AY Lied, N30,000 Wasn’t The Cause Of Our Estranged Friendship – Baskemouth Breaks Silence

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha, also known as Basketmouth, has revealed that the unpaid N30,000 fee his colleague AY claimed to be the reason for their misunderstanding was not actually the main issue.

Basketmouth stated this during an interview he had with an OAP Nedu Wazobia, on ‘The Honest Bunch’, which was shared on social media on Monday.

“So what happened was Alibaba called me, he said I should check AY out and put him on, so I put him on laugh and jams back then, we were supposed to come together to start something -Baskemouth said

“ I heard something that threw me off, things I was not supposed to hear and know. I was shocked and I could not tell him what I heard, so I kept shut and I waited for him to do something first. I distanced myself from him.

“When the matter came up, there was no client, if 20 percent of what he said was a lie, I won’t get mad but 90 percent of what he said was a lie, I was still in shock, and all my guys were laughing at me because they warned me. It was just one job. You know the funny men I have around me. How will I jump them and give a show to that guy?

“When I heard he was not paid, I told Magnus to pay him and they paid him. He removed that information.”

“No client was involved. It was me, him, and Magnus, and when he did what he did, I was not surprised because I was expecting him to do it. That was when I gave him space. There was never friendship, there was never a time.”

Recall, AY had earlier revealed how Basketmouth used to connect him with events when he was starting out in the comedy industry, and how N30,000 sparked the rift in an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo,

He said, “In 2006, (Basketmouth) usually will get gigs like weddings – multiple gigs on a Saturday, maybe 2/3 weddings. So what he used to do at that point in time was to attend one, then at a point, leave the venue and catch up in the other venue and then you will need someone else to stand in for you. That was the opportunity I got from him of which I am very appreciative of till date.

“Now, something funny happened. One of the gigs per se, I got his endorsement to go stand in. Usually what we get at that time is N30,000 and 30,000 at that time was everything to me. 30,000 would buy me my pack of indomie, recharge cards, fuel for my ‘I better pass my neighbor’ generator and then the opportunity to pay just one or two people to join me to do one or two skits that I can just quickly put out

“Two weeks running, I haven’t seen 30k. Because I didn’t see the 30k, and I was starving in Iponri, I decided to ask for 30K that’s how the whole rift started.”