Seyi Law, the Nigerian comedian, has opened up on the sacrifices that shaped his career as he prepares to celebrate twenty years on stage.
Speaking in a recent interview with HipTV, the comedian said the journey into comedy required him to leave his comfort zone and embrace struggles that eventually defined his growth.
Seyi recalled moving from his uncle’s house in Orile to live with his aunt in Ebute Meta, Lagos, to be closer to performance opportunities.
It’s been 20 years and there has been a lot of sacrifices to get to where I am today. But when success comes you most times forget the sacrifices. Like they say, A day of joy erases years of sorrow, he said.
One of the things I did when I joined the comedy business was to leave my comfort zone. That time I was staying with my uncle in Orile and I left there to stay with my Aunty who lived in Ebute Meta. It wasn’t so much of a comfortable place, but I went there to have proximity to certain places.
As we were growing, I had called Emeka Smith, who was my friend, to make certain moves. One of them is to leave Lagos and go to universities to seek opportunities to perform at their different social events. I remember we left Lagos to go to Obafemi Awolowo University, and those times we didn’t really have a place to sleep, and couldn’t afford a hotel.
We slept in study theatres and looked for where to take a shower in the morning, strolled around during the day, came back and repeated until we got the opportunity to perform at different places. We did the same thing at the University of Ibadan, Olabisi Onabanjo University, UNILAG and LASU. One time at a LASU law dinner, 9ice came to perform, and I had to back up for 9ice.
The comedian also spoke about his commitment to mentoring younger talents, a gesture he said was inspired by veteran Ali Baba.
I also decided to bring a lot of people to my comfort zone because I learnt that from Ali Baba and his ability to bring young comedians together, he said.
I also decided to do that as soon as I got my own apartment, a room and parlour. I had several comedians who came to live with me, even when I moved to Ikorodu. They’re all big boys now.
For some musicians, my shows outside Nigeria became their avenue to get their first visas. It was probably my show that gave Kizz Daniel his first visa, Adekunle Gold and Arole, who always talks about it.
