Meet Ulrich Takam. Le fameux Ulrich Takam, le fils de Ma’a Monique. Fameux comme Fame Ndongo. In an earlier article in which I attempted to examine the relevance of webseries to our local movie industry, I drew inspiration from Ulrich Takam’s webseries called “Les Delires de Takam.”
To say Takam is the breakout YouTube star of this year is perhaps holding back a little on the gas pedal. Takam’s webseries has grown beyond Cameroon and is getting views notably from Gabon and Cote D’Ivoire, and as well as from other Francophone African countries. We are talking about someone whose episodes of his webseries gets views in the thousands only an hour after it is uploaded.
As it stands, he has 3 main series on his YouTube channel; Les Delires de Takam, Les Parodies de Takam and Les feats de Takam. Les Delires de Takam is the most popular and it, alone, has 27 episodes in its first season that have racked well over 10.6 million views! That is no small feat! Especially when you consider that a good number of these views are out of Cameroon. And it’s not just the views but the QUALITY and the number of comments from viewers, which accompany every episode.
Takam is also a standup comedian and was recently invited to arguably the biggest francophone African Standup comedy scene; Le Marrackech Du Rire, in Morocco. A leading TV network in France has also invited him to be part of their comedy club show for Francophone Africa. He is also a recurrent guest on a comedy show organised by a telecom company in Cameroon.
But Cameroon is two (lmao) and I will not be surprised if a lot of you from the other side of the Moungo have never heard of him.
The thing is, Takam’s meteoric rise has a different flavour to it. Technically speaking, what he is doing is not very different from what a lot of people have been doing before. Moustik Le Karismatique, for example, has been uploading comedy videos on the internet for a long time now. So have Pakgne, recently, as well as Les Baos and Cité Malingo.
However, there is a clear difference in HOW Takam is doing things. This difference accounts for his popularity and the wide berth that separates him and everybody else in the webseries field. Wanna know what that is?
PRODUCTION VALUE.
First of all, as much as I love…, rather used to love Pakgne, I have always found that laugh track cringeworthy. It’s one thing not to have a variety of laugh tracks that go from hysterical to a simple haha. It’s another thing to put a laugh track in segments that the viewer does not find funny. Most situation comedies in the U.S are recorded in front of live audiences and so the laughter is usually genuine. Pakgne did not take note of that. They just downloaded one audio laugh track and basically abused it. Sometimes the laugh track is out of sync. Sometimes it comes on when the actresses are doing nothing but walking on the street.
Takam did not incorporate a laugh track at all and the fun is left to the viewer’s discretion. Also, from a technical perspective, Les Delires de Takam is also ahead of everyone. The sound, the lighting, the camera movement and stability are top notch. The sound and the lighting in particular. It looks like small details but when you are watching a video and the sound suddenly goes from low to high or when one actor speaks and you get it from one side of your earphone and another actor speaks and you get it from the other side of your earphone, there is bound to be some dissonance.
And then there is the writing! The script is good, well-written and there are no long pauses that are meant to fill screen time than to do anything else. Les Delires de Takam has an actual story line and many story arcs that come into the series as it goes on. We are talking about 27 episodes here, between 7 to 20 mins long with good, funny dialogue and an actual story.
And the acting? Marvelous! Takam’s girlfriend in the series (Joyce Sa’a) is played a wonderfully-gifted actress. All the other recurrent characters and guest actors are also really good actors; Lydol la Slammeuse, CySoul, Joyce’s dad… all good actors. As a matter of fact there is a francophone girl who plays an Anglophone girl and actually nails the Anglophone-person-speaking-in-french accent! All this to say Ulrich Takam went out to get good actors.
It helps that the 25 year-old is also a student at the University of Yaounde, studying Performing Arts and Cinematography. So he obviously finds himself in an environment where he can meet these creative individuals, and you know what they say about iron sharpening iron….
I sound so effusive with my praises you might think the series is without blemish. I mean there are episodes that have left me wanting. But even those have been more about the writing than about the technical production. Is it perfectible? Definitely, yes. But is it ahead of everyone else? Also, yes.
All this to say Takam has set a benchmark. And anyone else coming in now or starting a new season will have to do better. People want quality and if you are not up to par, they will migrate, It’s that simple. Takam’s professionalism is a worthy thing to note.
Professionalisme bimoulèè! .
- Wandji Wilfred. Photo: Nelson Kwedi
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