Who Is Basketmouth And Ay Comedian? Cause Of The Rift Between Them

Who Is Basketmouth And Ay Comedian? Cause Of The Rift Between Them

Proper positioning will place you on a higher pedestal in your industry.

This is one of the reasons why people at the top of the market enjoy an exponential advantage.

You can charge more and still have people queuing up to pay your high fees.

Growing a business becomes a bit easier when you are well positioned.

Example: AY Comedian.

By the look of things, he may not be regarded as the best comedian in Nigeria. 

It could also be that if you count the funniest standup comedians in Nigeria, he may not be in the top 10.

Yet, he’s one of the highest paid and highly sought after brands in the comedy and showbiz industry.

Why?

Because he understood the comedy business and has positioned himself as a big authority in the comedy industry. He is a bug force in the African showbiz industry.

And he has created a platform via which other comedians can be discovered.

That is what proper positioning does for you and your brand.

Proper positioning will place you on a higher pedestal in your industry.

Learn how to position your brand and create the right perception you desire for your brand, and your life will be better for it. 

So I was on a call with a friend yesterday, we haven’t talked for nearly a year,

After sorting our differences he brought out the issue of Basketmouth (BM) and AY who’s had a rift for over 16years,

Immediately he did, we started analyzing the issue and I pointed out that AY was wrong for collecting the phone number of a Basketmouth’s client without informing him (BM) — a breakdown of the story and our conclusions below.

Who is Basketmouth?

A Nigerian standup comedian, As far back 2005/06, Basketmouth was the rave of standup comedy, was known across Nigeria by every kid, every adult just like my good man Sabinus is currently the rave of skit makers.

Parents and relatives even mock their wards with his name, “see your mouth like Basketmouth” because BM talked a lot.

So as the rave of the moment, he was host to many events and performed MC duties in multiple weddings in a single day.

How did BM & AY started working together?

As someone who’s always booked at multiple events and weddings on a weekend, BM needed some helping hand.

He had contacted AY to stand for him after he has appeared at the first event, so he can quickly rush to the second and the third one for a pay of about N30,000 out of N100,000 he was always paid per show.

What caused the rift between them?

In one of the events, after BM left for the second show of the day and asked AY to continue from there, the audience had complained that AY wasn’t the one they wanted but as the show progressed AY later did a good job.

After the show, AY collected the phone number of the owner of the event— building contacts to gain referrals without informing BM, the person who made it possible for him to be there in the first place.

So, words already got to BM, that the crowd earlier complained that AY didn’t do a great job, hence BM, held unto the N30,000 of AY by teasing that, the event owner hadn’t paid him.

AY out of anger and hunger, contacted the said owner of the event, “Oga! You don pay my boss? He said you never pay am o”, the owner of the event out of being furious told AY, how he had paid BM nearly a week before the event and in full,

Out of further hunger, AY was then forwarding the chats between OGA and BM to one another, which left BM feeling like the black sheep to the event owner.

We all know, it’s not a good thing that BM had held unto the percentage of AY in guise that he hasn’t been paid,

But time, a little time with good communication would have made BM release the N30,000. He didn’t say he was not going to pay.

If AY hadn’t collected the event owner’s number behind the back of his then-boss BM, the best he could have done is work hand-in-hand with his boss to see how to retrieve it, and along the way he would have been paid,

But because he now has direct contacts to the event owner, he jumped borders to find the truth which at that point, wasn’t the right thing to do.

I was very happy for AY to talk about that, though we haven’t heard from BM, but the way he talked, he said he acted out of hunger— ordinarily he wouldn’t have because he needed that money badly.

We are humans, and it’s Nigeria, you give people allow, they take allowances and request it like they are entitled to it.

Now the words are out, we hope soon for reconciliation. Both are now kings of standup comedy and comedy events within and outside Nigeria.