Ayo Makun remains one of the most successful comedians in Nigeria by all standards.
But we can all admit that his success isn’t really from stand-up comedy. The truth is, there are very few people AY will crack a one-liner to and make them laugh. Of those few people that will actually laugh, a significant amount of them have lost all the black on their heads.
But how has he managed to become so successful when people might believe he’s not so great at it?
AY is a very smart man. What he lacks in one-liners, he makes up for in headliners. So here are a few things you might use to make you AY everything you do
1. Be thankful for your ‘lack of talent’.
You know you don’t have talent, or you don’t know what it is. Don’t stress yourself. Who talent done epp?
Okay okay, just kidding.
Talent has helped many people. But talent is really just a head start. What really takes you far is the work you put into it. Here’s one perk with being talent-less, your brain is more quiet and your hands are doing all the noise for you.
While talented people are worrying about all the many things they can do with their talent, you are just worrying about all the things you can do with the one thing you manage to lay your hands on.
This leads us to the important question, what if you are getting the whole talent thing wrong? Talent is not only singing, dancing, cracking jokes, as Nigeria’s Got Talent will have you believe. Sometimes, like in AY’s case, it could just be understanding the business of everything. Not everytime talent, sometimes hustle.
2. Raise your army.
Nope, not a Shekau army. An army of loyalists, contacts and all those things people say that sound intelligent. This is arguably one of AY’s strongest fortes.
Besides Ali Baba, AY is arguably the single most influential comedian in Nigeria. With his Open Mic Live, a stand-up comedy talent hunt, AY churned out a fresh breed of talent. That’s a lot of talent for someone you’d think doesn’t have talent.
When you take a person selling airtime recharge cards like Seyi Law, and make him into a superstar, you create a lifelong loyalist.
Or Akpororo.
And that’s just two of many.
3. Diversify.
While the Basketmouths and the I-Go-Die’s were touring, AY was busy diversifying. Bear in mind that the former are also successful. AY has had a TV show that did quite well, his own sitcom, yearly concerts that record back to back successes. What else?
4. Don’t tight the world to your chest.
When life gives AY a controversy, he makes it into a lemonade.
We can’t even begin to count.
In the end, maybe you are failing to find this talent because you’ve been looking in the wrong places.
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