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Growing up in a disciplined family, Ayo Richard Makun also known
as AY, enjoyed the leverage of being the first male child in a family of seven.
A onetime bar-tender at NNPC Junior Staff Club in Warri, he has bagged several
awards as a comedian including the Comedian of The Year for Mode Men, Diamonds
Awards, City People Entertainment and MBG Abuja Merit awards, since his 2006
debut.
A graduate of Theatre Arts from Delta State University, AY runs
the AY Live Concerts, The AY Show airing on television channels nationwide and
the monthly live standup comedy show ‘AY Open Mic Comedy Club’. Sitting at his
Ikorudu office, the Delta State born comedian speaks to X2 on his journey so
far.
Have you always wanted to
be a comedian?
I have always wanted to be a communicator but when I got into
school, I realized, as a theatre artist, I could either go into communication,
public relations, acting or even do something in directing and still get the
same benefit as I would in mass communication.
At what point did you
realize you could do comedy?
At the university, I was either here promoting the campus beauty
pageant or awards night and from there, I started promoting beauty queens. Then
I would take some of my winners to Lagos and it will surprise a lot of people
to know that I have had three girls from my pageant represent Nigeria in Miss
World. Then it was easy to just promote them and get them billboard jobs and
get them to do a couple of movies. The point where I said to myself ‘ok AY I
think you should go into standup comedy’ was when I started working with Ali
Baba as his personal assistant and later his event manager.
I realized making people laugh for a living pays because it was
putting money on the table for my boss and I smiled to the bank on his behalf.
Apart from that, it was earning him some form of acceptance and respect from
the presidency and all, so I said to myself one day ‘AY, you read theatre arts
in school and in Theatre arts what they do is make belief and comedy is make
belief’ and was how I started. It was Ali Baba who gave me the platform because
working with him gave me an insight into comedy.
What was your first
standup comedy experience like?
The experience was good which was why I decided to go further
into the business. Then I would open shows for Ali Baba and I would travel with
him. The one that shot me into limelight was when I travelled with him for Nite
of a Thousand Laughs in Abuja. For me it was just the normal PA/event manager
relationship that gave me room to travel with my boss. When we were there, one
of the comedians who saw me perform the night before at Basketmouth’s Laffs and
Jams, asked him if I were a manager or comedian.
Ali Baba took interest in that and decided to give me the
opportunity at Nite of a Thousand Laughs. When I got on stage, in less than 30
seconds, I was able to steer up the audience and that gave me a stretch of 10
minutes and it was a rib cracking event with the owner of the show, Opa
Williams, on the side watching me. For the second show, I didn’t even have
anything to wear, it was Omobaba who said he had spare clothes and gave me one
to wear. All I got was love and encouragement from the people who were already
in the business and it gave me the push to come out and do my thing. That’s why
am very passionate about upcoming comedians because if these people didn’t give
me the platform, there won’t be AY today.
Do you think growing up
in Warri had an influence in your comedy style?
Of course yes! Just the way you see a boy from Mushin is
synonymous with a particular genre of music and someone from Jamaica is
synonymous to reggae, Warri is comedy. Everyday life in Warri is comedy. From
the old woman selling on the road side to the teachers in the classroom,
everything about Warri depicts comedy.
I remember at the university, there was this comic disposition
that a student from Lagos or other parts of the country just wants to hear them
speak so they could laugh. They usually find it fascinating. Comedy was there
but not well defined into making a profession. It was when I met Ali Baba I
said to myself, “o boy as a Warri boy naturally you have some level of flows so
you can make it work”.
Have you ever felt
embarrassed on stage?
Yes, I have. It happened in 2006 at Lagbaja’s Motherland; then
Lagbaja had this monthly event he was organizing. When I got there, the MC was
busy giving me this super hype- a powerful introduction, that was too big for a
small guy like myself then that when I got up stage, I saw myself basking in
the euphoria of that introduction and I was now relaxed from being the hungry
comedian so the first word that came out of my mouth was “How una dey?” and that
became offensive that the people started saying ” who is this unknown guy that
the first thing that would come out of his mouth is how una dey? From one angle
I heard people bashing at me and I thought they were joking and said, “calm
down now”.
That kind of ignited the tension and people started shouting
“get off the stage”. That was how I left and told myself maybe comedy is not my
calling. Then I narrated the story to Ali Baba when I got home and he laughed
and took me back to the same platform the following month and said, “my guy
came last month, you guys didn’t give him room” then introduced me again.
Backstage, I said to myself if anything goes wrong, I would pack my bags go
home and go look for another business to do. But this time, the people were
very warm and that gave me the push.
How do you get inspired
for your jokes?
From everyday situations in life. As a comedian, you can make
jokes from everyday situations in life. For example, there is fuel scarcity and
you are in that situation, you can make a joke out of it. You enter a bus and
someone is selling a cream that works for typhoid and gonorrhea, you can get a
joke form it. Comedians, we are social commentators and we relate with things
that affects us and other people. Gone are the days where you go up stage and
crack a joke on monkeys or lions. My style is something you can relate with
naturally. I bring back things you do and create a joke from it.
How do you combine being
a comedian, a husband and a father?
It’s something I enjoy and it’s going well. A lot of people
believe one part plays down to the other but in my case it’s different because
my family is involved in my business. On some occasion, I used my experience
with my wife and little girl to get inspired. There are some corporate events I
would have to put in an appearance as a host and I go with my family so they
would see how daddy is winning the bread.
Doing that gives me an advantage because my wife is my number
one critic, sometimes she would say, “Baby I think what you said, you didn’t
say this or that” and I would learn from the experience. My wife is equally
involved in the business. She handles the business aspect while I do the
creative aspect and when we are not working, we travel and go places to have
fun.
If you weren’t doing
comedy, what would you have done?
If I wasn’t doing comedy, I would have been a strong PR person.
Someday I would have an output where the media can see us as the solution to
quality entertainment.
