Celebrities
Basketmouth Speaks Up Days after AY’s call-out: “I’m Quitting Comedy.” Years to come
Basketmouth speaks up days after AY’s call-out: “I’m quitting comedy.” years to come
Bright Okpocha, a seasoned Nigerian comedian and film actor better known by his stage name Basketmouth, has declared his intention to give up comedy as a vocation in five years.
Days prior, his colleague AY Comedian had called him out on their long-standing feud.
NewsReport gathered that in a recent interview with Hitz FM, Basketmouth discussed how he had been floundering in the business for the previous six years before deciding to return to comedy last year.
The funnyman admitted he had earned enough money from his profession to support him for the rest of his life, but he also expressed a desire to try new things. He said this:
“For the past six years I have just been floating; last year I told myself and my team, you know what, I am going back to comedy; I want to do it for five years, and I am quitting. I am quitting in 5 years.
I have got five years to go to do this, and I am done. I will still be cracking jokes, but it won’t be a professional thing. So if you see me doing any gig, it is probably pro bono, and I will not charge anybody to perform again.
I have made enough; I have committed myself to the art enough to take a break or quit. I am now into movies, series, and concert production. I want to experience something new, and I want to be remembered for something other than comedy.”
Gisslover recalls that Nigerian comedian and performer AY Makun explained his side of the ‘beef’ he had with Basketmouth.
During an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo, he spoke very openly about the origins of his long-running feud with Basketmouth.
Recall that in 2022, AY claimed Basketmouth has an “uncontrollable superiority complex” during an Instagram question and answer session.
He went on to say that he (AY) needed to escape Basketmouth’s “constant childishness” for his own sanity. When questioned if he had problems with Basketmouth, AY comedian responded as follows:
“I don’t have issues with him. But people having unnecessary issues with you is the price you sometimes pay for being progressive. For the longest time, he has struggled with an uncontrollable superiority complex. So avoiding his incessant childishness only became necessary for my own sanity.”
In a recent conversation with Chude, AY clarified the contentious remark by saying his problem with Basketmouth dates back to 2006.
He described going to fill in for Basketmouth at an event for which he was due to pay him N30,000, but Basketmouth told him a lie that the event host wasn’t happy with his work in order to get out of paying him.
Read his full narration below:
“In 2006, Basketmouth) usually gets gigs like weddings—multiple gigs on a Saturday, maybe 2/3 weddings. So what he used to do at that point in time was to attend one, then at some point leave the venue and catch up in the other venue, and then you will need someone else to stand in for you. That was the opportunity I got from him, which I am very appreciative of to date.
“Now, something funny happened. One of the gigs, per se, I got his endorsement to go stand in. Usually what we get at that time is N30,000 and 30,000 at that time was everything to me. 30,000 would buy me my pack of indomie, recharge cards, fuel for my neighbor’s generator, and then the opportunity to pay just one or two people to join me to do one or two skits that I can just quickly put out.
“I got this job, and the people weren’t too happy to see me around the venue because they were expecting a basketmouth to come. Long story short, the guy was later happy after the performance. There was an exchange of contacts. Then I left. Two weeks running, I haven’t seen 30K. Because I didn’t see the 30K and I was starving in Lonri, I decided to ask for 30K, and he said this person hasn’t remitted, this person hasn’t paid, and theyre not happy because of this and all of that.
“And then I was like, Ahahn… But this person, na, shebi, you tell me you were impressed and happy? Give my oga some money, make my oga settle me, and all of that. Me,I don’t care if you give Basket $100k for the job; my $30k is my $30k.
“It was very funny to now hear from them knowing that this full payment had been made long before the event.
“I said, ‘0-kay, is that the situation?’ So I forwarded this one’s message to this one and vice versa. So now they started fighting each other and all of that. I didn’t do that because I wanted to get to Basketmouth, per say. I did that because I was hungry; I was hustling and needed food on the table at the time.”
