The Soft Issue
August 2017
Interview
(Laughs) the experience was cool. I’m not a fan of Fuji music
anyways. Do you understand the fact that somebody you have
adored since were a kid: you see him only in pictures and his
videos; then you have the chance of moving very close to him
and listen to him perform live and the fact that you even had
the privilege of handing over the microphone to him. It was a
great experience, trust me. It was very nice seeing one of the
Nigerian veteran Fuji music act in front of you. No, no, it was
cool. I felt like at least if I’m not there yet, there is a future and
I’m planning to get to that future. It was just a cool experience.
How does that help your brand? Like were you able to secure
more deals because you shared the same stage with him?
For the deals, I will not really say that they came from the
pictures or the videos that I did. But I can say this though. He
actually boosted my credibility among everybody I knew. He is
not somebody that you can see on a normal day at least a lot
of people had to call him. Somebody still does not believe till
today that I saw him. They thought that it was probably a photo
or an edited video. So in the real sense people will not expect
me to see Wasiu Ayinde on a normal day which I did and then
trust me, I can say that it has boosted my credibility.
Do you think stand-up comedy will cope in this era of digital
distribution?
It has gotten better overtime. In European
countries it will cope and survive, because
they have strict laws. I once read in the news
that somebody was fined $200 for using
someone’s joke in a European country. But
in Nigeria we don’t have strict law like that.
You can easily go online, search for people’s
jokes and use it. So it is actually boosting your
personality at the detriment of those who
sat down to think. And to regular comedians,
it will help them. But to comedians who are
specialists, it is a great issue. That’s because
we have people now who have not met either
of them but know all their jokes. Instead of
boosting their personality, it is killing them.
What is the biggest event that you have
performed at?
Based on the amount they gave; my biggest
event was “Access Bank Unplugged 2016” for
Mid-Western zone. Based on population it is
“Easter Conference” for government which had
about more than 4000 people in attendance.
Photo courtsey of Big Johnny.
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