Arguably, Nigeria’s best comedian, Basketmouth is set to
write a book that he hopes will inspire his fan base. The book, titled “Before
I Write a Book” is one of his many projects aimed at carrying readers through
series of events that happened to him as he journeyed through to success.
In what can be termed a brief excerpt from the expected book
or more like a pre-cursor, basket mouth narrates;
Back stage at the Rothmans Groove tour which held @ TBS in 1998, there I was seated with the likes of The Plantashun Boiz,Dr. Fresh,Remedies and more...I was just a young boy trying to weigh his options on what direction to go with his career as drumming,rapping,producing and comedy were few of my options.
That night was the 1st time I met Tony Tetuila, one of those
humble guys you come by,he was warm and accommodating considering the obvious
fact that I was nobody in the industry.
Fast forward a few months later, Comedy had won me over and
in the course of my hustle and journey to where I'm yet to get to, I bumped
into Tetuila in Festac, just about the
time his single 'you don hit my car' came out.
We reconnected while playing catch up. We had common friends
so 'bumping' into each other became a tradition. The 1st time he saw me perform
@ a concert was at a gig The Plantashun Boiz used to host @ the Den in Ikeja.
I must have impressed him because not long after that night,
I got a call from him asking that we meet up. We did and he took me for a
meeting in Lagos Island (Shell Office). A director at Shell was retiring and a
send-forth party was being held in his honour. My performance fee then was
N10,000, Tony pushed it up and convinced the client to pay N30,000 which they
paid cash. Prior to this, they had never heard of me and only used me because
Tony believed in me and stood up for me, convincing them to buy in.
I was paid in full a week to the show.
After picking up the cash I went straight home. Now here I
was, a young comic with his 1st major
pay-out of N30,000. Considering the fact that my 1st performance fee was N300
(1%) of what I had in my pocket,I couldn't help but to thank God.
I got home,gave my mum N25,000 and kept N5,000 from which I
bought a shirt,pants and shoes from Tejuosho market to wear for the event.
Ready for my first big show..
Hmmmm do not despise small beginnings....
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