Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth, gave his reasons for wanting to leave the comedy industry. In a recent interview on The Honest Bunch podcast with Chinedu Ani, the multi-talented entertainer explained that his retirement from comedy was to focus on building his own industry instead.
Basketmouth started his career as a rapper before moving on to play the drums and produce music. He later ventured into comedy by chance but has since become a household name in the industry. He now wants to move on and create something bigger.
“My intention is to build my own industry. I don’t want to be part of the industry per se,” Basketmouth said. “I’ve put my head into sitcoms, movies, music concerts, comedy shows, and I’ve released an album. I see that I’m touching everywhere. I want to do something that will create a legacy, that will outlive me.”
According to Basketmouth, he had stopped doing stand-up comedy and event anchoring six years ago, but many people did not notice. He said he had quit because he was not enjoying the job and struggled with it a lot.
“Six years ago, I came to a point where I was tired. I said, ‘this is not honest because it’s not sweet.’ What I was blessed with was the talent of being a stand-up comedian. I’m not an MC. I resumed [MC] fully this year, but I came up with a five-year plan. I can’t run the rest of my life doing comedy, so I need to focus on other things,” he said.