How was life before stardom?
Life was okay. I had a good job and I was doing well. Comedy was just a passion. It wasn’t a career path initially. I had a normal 9-5 job and did comedy as a ‘side hustle’ until it became more demanding.
What made you leave your day for comedy?
It got more demanding and my job was also demanding. As a company administrator, there were things that would not run in the company if I was not there. Imagine where being at a show all night and you still have to get to work by 8am feeling drowsy. Sometimes, we would travel to Abuja for a show on a Friday night and still be in Lagos at 6pm. It was becoming difficult to make a choice between the two.
What project shot you into the limelight?
I don’t know because at the time, there were many things happening at the same time. The comedy industry wasn’t as it is now. Then it was more of getting a major platform and it would shoot you into limelight. Everything happened at the same time for me; it was the same year I was at the Night of a Thousand Laughs. Same year, I was in invited to a Night of a thousand and one Laughs in Ghana. Everything happened around the same time. I was fortunate not to be trying to balance time. It was almost like the system and the world were waiting for me and I just stepped in and took my chance.
What has changed for you since you became known?
I don’t know what has changed. My life is pretty much the same thing. I do things as a person not because I’m in public view. I consider myself doing a job and the side effect of the job is that I’m known so nothing has really changed. I don’t expect to walk into a place and everybody there will know me. If they do, well I appreciate and if they don’t, well they don’t owe me because not everyone has the time to watch TV, not everyone is a fan of comedy so I don’t take anything for granted. l take it as a privilege and a blessing.
What challenges did you face when you started?
It’s always been the challenge of being in a man’s world. Comedy was dominantly a male-led industry and a lot of the challenges where in our heads anyways. In my own head for example, being an African and a Yoruba with my background with teachers as parents. There were things I wanted to say. I knew they would be funny but my parents would kill me if they heard that I said it. Sometimes, you’d want to poke fun at a married man in the crowd and his wife is by his side and you don’t have the liberty to do that because no woman will sit around and allow you make fun of her husband. But a male comedian will do that and everyone will laugh and find it funny but a woman won’t let another woman do that.
Do you feel fulfilled so far?
I think I was raised to have a sense of contentment; I won’t say I’m rich or overly famous but I’m contented and every day I thank God for my life because there are people who don’t have the opportunity to discover their talents. I wish for more but I’m contented.
Who are your role models?
I’ll say Alibaba. He’s someone everybody wants to be like. He’s someone who has information. He’s spontaneous and creative. In the international circle, I’ll always go for Mo’nique, because watching her was one of the reasons I had confidence to walk into the industry in the first place.
Is there anyone you’d like to work with anytime soon?
I’ll like to work with Kemi Adetiba anytime any day. In the comedy Industry, I’ll like to work with the kings of comedy from Alibaba to Julius and others because at every point I worked with them, I learnt something new.
What’s your advice to up-and-coming comedians?
I can only say they should keep working on their craft until the day opportunity will meet their talents because in comedy you only get five minutes to make an impression.
If you get the opportunity and you don’t use it well, people will form an opinion about you and they’ll think you’re not funny. But if you get the opportunity and you hit it, that’s the beginning for you and you can take it up from there.
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