One of the biggest mistakes entertainers make is trying to copy westerners – Basketmouth

Ace comedian, Basketmouth, has shared his thoughts about staying relevant in the entertainment business. Speaking with Sunday Scoop, he said:

“The key thing is originality. You always have to stay true to yourself because you cannot give what you don’t have. One mistake some entertainers make is that they try to copy the westerners, forgetting that you can never be better than them at their game. The best thing you can do is to sell things to them in your culture because that is new to them and they would want to know more about it. You can imagine a white man trying to speak Pidgin English, it wouldn’t flow so well and he would only end up being laughed at. That is why whenever I travel, I don’t try to be like them; rather, I remain myself. I stick to what I know how to do well and it has been working for me.”

On Nigerians not valuing what they have until an outsider packages it and sells it back to them, he said,

“Fela is one of the most successful music icons out of Nigeria but we had to wait for the western world to pick Fela’s content and sell it back to us like it’s not ours. And that is also what we do with our natural resources.”

On how he discovered his talent, he Okpocha said,

“Discovery of talent is mostly through hunger though I won’t say that’s what led me to find myself. I have always known my gift and I worked towards cultivating it. I used to play drums and I was even a DJ at some point. I was also a rapper and I enjoyed them all. But when I began doing comedy, I realised that it is what I really love.”

“Sometimes, young people come up to me and ask me to show them way but I find that funny because all they need is right in front of them. In our days, we didn’t have Instagram and other social media. If we wanted to be seen, we had to go out and perform at various far-flung places, but today, you can reach the world from the comfort of your bedroom, provided you have access to the Internet. I have realised that it is the billionaires that hustle the most. While the people that don’t have much are living like billionaires. As for me, I don’t want to be a business man, I want to be the business,” he said.