Despite a soaring followership and popularity, producer of comedy show, Stand-up Nigeria, Bunmi Davies, says the show has actually been diversionary, having taken him away from his initial plans for theatre. He spoke to Gboyega Alaka on his plans to take it to greater heights, even as his organisation, Afrotainment Productions, is bringing theatre back to its proper place in its radar.
NOT many remember that Bunmi Davies, the ever young gentleman behind popular live comedy show, Stand Up Nigeria, actually started his foray into the entertainment business with drama presentations; perhaps not many are aware too that his company, Afrotainment, has been around for upward of 14 years, steadily contributing its quota to Nigeria’s ever-growing entertainment business and, in the process, reawakening the theatre and outdoor audience entertainment culture. But these and a few other revelations are some of the things Davies unfolded in this chance encounter. He also disclosed that the early days were indeed the days of sowing, as it took a lot of hardwork and dedication to actually get Nigerians to begin to come out again for theatre entertainment, whether in the form of drama or comedy.
Bunmi Davies revealed that venturing into comedy was actually diversionary, as the initial idea was more about the theatre and drama presentations. Back in school at the University of Lagos, he had done a lot of freelance work with some of the big shots who were always coming to the campus to put up shows and that sort of opened a vista of career opportunities to him. Looking back, he says what he and some of his colleagues got for doing ground works for these big shots might have been meagre, but as a student, it was enough to open their eyes and inspire him (especially) to shift interest from finance (his course of study) to entertainment.
He, however, said transmuting to comedy in itself wasn’t a deliberate action, explaining that he simply spotted a gap in the course of delivering theatre productions. “All our works always had elements of comedy; and that naturally attracted comedians into our fold. Along the line, we found ourselves doing more works with comedians, and found in the process that there was a gap in the market for 100percent comedy show. And we gladly filled it.”
On whether he imagined it was going to get this big, Davies said that would amount to admitting indirectly that the show is big enough already. “We’re not even where we want to be yet,” he declared.
He admitted that he never really set specified targets or boundary, except that “we just want to keep moving forward and going very far and as fast as is humanly possible and permitted by God.” He opined that anyone who was at the last Stand up Nigeria comedy show would admit that it was a unique package, adding that the entire look and feel was entirely different from anything ever seen anywhere in the country before. His reason? “We don’t want to be followers, we want to lead and keep evolving, so that we don’t end up as dinosaurs.”
Talking about the challenges he’s faced up to this point, Davies said it’s been the same usual challenges of infrastructure, electricity and poor road network; like every other Nigerian doing business is facing. Therefore, he believes no-one has a valid reason for failure, if he could weather these storms. Narrowing it down to entertainment, however, he said the biggest challenge for Afrotainment Productions or anyone in his kind of business is of venues. “We don’t have enough venues to do entertainment on the scale we really want to do it. For instance, we need a venue that can more or less give us the space to rehearse and get our productions properly done. But with what we have in Nigeria, you have to pay the full value, or at least put forward 50percent. By the time you add that to your budget, you’d realise that you simply can’t pass it to your audience. Even when you have the budget to execute on that scale, how many halls do we have across the country to do a national tour? How many venues are theatre venues proper? What we have are party venues.”
Somehow comforting, however, is the fact that Afrotainment Productions also provides content for some of the television stations, by way of packaging some of the comedy shows for TV. This, aside from generating income, also gives it leverage, as even states where the show has yet to show had the opportunity to stage live experience via their TV sets and also increase the artistes’ popularity across the nation.
On how he was able to revive the theatre culture amongst Nigerians, Davies said the greatest advantage he and most of the guys with him on the project had at that initial stage was not having “major responsibilities.” By that, he meant that they didn’t have any family to take care of, plus the fact that they were mostly doing it for fun and their love for it. Whether they made money was therefore secondary to their passion, which always was to put up a good show and improve with every edition. Today, he said the Nigerian audience has again woken up to the theatre culture, coming out in droves every time there is a show, and exhibiting great enlightenment. Like most audience all over the world, they “of course always want more value for their money, but by and large, they are now very well-informed and really fantastic. Otherwise, how do you explain people paying N1million, N500,000 for a table at a performance?” he queried.
Working with a bunch of ‘weird’ people who are seemingly wired to poke fun and make a joke out of virtually every situation, we figured, could also be very challenging; so how is he able to cope without losing focus? But Davies simply said, “We’ve built a fantastic relationship with all the guys”, which, by every measure of it, was an understatement. He agreed that indeed most of the guys are weird and crazy, adding that what the audience see on stage or TV is an extension of what they do off stage. Most importantly, he said “you cannot give what you don’t have. So if our job is about giving fun, then you should expect us (himself inclusive) to have it in abundance.” Besides, he said it can be very interesting when you don’t see your work as work, but as fun.
Bunmi Davies has also built the Stand Up Nigeria comedy show to a level where most of the comedians see him more or less like a godfather. The consensus amongst them is that he is a gentleman who has unwittingly provided them with a platform to showcase their talent and hit the roof. His laissez-faire approach ensures that artistes, irrespective of their background or connections, get to mount the stage, once they’ve been certified to be up to standard. This, of course, they say isn’t the case with other comedy shows.
But even as Davies will not agree to the ‘godfather’ tag, he nevertheless said that what his organisation set out to do was to be a bridge with which the artistes can move from point A to point B. The philosophy has therefore been: ‘Is he good? If he’s good, put him on the platform.’ Afrotainment Productions has a content manager, who appraises and okays the artistes for the stage. Names may be a bonus, but the show is not really about big names. At the initial stage, it was a bit of a problem as the audience asked questions like, ‘who and who is performing?’ before buying tickets.’ But that’s in the past now, he explained with a visible confidence. “As a matter of fact, anytime we hear that kind of question now, we know that the person is new to our show and we usually say to them, ‘Welcome to Stand Up Nigeria.’
The same quality and standard is applying to the drama versions of their productions, Davies said. Already, Plays by Bunmi Davies, which is a brand launched in December 2013 to kind of retrace his steps back to the theatre aspect, will stage its second edition come Easter Monday. The play for this edition is titled, ‘Once Upon a Mad Man’, and it will be featuring artistes like Sege Adeniji, Ogbolo the comedian, amongst others. The amazing thing about the Plays by Bunmi Davies will also be the surprise package; and Davies said the audience should just brace themselves for anything.
“We try not to narrow ourselves. We might decide to feature just a play, it can be series of plays; it can be three plays in one. But at the end of the day, it is a play and the audience would have had a nice time. Essentially, what we have packaged is not just targeted at theatre lovers; rather, it is a package for those who want to relax. And it’s a full event from when you get to the venue, the ambience, the way people welcome you, what you see before the play, the freebies you get…. It’s a total entertainment package even as it is theatre.”
Riding on the huge success of a brand like Stand Up Nigeria, we also figured that he would have made a lot of money. To this he simply replied that the show has been “profitable enough to have kept us in business for over 14 years; and by the grace of God, profitable enough to keep the business going even long after I’m gone.”
His most emotional moments, however, would be those occasions, when a hitherto unknown comedian whom his platform has availed the opportunity to a breakthrough, comes visiting to the office and after a moment, pulls him out to show him the lovely car he’d just bought. Usually, this is after they would have taken care of several other family matters, including sending money home to their parents. And Davies said: “On such occasions, they barely know what they are doing to me, but in actual fact, they’re touching me right inside my soul. Usually, I just stand still, amazed, because the truth is, how much could I have been able to reward them with in terms of direct cash?”
