What would you describe as your greatest achievement?
Beside staying alive, the greatest achievement would be the fact that I have been able to redefine comedy in the standup sense, because comedy was there before I came on. Dem Baba Sala, Papi Luwe, Zebrudaya were all comedians. Although some of them were just tube comedians, some were also live comedians like Gbenga Adeboye. He was a comedian in real life, but I helped to redefine standup comedy.
Comedy has done a lot for you, what has comedy not done for you?
Comedy has not been able to give me dual citizenship, comedy has not
been able to make people see me as someone who … It’s controversial though. I thought with comedy people would get to recognize you as a professional in the true sense of the word. Professional in the sense that you are a professional like a lawyer, you are a professional like a doctor. It’s getting there, but it hasn’t yet. But I know it will, because people still give you forms to fill and they will put other professions there and you don’t see comedian. The best you can see is entertainer.
What would you now describe as the single greatest thing that comedy has done for you?
It got me presidential acceptance, and not many people have performed in the presence of like six, seven presidents. I’ve done that and more. In Nigeria and outside Nigeria. Comedy has been able to open doors that would not have opened …For a lot of people who went the way I have gone, not many of them have been able to open the doors.
What singular event turned around your life as a comedian?
It’s the birthday party for Obasanjo in 2000.
What mistake must a comedian not make?
It’s repeating a joke that you have told before at the same event.
What is the wisest decision that any comedian can take?
Read and expand your knowledge.
Where do most comedians get it wrong?
Thinking that their talent is enough to get them to where they are going. Because the thing is that talent is not enough. You can be talented as a comedian, but if you don’t know how to package yourself, you will miss it; if you don’t know who to work with, you will miss it; if you don’t know when to say no, you will miss it.
You also would get it wrong if you think that you are the best, so there’s no need to improve on yourself. You would also get it wrong if you think that the jokes that you told 4 months ago, nobody else will tell them and then prepare to tell those same jokes again 8 months after. What you can do is to just be spontaneous. Comedians that are not spontaneous are the ones that are dragging their careers by the neck.
What is the best way to attain success and also to be able to sustain it in comedy?
To deliver service. Consider anything that you are doing as a service that you are providing. So,
if you are a lawyer, you are providing service; the service is getting people out of trouble. If you are a musician, you are providing a service – people can listen to you and be impressed or be soothed or be happy. If you are a photographer, it’s the quality of your pictures that makes somebody say oh, I like the services we got from so, so and so person
What makes a good joke?
A good joke must have a good set up, a good story and a punch line. So, once a story starts properly and you have built the punch line, you’ve set it up properly, you can now drop the punch line anywhere. And then the best joke is the one that has several punch lines in between the story before you get to the major punch line.
So, you find sometimes when a comedian is telling a joke, before he gets to the punch line, people have laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed ‘ and then he gets to the punch line and drops it. That’s a combo! That’s a jumbo joke! Those are the kind of jokes I love and by the way,’ those kind of jokes are not every day jokes that you can tell everywhere, because you are limited by time these days.
So, if they tell you to come on stage, you have only 3,4,5 minutes, it is not the time to be working on a jumbo joke. All you need are one-liners. You throw, the one-liners in, in, in, in, in …like that and make as many jokes as possible.
If you do 12 jokes and 12 of them have beautiful punch lines, you will be considered a better comedian· than somebody who has one joke that he keeps talking and talking and when he wants to end, they will say oh, he told a joke about farmer. Meanwhile, he spent 10 minutes to tell the joke about farmer.
What stands Ali Baba out?
Beside the fact that I had a head start, the other thing is that I’ve been there, done that and sometimes 20 to 30 to 40 percent of some of the jokes that are being told now, I had told a long time ago and some of them are refurbished, some of them took a new turn.
So, for instance, if I said there was a doctor that did this, then the person who wants to tell the story now will say there’s an accountant; I will say one day one Yoruba man was going, the person says one Igbo man was…So, those are the things that really set me apart. Besides that, it’s my spontaneity.
My spontaneity is the fact that you can wake me up in 20 minutes and say Ali there’s a show, I will go to the place and still do it. Then, the other thing that also stands me out is the fact that I can make sacrifices. Somebody calls me, he says Ali, we have a show, we will pay you 8OOk. I will say ah, 8OOk is small o!
Can you do N 1.5 million? They guy says no and I (will) say what is the date that you are talking about? He tells me and I say oh, I’m booked for that day. I may not have a show, but I may say that because I know that some other comedian needs that show to fly. And then I probably will even recommend the comedian.
What is the greatest lesson that life has taught you?
The greatest lesson life has taught me is that there’s no talent anybody has that is for him. Every talent you have was given to you to entertain others. Your ability to write; you don’t write to read for yourself, you write for people to enjoy; you sing; you sing for people to enjoy; you are a great fighter, you must tight for son1e people to enjoy.
So, it’s either you fight to protect the city, you fight to protect yourself or some people …But the thing is that every talent that we all have is for the good of the whole community. So, that’s one thing that I have learnt, and that if you do not develop any talent that God has given you; probably you are blocking the blessings of some other people that should have blown from that place·
Can you single out one individual that gave you the greatest encouragement when you were starting out and what specifically the person did?
That will be Edi Lawani …
What did he do?
Edi Lawani came to Ekpoma with Charly Boy and Shina Peters or so for a concert and I did some standup routine and the guy said Ali, I think you can do better than this and if you come to Lagos, come, I’m the Administrative Secretary of PMAN, I’m into music, managing music, but the thing is that I know people. Come and I can introduce you to three, four people that make things happen.
So, I said okay, thank you. He said yes, anytime at all that you come to Lagos, come to me. He gave me his card that had that PMAN triangle and on it was written Edi Lawani, Administrative Secretary. So, when I came, I looked for him and he started giving me his card that he wrote behind them and most of the things he wrote behind were like to Roots.
Niteclub, to The Lord’s Niteclub, to Peak Niteclub, to Jazz Ville,to Niteshift and all those places. He said take, tell them I sent you, they will give you 5 minutes so that you can do your thing. And to Klass Niteclub too.
He gave me to Charly Boy, he gave me to Mustapha Amego, Dapo Adelegan. And most of all those people that I went to now became catalysts in my growth. That’s why I said you could trace it to one singular factor. Because as I went to those people and they gave me platforms. it just exploded.
What makes a good comedian?
Quite a lot of things. Essentially, you must have a great sense of humour. That means you must have a flair for being funny. You must have delivery. You must be able to create the lighter side out of every ordinary situation. You must he spontaneous. Spontaneity is the ability to make a joke out of every situation you find yourself in.
You also must be able to read an audience well. Sometimes you find that a comedian comes on stage, sees the people and it takes him like minutes to warm himself into the audience, and another comedian will come on stage, immediately, the audience has warmed up to him. He can’t say any ·thing wrong. Everything he says is funny.
Why do most comedians fail?
Talent is not enough. You n1ust he humble, you must have original jokes and if you don’t have original jokes, you must deliver the jokes that you are repeating well. You must know how to manage money, because comedy is an art form that is just growing, in spite of the lot that we have achieved. Some people think that the money comes every day. We have over two to three thousand comedians that are working hard in the same space.
Why do most people attain success, but find it difficult to sustain it?
One, it is being non-challant. That complacency of I have made it, there is no need to struggle again. CocaCcola still does advert. In spite of the fact that God is the ultimate, churches still do adverts. So, the thing is that as soon as you become a brand and you have succeeded, you let go.
The other is not being dynamic. I will give you an example- when Mohammed Danjuma, Okey Bakassi, Basorge Tariah and I started doing this comedy, we needed to take it to the next step. Among us then, we went to get pagers from Disc Engineering- myself, Mohammed, Tee A and Basorge. My pager was 197.
That pager at that time stepped us to the next level. So, we were using technology. You need to use new development to get to the next level, even if you have succeeded. Let me say this, even if you are a Julius Berger, and you don’t have what can make you finish a road in record time, any young engineering company; construction company that has the ability to finish that same road will overtake you.
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