Why Nigerian Comedians don’t love themselves – MC Shakara

Nigerian comic act, MC Shakara has lamented that despite the seeming camaraderie displayed by comedians, there is no true love in the comedy industry.

According to him, “I want there to be real love in the industry. We are just like rich people in public but nobody knows what’s going on behind closed doors. Some people think comedians have so much love for one another but it is not what people think it is. Comedians support one another’s shows because they want their colleagues to do the same for them, and not because they genuinely want to. There is underground ‘beef’ going on in the industry. One could be on stage performing and other comedians would be backstage badmouthing the person, that he isn’t funny.”

The comic also stated that though comedians now make more money from shows, their sources of income had shrunk. “It depends on the angle from which you look at it. In terms of shows, comedians are paid more now than what obtained back in the days. On the other hand, making profit from your materials is harder. In those days, you could sell CDs, and people genuinely attended your shows because of the love they had for you. But these days, a lot of people ask for complimentary tickets,” he stated.

Recalling his first pay as a comedian, Shakara said, “While in secondary school, I hosted a birthday ceremony and I was ‘paid’ with a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. I was actually excited because at that time, it was only important guests, such as the chairman on the occasion that were served non-alcoholic wine in those days. Subsequently, I started getting paid amounts like N800 and N1500.”

The comedian, who recently had a ghastly accident, stated that it made him understand that anything could happen to one in the twinkle of an eye. According to him, after the accident, he had decided to take things easy and make the people around him happy.