BBL Comedy Box promises few hours filled with waves of humor, free-flowing drinks, and more jokes according to your desire
By Ebri Kowaki
There are plenty of ways to unwind after a stress-filled Wednesday evening. In the spirit of healthier options, the organisers of Bottles, Bants and Laughter (BBL) Comedy Box suggest spending a few hours at the BBL box.
They promise those few hours will be filled with waves of humor, free-flowing drinks, and more jokes according to your desire (you get to choose the type of jokes you want to hear). The strangest thing that might happen is hearing a punchline you vaguely recall from some obscure stand-up video clip on YouTube.
For now, sadly, if you do not live in the city of Awka, the Wednesday Cool-off option is unavailable in your region.
BBL Comedy Box began welcoming guests in September 2024, under the open sky and multi-coloured lights of the Reboot Luxury Place—a venue that hosts about a quarter of the parties in Awka.
The project’s manager, professionally known as Tina, describes BBL Comedy Box as the first comedy club in the South East. She explains that it is part of an effort to revitalise the stand-up comedy scene, particularly in Awka, which has dwindled to a few annual shows by a handful of regional stars and performances by B-listers that rarely justify their ticket prices.
Tina is an old hand in Awka’s entertainment scene, working administration and strategy for other forward pushing events such as the Unboxed Party.
“We want people to see the broader potential of the comedy community. We also want to cultivate the comedy culture in the east”, Slym Shady explains in an interview for this story.
Slym Shady, a celebrity hype-man and co-founder of BBL Comedy Box, speaks with a passion that sharpens the edges of his eyes. He shares his belief that comedy is the defining art form of South East Nigeria, much like Lagos serves as the spiritual home of Afrobeats.
Most of this establishment has been built in Awka, as well as in Coal City, Enugu. It’s not uncommon for throngs of people to travel to Awka to attend Prince Neche’s Confession comedy shows live. A comic virtuoso who is already headlining shows in Europe, Prince Neche is also a co-founder of the weekly BBL Comedy Box.
The audiences differ from week to week, but one thing unites them: they are a portrait of Awka’s youth. From flamboyant crypto bros to modest waitresses, the audiences are the true highlight of the shows—at least during the weeks I attended.
Banter flows as freely as the drinks. Their laughter is genuine, boos come only after enduring much, and applause is either a hard-earned reward or constructive criticism, depending on the performance’s tempo. BBL Comedy Box is, above all, a space for growth.
The side effect of this is that, on many nights, much of the humour seems to come from the audience itself. Performers typically fall into one of three categories; The celebrity veterans, like Prince Neche or Comic Doctor Mironma, whose acts are met with whoops and rapid applause; The up-and-coming talents, who generally manage to land 70–80% of their material; The newbies, whose stage presence can range from painfully awkward silences to brief bursts of laughter—usually when they resort to a lewd punchline or take a jab at a famous person in attendance.
The audience loves to troll these ones especially. But they do understand the nature of the place.
Then there’s the box—the creative twist that gives BBL Comedy Box its name. This wooden 2×1 container serves as the gateway to the stage. Inside, it holds scores of paper strips, each bearing a single word or short phrase scribbled earlier by the audience.
When a performer picks a piece of paper from the box, they must turn what’s written into an improv joke. It is the perfect balance between training the comedians in quick thinking and pulling the audience deeper into the plot.
Reaching for the box is certainly a better option than running dry halfway through your set and having to go through the flailing motions before a crowd with ready, scalding tongues.
If you live in Awka, make time to attend a show next Wednesday evening if you can. You might not walk away with Bovi-level jokes to retell at family dinner, but you can certainly expect refreshing entertainment.
The organisers of BBL Comedy Box have plans to expand the show to other cities in the region and beyond. Slym Shady hinted at a tour in the near future, in the spirit of spreading the gospel of comic revival across southern Nigeria.
Better futures are certain for both the show and its array of performers. I can only hope that, as the influence of comedy and comics grows in the region, these performers will begin to harness the journalistic power of comedy.
I hope they ascend beyond the traditional caricature jokes and moaning about the economy, and start to push political satire with the intent to spark serious conversations.
Ebri Kowaki is a Nigerian storyteller committed to exploring literature as a socially relevant tool. His works have appeared in the Akowdee Magazine, the Uli Magazine, Kalahari Review, UbuntuAfrica and elsewhere. He spends his free time working a day job as a visual artist and eating food he did not pay for.
Cover and other photo credits: @bbl_comedybox on Instagram