His first introduction was an appearance at a function about 10 years ago. Since then, Gbenga Adeyinka has so mastered his art that he has become one of the very best in the business. The graduate of English from the University of Lagos is the first Nigerian Stand-up comedian to have performed in the 36 states of the federation. In this exclusive interview, he shares with DGossip247, top secrets about his personal life and plans for the future
Why comedy?
Comedy for me is more like an everyday thing; I only discovered it on the campus of the University of Lagos after which I went professional. It’s something that comes naturally to me, I try not to force it, when it comes naturally, it’s always a sterling performance.
I worked in my uncle’s engineering firm after I left UNILAG, but after a while, I felt I wasn’t enjoying my job. It was the regular 9-5 for me and I wanted more and that was when I met Ali Baba, Akin Akindele and later Tee A. The rest, as they say, is history. I was brought up by a lot of uncles and aunties as a community project. They were not very happy but I had made up my mind and the fear of failure made me push on.
What has really kept you going as a successful entertainer?
What has kept me going is the fear of failure. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been thrown into the ocean of relative success. And not sustaining it would be a sign of career failure. So, that keeps me going; the desire to forge ahead and break new grounds.
The desire to prove people wrong, because a lot of people have said, and I know, that, ‘Gbenga Adeyinka is not funny; he’s not supposed to be doing this’. So, the desire to prove a lot of people wrong has kept me going and the desire to build a career also. But most importantly is the desire to continue to feed my family. It’s a hunger-inspired project. I have to continue feeding them and if I fail, then that is going to stop. That’s it basically.
As a successful comedian, what in your view are the qualities that make one successful in the industry?
I think it’s understanding that what we do is show business; a little show and a lot of business. Be committed to your art, be original, and try to create something for yourself. You can steal from other people -the dress sense of somebody, the appearance of another person, the delivery of another person – but you have to put all that together to form you, so that people won’t say ‘that guy sounds like or looks like’. If you can find that perfect thing and God is with you, I think your prayers are beginning to be answered.
Who are the people you understudied in your formative days?
The funny thing is that I understudied everybody. I understudied Ali Baba. I liked something about everybody. So what I did was that I tried as much as possible to pick one or two things from people, but for me, my most brazen mentor was Ali. I picked a couple of things from Akin Akindele too.
I was fortunate there were people who were already doing this, who were successful when I started. So, I knew what I wanted and what I wanted to do. And I knew what I did not want to do because there were some people I really liked too but in my estimation, I might be wrong, but they were getting it wrong, so I picked the good things and left what I thought they were doing wrong and God was good to me.
What would you say stands you out from the crowd?
They call it versatility. It’s my ability to work with a small corporate crowd and the ability to work with a large concert crowd. I think one thing a comedian has to have is versatility. Better still, let me just break it down. I describe it as knowing what is apt. It’s not enough to be funny but also knowing what is ideal.
If I am going for a corporate event, there are jokes I cannot tell there and the same thing goes for a large concert. It’s not every event you go to that you must tell a joke and that is what a lot of my younger colleagues don’t understand. It’s not all about jokes, but communicating with the audience and making sure they have a nice time. It’s about being interactive and that is what I tried at the beginning to learn. Having information about what you are going to do.
If you are going to talk to doctors for instance, a doctor will be more relaxed when he knows that this guy knows some medical terminologies. So, through your jokes, they will say this one is not an illiterate but when you don’t know that, there will be a disconnect. So the ability to know something about everything is one of the things that helped me.
As a graduate going into comedy, how did you cope with the pressure, particularly with the fact that your peers must have been in the banks and so on?
When I started comedy, my family was very upset with me. In fact, they had a town hall meeting because of me. They were like,’ after sending him to the best schools, he says he wants to be Baba Sala…Olorun maje (God forbid)’. One, I had an understanding wife. Two, I was not ashamed to do anything.
Then I was doing children party entertainment, I had clowns and mascots. I would paint my face and so on. I believe if I was in London or America, I would not be doing one job; it’s any job I see to make legitimate money that I would do, so why can’t I do it here? So then, I was doing clowning and still pushing being a Master of Ceremony. It got to a point that I knew I could not do that anymore; that this has sort of become more profitable. And my wife understood what it meant to build…it was rough.
There were times all we would have to eat would be concoction. My wife did not eat Ponmo until she married me but we kept pushing. We have not gotten there yet, but if we look back, where we are now is different from where we were back then and that is what is still pushing me. Because if God could have taken you from there, it means he can take you further. It was not easy, there were days fuel would finish in my car and I would park it and walk home to look for money to buy fuel. If it was not rough, we won’t have a story to tell. It was rough, sometimes now it’s still rough but God has been good and you have to keep going.
How easy was it for you to contain yourself when you made your first million?
How easy? It was easy. Let me tell you the problem I have. No matter how rich I am, there is somebody richer than me in my family. No matter how successful I am, there are people in my family who have achieved so much. I am lucky to come from a family that is not poor but I believe everybody must work hard to achieve something for himself. So I feel fulfilled with what God has done for me. And one thing I have also realised in life is that empty barrels make a lot of noise. I think the more God does for you, the more sober you become.
That is what I have observed with rich people I have met. I met somebody who is my role model; he came to my show with his children. That was when I first started and he said he liked my show. He was like it’s my birthday and I would like you to organise some comedians for me.
That was the first time I saw one million in my life. When I went to the man’s house, I wanted to die. The bottom line is, if people could be that rich and be humble why can’t I? So, any time I achieve something, it humbles me because I don’t see what makes me more special than every other person. Like I always tell people, I am probably one of the luckiest persons or luckiest comedians because it’s amazing how God continues to open doors.
Can you recall some of the funny moments you have had?
My best moment was when I held my son for the first time. That was when I realised I had become a man. I have had three other most embarrassing moments. The first one was back then when I was in the university. I was sleeping on the bed with my legs wide open.
I didn’t know my trousers were torn and my ‘Mandela’ was free. My roommate’s girlfriend knocked and I was feeling too lazy to open the door so I shouted and told her to come in. She came in with two of her friends, all females.
My roommate came in about five minutes later to tell me to ‘park’ well because my ‘Mandela’ was free in the open. The most recent was in the United Kingdom at the Nigerian Corner of the Nottinghill Carnival. One of the performers, a female, was dressed in such attire that left me bewildered.
While pondering what convinced her to dress in such attire, a photographer caught my gaze and many people wondered if I was actually looking at something else. Professionally, I have been embarrassed as well. I had a concert for Star in Ejigbo, Lagos, and I drove to Ejigbo in Oyo State and started looking for the venue of the concert only to realise that the event was actually in Lagos!
When will you join the rest of your colleagues in politics?
I believe it’s not time yet for me, one must not just follow the crowd because that’s the fashionable thing to do. I surely will, God willing, but not now.
If you were to serve Nigerians through politics, which capacity would you prefer to serve?
I would love to be a law maker and rise through the ranks.
How does it feel, being the first and only comedian to tour the 36 states of the federation and how were you able to create such record?
I feel privileged and humbled. It could only have been God. I was able to do this largely with STAR and private gigs.
Perhaps for staying with you in your low period, I understand you hold your wife in high esteem. How did you meet her?
Well, I was working with my uncle at Sparklight Engineering. She was with Amsel finance. She was their company secretary and legal adviser. I was going for lunch and I saw her at the staircase. I liked her and was like ‘excuse me, are you married’?
She said no and I said I want to marry you. She said, ha! and walked away. I kept following up and when two people are meant to be together, the rest is history. I have been blessed in life. I had nothing when I met my wife.
When I say nothing, I mean nothing. I had no savings, I had nothing. In fact, I got married immediately after I left university, which was the year after youth service. She had just finished serving too and we got married with nothing. During the marriage preparation, my uncle gave me his Benz 200 to use for that period.
So I knew I had to return the car when we got married. The money we were sprayed at the wedding was about one hundred and fifteen thousand Naira and when I told my wife about my intention to use the money to buy a car, she said yes. When we bought the car, our account was zero. So I will be very stupid if I don’t value a woman like that. Then the question would be why don’t I take her everywhere?
Why don’t they see her the way they see other comedians’ wives? From day one, I made up my mind that if I do show business, I’m going to be the one in show business. I want to take my family away from the bright light and all that because I have seen what that kind of life has done to families. I have seen how it has broken families and how the children have gone astray, thinking that they are more important than they are. And that is what I tell my children, that there is nothing that makes you different from the son of a mechanic.
I am hustling, so you are a son of a hustler. People say why don’t you take your wife to shows and I ask why doesn’t she take me to court when she is going for cases? We have a relationship where we understand that out there is out there and at home is home.
We are sane, there is sanity. And that is why I don’t do business at home. There are very few people that can say they know my house. I keep my family away from the madness. I might be wrong and those who do it, I am not saying they are wrong because that is their own belief, their way of showing love or their building their brand up but my own belief is different.
How have you kept safe from ladies who may have been jostling for your attention?
I’m looking at my big stomach. Men with big stomach are not attractive to ladies. Nobody likes me. ’Dey say monkey no fine, im mama like am. Na only my wife like me and I like am like that’. But honestly, I know what a broken home can do to children. I have experienced that and I will not allow my children experience it. That is one of the things that keeps me sane, keeps me grounded. Nobody is a saint but that is one of the things that keep me grounded.
What dictates your fashion statement?
I wear anything that makes me comfortable and anything that will not show my stomach. I hate it when my stomach pro t rudes and that is why I keep doing everything I can to make this stomach go down. I am not very wild with fashion, that is why you will not see me in red shirt and yellow trouser; that is why most times, I prefer to wear a suit because you can never go wrong with it. And when I started doing native, I do something simple with my logo on it. That is it for me.
What comes to your mind each time you reminisce about what your wife went through with you?
I thank God. Like I always tell people, if your home succeeds as a man, it’s not you, it’s your wife. If your home is destroyed as a man, it’s some of you and more of your wife. I just thank God for the kind of wife He gave me. If I don’t see my wife in two weeks, I know she’s either in church or her work or she’s praying for me. It’s very rare for a man to honestly say that. I know a lot of people say it, but I know my wife can never ever cheat on me. Never! I know.
Which is the best form of relaxation for you?
I love to watch movies, football and read. I also hang out a lot with close circle of friends. I play hard because I work very hard.
Is Gbanga Adeyinka giving back to his society?
Yes I am, but my belief is that whatever you do for people is between you and your God and not to be advertised cheaply.
What’s the most challenging thing a Nigerian comedian faces either on regular basics or occasionally?
Creating jokes, living up to expectation and being taken seriously.
Kindly highlight, if there’s any, things the media, your fans or the general public have always misunderstood about your personality?
I’m a very shy and private person but because of what I do, nobody will believe that.
I worked in my uncle’s engineering firm after I left UNILAG, but after a while, I felt I wasn’t enjoying my job. It was the regular 9-5 for me and I wanted more and that was when I met Ali Baba, Akin Akindele and later Tee A. The rest, as they say, is history. I was brought up by a lot of uncles and aunties as a community project. They were not very happy but I had made up my mind and the fear of failure made me push on.
What has really kept you going as a successful entertainer?
The desire to prove people wrong, because a lot of people have said, and I know, that, ‘Gbenga Adeyinka is not funny; he’s not supposed to be doing this’. So, the desire to prove a lot of people wrong has kept me going and the desire to build a career also. But most importantly is the desire to continue to feed my family. It’s a hunger-inspired project. I have to continue feeding them and if I fail, then that is going to stop. That’s it basically.
As a successful comedian, what in your view are the qualities that make one successful in the industry?
I think it’s understanding that what we do is show business; a little show and a lot of business. Be committed to your art, be original, and try to create something for yourself. You can steal from other people -the dress sense of somebody, the appearance of another person, the delivery of another person – but you have to put all that together to form you, so that people won’t say ‘that guy sounds like or looks like’. If you can find that perfect thing and God is with you, I think your prayers are beginning to be answered.
Who are the people you understudied in your formative days?
The funny thing is that I understudied everybody. I understudied Ali Baba. I liked something about everybody. So what I did was that I tried as much as possible to pick one or two things from people, but for me, my most brazen mentor was Ali. I picked a couple of things from Akin Akindele too.
I was fortunate there were people who were already doing this, who were successful when I started. So, I knew what I wanted and what I wanted to do. And I knew what I did not want to do because there were some people I really liked too but in my estimation, I might be wrong, but they were getting it wrong, so I picked the good things and left what I thought they were doing wrong and God was good to me.
What would you say stands you out from the crowd?
They call it versatility. It’s my ability to work with a small corporate crowd and the ability to work with a large concert crowd. I think one thing a comedian has to have is versatility. Better still, let me just break it down. I describe it as knowing what is apt. It’s not enough to be funny but also knowing what is ideal.
If I am going for a corporate event, there are jokes I cannot tell there and the same thing goes for a large concert. It’s not every event you go to that you must tell a joke and that is what a lot of my younger colleagues don’t understand. It’s not all about jokes, but communicating with the audience and making sure they have a nice time. It’s about being interactive and that is what I tried at the beginning to learn. Having information about what you are going to do.
If you are going to talk to doctors for instance, a doctor will be more relaxed when he knows that this guy knows some medical terminologies. So, through your jokes, they will say this one is not an illiterate but when you don’t know that, there will be a disconnect. So the ability to know something about everything is one of the things that helped me.
As a graduate going into comedy, how did you cope with the pressure, particularly with the fact that your peers must have been in the banks and so on?
When I started comedy, my family was very upset with me. In fact, they had a town hall meeting because of me. They were like,’ after sending him to the best schools, he says he wants to be Baba Sala…Olorun maje (God forbid)’. One, I had an understanding wife. Two, I was not ashamed to do anything.
Then I was doing children party entertainment, I had clowns and mascots. I would paint my face and so on. I believe if I was in London or America, I would not be doing one job; it’s any job I see to make legitimate money that I would do, so why can’t I do it here? So then, I was doing clowning and still pushing being a Master of Ceremony. It got to a point that I knew I could not do that anymore; that this has sort of become more profitable. And my wife understood what it meant to build…it was rough.
There were times all we would have to eat would be concoction. My wife did not eat Ponmo until she married me but we kept pushing. We have not gotten there yet, but if we look back, where we are now is different from where we were back then and that is what is still pushing me. Because if God could have taken you from there, it means he can take you further. It was not easy, there were days fuel would finish in my car and I would park it and walk home to look for money to buy fuel. If it was not rough, we won’t have a story to tell. It was rough, sometimes now it’s still rough but God has been good and you have to keep going.
How easy was it for you to contain yourself when you made your first million?
How easy? It was easy. Let me tell you the problem I have. No matter how rich I am, there is somebody richer than me in my family. No matter how successful I am, there are people in my family who have achieved so much. I am lucky to come from a family that is not poor but I believe everybody must work hard to achieve something for himself. So I feel fulfilled with what God has done for me. And one thing I have also realised in life is that empty barrels make a lot of noise. I think the more God does for you, the more sober you become.
That is what I have observed with rich people I have met. I met somebody who is my role model; he came to my show with his children. That was when I first started and he said he liked my show. He was like it’s my birthday and I would like you to organise some comedians for me.
That was the first time I saw one million in my life. When I went to the man’s house, I wanted to die. The bottom line is, if people could be that rich and be humble why can’t I? So, any time I achieve something, it humbles me because I don’t see what makes me more special than every other person. Like I always tell people, I am probably one of the luckiest persons or luckiest comedians because it’s amazing how God continues to open doors.
Can you recall some of the funny moments you have had?
My best moment was when I held my son for the first time. That was when I realised I had become a man. I have had three other most embarrassing moments. The first one was back then when I was in the university. I was sleeping on the bed with my legs wide open.
I didn’t know my trousers were torn and my ‘Mandela’ was free. My roommate’s girlfriend knocked and I was feeling too lazy to open the door so I shouted and told her to come in. She came in with two of her friends, all females.
My roommate came in about five minutes later to tell me to ‘park’ well because my ‘Mandela’ was free in the open. The most recent was in the United Kingdom at the Nigerian Corner of the Nottinghill Carnival. One of the performers, a female, was dressed in such attire that left me bewildered.
While pondering what convinced her to dress in such attire, a photographer caught my gaze and many people wondered if I was actually looking at something else. Professionally, I have been embarrassed as well. I had a concert for Star in Ejigbo, Lagos, and I drove to Ejigbo in Oyo State and started looking for the venue of the concert only to realise that the event was actually in Lagos!
When will you join the rest of your colleagues in politics?
I believe it’s not time yet for me, one must not just follow the crowd because that’s the fashionable thing to do. I surely will, God willing, but not now.
If you were to serve Nigerians through politics, which capacity would you prefer to serve?
I would love to be a law maker and rise through the ranks.
How does it feel, being the first and only comedian to tour the 36 states of the federation and how were you able to create such record?
I feel privileged and humbled. It could only have been God. I was able to do this largely with STAR and private gigs.
Perhaps for staying with you in your low period, I understand you hold your wife in high esteem. How did you meet her?
Well, I was working with my uncle at Sparklight Engineering. She was with Amsel finance. She was their company secretary and legal adviser. I was going for lunch and I saw her at the staircase. I liked her and was like ‘excuse me, are you married’?
She said no and I said I want to marry you. She said, ha! and walked away. I kept following up and when two people are meant to be together, the rest is history. I have been blessed in life. I had nothing when I met my wife.
When I say nothing, I mean nothing. I had no savings, I had nothing. In fact, I got married immediately after I left university, which was the year after youth service. She had just finished serving too and we got married with nothing. During the marriage preparation, my uncle gave me his Benz 200 to use for that period.
So I knew I had to return the car when we got married. The money we were sprayed at the wedding was about one hundred and fifteen thousand Naira and when I told my wife about my intention to use the money to buy a car, she said yes. When we bought the car, our account was zero. So I will be very stupid if I don’t value a woman like that. Then the question would be why don’t I take her everywhere?
Why don’t they see her the way they see other comedians’ wives? From day one, I made up my mind that if I do show business, I’m going to be the one in show business. I want to take my family away from the bright light and all that because I have seen what that kind of life has done to families. I have seen how it has broken families and how the children have gone astray, thinking that they are more important than they are. And that is what I tell my children, that there is nothing that makes you different from the son of a mechanic.
I am hustling, so you are a son of a hustler. People say why don’t you take your wife to shows and I ask why doesn’t she take me to court when she is going for cases? We have a relationship where we understand that out there is out there and at home is home.
We are sane, there is sanity. And that is why I don’t do business at home. There are very few people that can say they know my house. I keep my family away from the madness. I might be wrong and those who do it, I am not saying they are wrong because that is their own belief, their way of showing love or their building their brand up but my own belief is different.
How have you kept safe from ladies who may have been jostling for your attention?
I’m looking at my big stomach. Men with big stomach are not attractive to ladies. Nobody likes me. ’Dey say monkey no fine, im mama like am. Na only my wife like me and I like am like that’. But honestly, I know what a broken home can do to children. I have experienced that and I will not allow my children experience it. That is one of the things that keeps me sane, keeps me grounded. Nobody is a saint but that is one of the things that keep me grounded.
What dictates your fashion statement?
I wear anything that makes me comfortable and anything that will not show my stomach. I hate it when my stomach pro t rudes and that is why I keep doing everything I can to make this stomach go down. I am not very wild with fashion, that is why you will not see me in red shirt and yellow trouser; that is why most times, I prefer to wear a suit because you can never go wrong with it. And when I started doing native, I do something simple with my logo on it. That is it for me.
What comes to your mind each time you reminisce about what your wife went through with you?
I thank God. Like I always tell people, if your home succeeds as a man, it’s not you, it’s your wife. If your home is destroyed as a man, it’s some of you and more of your wife. I just thank God for the kind of wife He gave me. If I don’t see my wife in two weeks, I know she’s either in church or her work or she’s praying for me. It’s very rare for a man to honestly say that. I know a lot of people say it, but I know my wife can never ever cheat on me. Never! I know.
Which is the best form of relaxation for you?
I love to watch movies, football and read. I also hang out a lot with close circle of friends. I play hard because I work very hard.
Is Gbanga Adeyinka giving back to his society?
Yes I am, but my belief is that whatever you do for people is between you and your God and not to be advertised cheaply.
What’s the most challenging thing a Nigerian comedian faces either on regular basics or occasionally?
Creating jokes, living up to expectation and being taken seriously.
Kindly highlight, if there’s any, things the media, your fans or the general public have always misunderstood about your personality?
I’m a very shy and private person but because of what I do, nobody will believe that.
