarf hilarious, who am I to judge?
5. Twyse (@twyse_116)
Another member of the skit community, Twyse takes it up to a level that allows him to show his range of acting skills. His popularity shows it is working. His talent has helped him work with more mainstream acts like Falz. So clearly this is a man with the chops to command attention outside his traditional playing ground. His act, however, will be quite challenging to translate to a stand-up act.
6. Oluwakaponeski (@oluwakaponeski)
Oluwatobi Onibatedo is one of the leading members of the cross-dressing skit scene. One of the first to take advantage of Instagram as a platform to display your comedic chops, his first to the market attribute has earned him lasting popularity that secures his contracts with the likes of Google and other big brands. As for whether the majority of the Instagram community find him hilarious, the jury is still out on that.
7. Wofai Ifada (@wofaifada)
Women are not traditionally known to be prominent members of the Comedy industry. It is a boy’s club, so it is always welcomed to see a girl who embraces her comedic chops and takes on the boy’s club. With a similar act to Maraji, her sister in the Instagram comedy business… she explores the Nigerian reality in a funny way. Her over 700k followers suggests she has a lot more hits than misses when it comes to this type of comedy. She’s also an actor. We stan a multitalented queen.
8. Lasisi Elenu (@lasisielenu)
Using a Snapchat filter to take over Instagram, the angry man might just be deserving of a gift of appreciation from the Snapchat CEO for giving him something to gloat to Zuckerberg over. Mr Lasisi went a different way with his act and boy! Did it become a hit among users. His rants are hilarious and while the filter does add the element of visual hilarity to it, it still holds up when done with a regular face as shown by his bookings for live stand-up comedy shows in the country. The angry man, without a doubt, is certainly one of the best Nigerian Instagram comedians.
9. Chief Obi (@chief_obi)
One of the first to do it, the diaspora based Nigerian rose to the top of the Instagram comedy game with various viral skits that explored what it meant to be Nigerian, especially in the diaspora. His drop in the rankings is mostly down to his cross over to the music side of the entertainment business but certainly, when he wants to… he’s one of those talented enough to bring hilarity in a short video.
10. Frank Donga (@frankdonga_)
Perpetually unemployed man in pink is what could be called an icon of the Comedy skit business. Starting from his days at Ndani TV, his unemployed man searching for a job in Nigeria was one of the best things ever created in the country’s comedy industry. A man who had his videos on laptops and phones of every student in the country, Frank Donga was truly the man. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to maintain that domination with the rise of Instagram comedy and his cross to movie making certainly hasn’t helped but he will always have his place in our collective hearts for bringing laughter to our faces on those afternoons when like him, we were hungry and broke.
