For Ali Baba, comedy is serious business.
Ali Baba is a tough boss, I could tell as he takes his seat before media men last Tuesday in the company of the winner, the first and second runners-up of his annual comedy competition, Ali Baba Spontaneity.
Bunmi Davies, the producer of his annual comedy show, Ali Baba January 1st Concert told newsmen at the media conference to unveil the winner of the Ali Baba Spontaneity competition that the initial plan by Ali Baba was to do a winner takes it all show until he and Ali Baba’s wife, Mary, intervened that the first and second runners-up should be given consolation prizes.
One would have thought Ali Baba would be compassionate enough to make the goodies go round. But that is the tough way of chief executive officers in the boardroom. As a CEO, that is one of his ways of driving home his message of self-discipline and making contestants of the competition know that comedy is serious business.
“The Ali Baba Spontaneity came as a result of the need to take the comedy industry to a new level. In 1989, I came to Lagos to start stand-up comedy after school. Three decades are enough for standards to be set in the comedy industry,” he says.
Dee-One, 2016 Winner, Ali Baba Spontaneity, enjoying his new car.
It is in a bid to change the game in an industry whose level of productivity has been watered down by the advent of internet that Ali Baba instituted the Ali Baba Spontaneity competition.
“The internet is not making it easier,” he laments. “Before a comedian takes a joke to the audience, it has been seen online. There are comedians stealing other people’s jokes; some are recycling jokes. If you tell a joke, the audience’s judgement of the comedian is immediate. That is why we initiated Ali Baba Spontaneity. It is the Holy Grail of Stand Up comedy.”
Bunmi Davies says if an individual isn’t spontaneous there is no way he can be a comedian. “We try to encourage comedian to write their own jokes through the Ali Baba Spontaneity Competition. It is an opportunity for those who can write jokes but are not good with the delivery to write the jokes and give them to a comedian to deliver for them.”
Ali Baba later presented a brand new car to the winner of Ali Baba Spontaneity 2016, Aderonbi Adedayo (Dee-One). He also presented the first runner up, Emeakpore Ofajemue (Short Family) and second runner up, Tolulope Olayiwola (Remote) with a cheque of N250, 000 and N200, 000 respectively.
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