THE COMEDY INDUSTRY IS SLOWLY DYING - BASKETMOUTH

Basketmouth

Popular Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha, aka Basketmouth claims that the comedy industry is slowly dying.

In an interview with Accra Lagos Joburg's Solomon Ter on Asaase Radio, he said, 

 "If you go to the United States right now, in Texas, let's say Houston or Dallas, Dallas has maybe 5 to 10 comedy clubs. They keep opening comedy clubs in different cities and different locations, and what that does is give a comedian a place to go and try out his material. He can do that for about six months preparing his set, perfecting it, and then doing his comedy specials and all that.

We don't have that in Africa, we don't have comedy clubs, what we're doing out here is risky, it's too risky, Dave Chapelle and Kevin Hart go to comedy clubs and try other stuff with actual audiences, not their friends, because your friends might not be completely honest with you. We don't have a stand-up comedy club in Nigeria; we have makeshift comedy clubs, so there is no place where we have ardent fans who say, "Monday, I'm going to this one," like a place like the Improv in LA now, where if you look at the line up every other day there is a show, and this is helping their comedians grow. The truth is that what we are doing here is risky and not helping the industry, so its only a matter of time before it dies."

When asked if he planned to fund himself and open a comedy club, he responded, 

"I tried to get a loan about 15 years ago to open a comedy club, but you know how our naija people are. The interest for the loan was too much so I couldn't do it because even when you set it up you have to worry about management and other things. Maybe I will do it eventually, but it's too much and it's going to distract me now."