Canada’s First All-Black Sketch Comedy Ensemble Has Arrived

There’s a first for everything and for the Canadian sketch comedy scene, its first all-Black comedy troupe is launching after “400 years in the making”.

Based in Toronto, Untitled Black Sketch Project (UBSP) is an all-Black sketch comedy troupe featuring an ensemble of Black comedians including Phatt Al, Aba Amuquandoh, Coko Galore, Brandon Hackett, Alan Shane Lewis, Brandon Ash Mohammed, Ajahnis Charley and Nkasi Ogbonnah. 

Together, they are creating work with themes that will reflect shared-Black culture, silliness and authenticity. UBSP recently performed online table reads for co-producer Coko Galore's Black and Funny Festival on Bad Dog Comedy TV, and will premiere a new table read this Sunday as part of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.

“We said ‘Bun that! We are going to make comedy for us, by us,’” said co-founder and co-producer of UBSP, Ajahnis Charley.

Their mission is to not conform to ideas found within white spaces, since cast members have found that working in mostly white dominated writers rooms prevented them from expressing their ideas with clarity to colleagues and audiences.

“We just decided to be… our lovely Black selves and the comedy itself will take on whatever it does just by the nature of us being present, being ourselves and being in a room with people who understand [us].”

Charley says the idea of forming the troupe was inspired by him and fellow cast member, Nkasi Ogbonnah, when they saw one of the very few Black sketch duos perform at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in 2019. 

Charley and Ogbonnah were reminded of the lack of Black comedians on sketch comedy stages. The following year saw many discussions and ideas around forming an all-Black sketch comedy troupe.

In 2020, the project came to life.

“We finally decided ‘why don’t we just do it ourselves because it’s been years and we’ve never seen it get it done,’” said Charley.  

Together with Ogbonnah, Charley wrote a proposal outlining their vision. They took on a producing role with Coko Galore, artistic director at Bad Dog Comedy Theatre, who also signed on as co-producer and cast member of UBSP.

“We got the ball rolling on casting and creating Canada’s first all-Black sketch ensemble,” said Charley. 

Ajahnis Charley

UBSP being present in the comedy scene will allow Black comedians to appear as they are, in a way that’s never been witnessed before. “What’s exciting is that we are making history,” said Charley. “I get to live and contribute to a cohort, a generation of Black comedians that are creating history.”

Charley speaks of his colleague, Brandon Ash-Mohammed as someone to recently make history by being the first gay-Black man to release a stand-up comedy album. 

“My job as a co-producer is [to] prepare us for Toronto Sketch Fest this year… also keeping an eye out on how Untitled Black Sketch Project grows.” Charley values the presence and evolvement of Black comedians in the country, since there’s a lack of visibility within the comedy industry. 

“The growth of an ‘all-Black everything’ is important in Canada because we’re in a community that has been constantly disenfranchised,” said Charley. “Now we chose to make a name for ourselves.”

Canada has continuously failed to represent Black and entertainers of colour for many years, regardless of claiming itself as a diversified country. In recent years, data has shown that this issue continues to be prevalent within the creative industry. 

Census data from 2016 mentions that people of colour make up 52.2 percent of Toronto’s population and overall in Canada, the Catalyst research shows 23.3 percent. 

Despite these findings, the representation isn’t displayed adequately in the arts sector. For instance, a study by Nordicity shows that racialized people in 2016 made up 16.3 percent of speaking roles on Canadian television shows. 

Meanwhile, only 9.5 per cent of Black people had speaking roles on a drama or comedy show. As a result, sketch comedy projects like UBSP are showcased tardily, in spite of Canadian comedy existing forever.

“This is overdue, it really makes you question why this hasn’t been done before,” said Charley. “The arts industry simply isn’t a safe space or comfortable space for Black artists to feel able to contribute.” 

In addition, Black content creators face difficulty while striving to access funding for the growth of their network. For example, last July about 75 Black Canadian entertainment professionals signed an open letter to the federal government in Ottawa demanding the termination of “systemically racist policies” that prevent many to push their careers forward.

Charley finds this to be problematic given that many Black creators encounter this issue in the arts industry. “We also have roadblocks in grant applications, there’s technical limitations [and] time limitations,” said Charley.

He says the grant process is frustrating for Black applicants who also work jobs as they do not have the time luxury to complete lengthy applications, that could potentially result in losing work. 

Unprivileged people cannot afford to take that risk.

“You’re filling out this [grant application] for the chance of getting money, how are you going to use those hours where you could be working on the chance of getting money? It’s a bad gamble,” said Charley. 

“For people who have been disadvantaged and disenfranchised, how are we supposed to feel comfortable making that gamble?”

Part of what Charley believes to be a solution to this problem is for the government agencies and arts councils to carefully consider and act upon the demands of Black and artists of colour, as well as, creating jobs within the arts industry that will be enough for a legitimate income.

“That just becomes the matter of the government valuing artists and trying to develop economic strategies to fund the arts and create salary positions or entry-level pathways,” said Charley. 

“So that artists don’t have to sacrifice their lives just to become a production assistant.”

Untitled Black Sketch Project will present their next table read as part of the Closing Night Gala at TOsketchfest21. Grab your tickets here.