comedy is a passion and not hard, lonely and vicious. For a man
who came to Lagos in 1990 after being rejected and disowned by
his father who would rather prefer his son to become a lawyer,
comedy has paid off.
TS Weekend bring you the grass to grace story of Ali Baba. It is a thriller!
Ali Baba has shared the secrets of his success story.
Today, Ali Baba boasts of being a billionaire by every standard. Of course,
it is not all about money, we will remember Ali Baba for starting a
revolution that inspired a host of comedians.
"I came to Lagos to do comedy in 1990. Today, I am a billionaire and I have
made people millionaires. It's all about the passion. Once upon a time I
chose to pursue a career in comedy, which was in contrast to my father's
dream for me.
"He wanted me to be a lawyer but I wanted to do comedy and I was
passionate about it. Consequently, when he realized I wouldn't budge, my
dad rejected and abandoned me!"
Parental opposition
Like every parent back in the day, his dad believed if the future godfather
of comedy became a lawyer, he would be wealthy and be able to take care
of his family. And so he insisted as early as possible and drummed it into
his head that he must study Law.
"My dad felt that the best career for me was Law. I wanted to prove to him
that comedy is better than Law. I am a graduate but I chose to pursue
comedy because I had a dream. As soon as my dad realized that I was hell
bent on pursuing comedy, he disowned me. In fact, he stopped sponsoring
my education!"
However, Ali Baba was not discouraged. He picked up the pieces of his life
and moved to Lagos armed with only the clothes on his back and a vision
to excel. But his dream that his uncle would take him in evaporated like
dew on a sunny morning when his uncle threw him out of his home. And
so, young Ali Baba became a hippie as he was forced to move to the
popular Lagos Bar Beach.
The year was 1990. Recalling those trying moments the comedian states:
"In 1990, I moved to Lagos to pursue comedy as a career. But my uncle
threw me out of his house. I moved to the Bar Beach where I lived for a
very long while. At the beach, I met Lati Kekere who was nice to me. He is
still my friend to this day.
"He gave me a tent to sleep and I paid N5 per night in those days. After a
while, things started to pick up and I went to my uncle's place to take my
things. My washer-man became my wardrobe; I left all my clothes with
him. From there, I trekked to NTA every day. I was on Youth Scene, Youth
Rendezvous and the Sunday Show. I was prepared, I wanted opportunity."
Information age
Ali Baba disclosed that one thing he discovered early in life was the
importance of communication. "I got a pager then," he says, "there were
no mobile phones so I was communicating with my clients on my pager.
However, at a point, Bar Beach was no longer the, pimps and robbers were
taking over so, I moved over to Yabatech. Every day, I trekked to NTA from
Yabatech where I squatted with a friend. It was quite a distance but I had a
dream that was bigger than the journey. I was committed to my dream.
"On the side, I made money doing stand-up comedy and by virtue of my
pink forms at NTA, by 1998 I had earned over N50,000." Gradually Ali
saved up enough money and moved into his own three bedroom rented
apartment and before he knew it, he had started a revolution that would
inspire the likes of Julius Agwu, Basket Mouth, Opa Williams, AY and TEE A
among a host of others.
Rumours Tales that still baffles the comedian to this day were newspapers
reports that he was living on his ex-wife. He quips: "I find it so ridiculous.
People kept saying that I was leaving off my wife but it was not true. Yes,
she had money, earning as much as N2 million a month where she worked
but I was making more money. To this day, we are still very good friends
and I still pay her.
"Where you're coming from has nothing to do with where you're going to.
It is your sheer determination that will take you there. Identify the tools
that you need. The only way you can make it is to be prepared so that
when opportunity comes, you will be ready. If you're not where the
opportunity is because you don't have information, you're wasting your
time. My dad taught me this lessons as far back as 1977."
According to him, there's no excuse for youths to be laid back and lazy.
Rather, they should look inwards and improve their lots by tapping into the
unique talents God has bestowed on them. "I did not need government to
give me an enabling environment; I created my own. When I started doing
stand-up comedy, some people laughed at me.
"I remember late Mohammed Danjuma told me comedy would never work.
He would rather stick to his job as an MC. However, as time rolled by,
corporate bodies would invite us for events. Danjuma would be the MC and
pocket N50,000 while I would go home with N200,000 as stand-up
comedian. Within a short while, he realized that comedy was the way
forward and before I could say Jackie Robinson, he was doing comedy as
well.
"I grew up in Ojo Cantonment, Lagos, but I had dreams and goals and what
I was going through did not matter. It's all about the passion…. and I have
moved to Queens Drive, Ikoyi, into a house I bought with my own money.
You too could achieve this if you believe in your dreams."
For Ali Baba, to make it in life one needs education, information,
communication, humility, hard work, experience of others and opportunity
to excel.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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