Basketmouth, Nigerian comedy legend, has devised a five-year plan to retire from the game and pursue other interests, particularly in filmmaking and music.
During an Arise TV interview on Saturday, November 25, 2023, the 45-year-old revealed that he has a schedule of annual comedy shows for the next five years, after which he plans to retire.
He explained that he has always known he would return to music after abandoning it for comedy in the 1990s. His success with My Flatmates, a popular sitcom in which he produces and stars, solidified his conviction.
The comedian stated that he intends to become involved in every aspect of the entertainment industry in order to build his own empire.
He said:
“I’ll be 50 in five years, I’d have moved on to something else that’d be taking a lot of my time, and I don’t want to cheat comedy. I want to give it a 100%. I know that in five years, I can blend all the interests and go fully into movies, TV and music concerts. It’s going to be hard to do all these things and still give 100% to comedy”.
Basketmouth went on to complain about the difficulties of the Nigerian comedy industry, claiming that comedians lack the necessary structure to succeed. He claims that while music and films have streaming platforms that expose them to a global audience, comedy has not.
According to the Brotherhood star, the culture of standup comedy is dying because comedians lack the structures to practise and refine their craft, which he believes has an impact on the quality of their craft.
He said,
“The system is not built to support comedy. Many of the newbies don’t have the platforms like we had. With social media, a lot of people started mistaking skit makers with standup comedians — they’re two different sets of people. Some skit makers now tried to do standup comedy and most of them bombed. When there are a lot of comedians bombing because there’s no space for them to grow, they’re not well refined and people start thinking, ‘Do we really need comedians?'”
Basketmouth intends to address the issue before leaving the industry by providing comedians with exposure. He hinted that he’s collaborating with “one or two streaming platforms” to allow new comics to be seen and heard around the world. One Night Stand is the name of the show he intends to create to accomplish this.
Despite his exit strategy, the comedian left the door open for a future return.
“As a comedian, you can’t stop writing materials so I’ll keep writing, and maybe in another 10 or 15 years after now, I might come back. We have a 15-year plan,” he said.
Basketmouth, in addition to My Flatmates, is the creator of the web series Papa Benji and the producer of three critically acclaimed music albums: Yabasi, Horoscopes, and Uburu.
