LAUSR

Introduction Coincidentally, many successful Nigerian stand-up comedians were born or raised in Warri and its environs. In this article we intend to interrogate the sociocultural background of four highly talented comedians whose artistic performances have made them stand out with their peculiar styles despite having features that can be said to be Warri-related: Gordons, I Go Dye, AY and Real Warri Pikin. In other words, we are interested in the evidence of their Warri identity. We will combine a sociological approach and a neo-historicist concept in discussing these four stand-up comedians. We chose this mode of scholarly inquiry because the two concepts relate to how the zeitgeist of a people conditions their artistic productions. The sociocultural background and historical happenings of Warri inform the uniqueness of the stand-up comedians who use their individual experiences and observations in the Warri location as materials for artistic composition and performance. We are aware of many scholarly works on Nigerian and African stand-up comedies. A sample of such works reveals the diversity of approach to the study of stand-up comedy. In “The Uses of Ridicule: Humour, ‘Infrapolitics’ and Civil Society in Nigeria” Ebenezer Obadare argues for incorporating humour into the civil society discourse. Moradewun Adejunmobi discusses the ethics of popular performance in Nigeria. In “Discourse Types in Stand-up Comedy Performances: An Example of Nigerian Stand-up Comedy” Ibikun Filani applies discourse theory to Nigerian stand-up comedy. Maik Nwosu devotes a chapter in his The Comic Imagination in Modern African Literature and Cinema: A Poetics of Laughter to “Nollywood Cinema and the Semiotics of Laughter”. Many scholars have also discussed stand-up comedy as practiced in other African countries. David A. Donkor looks at it from the political angle in “Selling the President: Stand-up Comedy and the Politricks of Indirection in Ghana”. In “Comedians, Pastors, and the Miraculous Agency of Charisma in Ghana” Jesse Weaver Shipley directs his scholarship at stand-up comedy and “charismatic preaching”. Added to politics and religion, there is attention to jokes aimed at Tradition and subjectivities: Warri-related comedians and their art By some coincidence, many Nigerian stand-up comedians were born, raised, live in, or are associated with Warri and its environs. By Warri, as understood in the area, we mean Warri and its surroundings and, to a large extent, what is called the ‘core Delta’ of Nigeria’s Delta State. The comedians include Gordons, I Go Dye, AY and Real Warri Pikin. We investigate what is possibly responsible for the natural talent of these comedians. We relate the success of these comedians to the notion of Warri as ‘not coming last’, the history of the city of many ethnicities, boma boys, the blues nature of suffering pain and deprivations but laughing them off, and some indigenous traditions such as the Urhobo udje oral poetic performance which aims to elicit laughter as a means of maintaining normalcy and preventing anybody from deviating from the communally-established norms. We use multiple concepts such as laughter as a means of regulating people’s lives, satire, historicism, culture, and aesthetic considerations to study these Warri-related comedians and their art. We investigate the commonalities, subjectivities, traditions, and individual talents that have made Warri-born, raised, resident, and related comedians so successful—not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa and the world.