Popular Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha famously knows as Basketmouth, has said that hinted that he would be retiring from stand-up
in the next five years.
Now 45 years old, the lanky comedian made this known during an interview on Arise Television, that he will be retiring from Stand-up Comedy at 50.
According to Basketmouth, his plan after 50 is to focus on other areas of the entertainment business like Film and Television production,
show promotion and event event planning, which are areas he also has interest in.
Basketmouth who is planning is stand-up comedy show in Lagos titled ‘Basketmouth Unprovoked’ for Nov 26, at Eko Hotel, Lagos, during the interview also noted that Stand-up comedy in Nigeria is dying, had this to say about his industry:
“My colleagues will agree with me that stand-up comedy in Nigeria is actually dying. The culture of stand-up comedy is bleeding terribly.
“You know, with music, they have their streaming platforms; they have a platform that supports what they do across the world. With movies, they have the same thing: they have the streaming platform. And Afrobeats broke into that space and made room for the movies. Unfortunately, for comedy, we don’t have any platforms. We don’t have comedy clubs; we don’t have any structure.
“In the United States, if comedians decide to go on tour, before they go on tour, they do comedy clubs across the states and try the materials repeatedly. But here in Nigeria, there’s no comedy club. There’s nowhere for you to practice your materials. Because this is an art, you can’t just create it and go on stage when you don’t know what the response is going to be like. When musicians make their songs, they call different people, A&R, and ask for their feedback before feeding it to the rest of the world. But out here, you see a lot of comedians. It’s a risky game. And they’re the ones promoting the shows, looking for sponsors. The system is not built to support comedy. A lot of newbies don’t have the platform like we had.”
Kunmi ‘The Super Cat’ is a massage therapist, an entertainment and erotic content writer. She is a pop culture enthusiast!
