As a gallant
survivor of the recent massive attack he received from some of his female fans
for his very funny “RAPE” joke, #MikellzBluez will like to honour the
super hilarious BasketMouth as our
very first Celebrity of the Week. And
if you ask for my opinion about the controversial joke, I will tell you that
BasketMouth just nailed the shit again—it was so on point!
His
Life…
Alright,
no news; we already know his name is Bright Okpocha and we all prefer to call him his stage name, BasketMouth.
He is a native of Abia state but he was born at Uzor Street in Ajegunle Lagos on September 14th, 1978. BasketMouth is
happily married to Elsie Uzoma, and they are blessed
with two beautiful children. He speaks English, earned a B.Sc in Sociology
and Anthropology from University of Benin, and he works as a comedian,
music artiste, and instrumentalist… wait, he just wrote a book, makes him
a writer, right?
Follow
BasketMouth on Twitter [@basket_mouth] and “like”
his official FACEBOOK PAGE .
Career
BasketMouth could
be seen as a drummer, rapper and a combined sociologist and anthropologist, but
we shall focus on his well-known comedy career, which according to MTVBase started in 1990 in form of “yabbing”, while other sources said it
was 1999.
In 1999,
BasketMouth got involved in events management alongside his comedy acts. He and
his friend (Bayo Adekeye) promoted and packaged shows that featured the likes
of Plantation Boiz, Remedies, and a host of other artists.
After BasketMouth featured Plantation
Boiz in 2000, they asked him to anchor a monthly show that was held at The Den in Ikeja, and things got bigger
and better when Bright was invited by Tequila
Events to perform alongside Julius
Agwu on a tour that hit over 30 higher institutions around Nigeria. He extended
his act to the monthly Motherland Concert hosted by Lagbaja, and he was later to Opa
Williams who then featured him in the now most popular comedy show in Nigeria
and beyond: Nite Of A 1000 Laughs.
He later hit international concerts platforms
and anchored gigs that included the likes of Joe, Boyz II Men, Sean Paul, Wyclef Jean, Kool & The
Gang, Akon, Dru Hill, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Fat Joe, Snoop Dogg, Ciara, Chris Brown and
many more. He’s also performed at various international shows in the UK, USA,
Europe and South Africa.
As a follow-up
to the growth, he formed a company called Humor
Unlimited (2004), (stage play) - Devils kiss (2004), and in 2006 took it
higher by performing a one man stand-up comedy show which made history in
Nigeria: BasketMouth Uncensored 1,2, and 3. He later established a consulting/event
and Artist management company (Barons World Entertainnment) in 2006.
Basket Mouth is presently one of the
brand ambassadors of one of the leading telecommunications companies in Africa—Globacom—till date, while he also hosts the biggest TV show, sponsored by Glo,
in Nigeria today: the MTV
Base Big Friday Show.
Before
And Now
“I must have
impressed him (Tony Tetuila) because
not long after that night, I got a call from him asking that we meet up. We did
and he took me for a meeting in Lagos Island. A director at Shell was retiring and a send-forth
party was being held in his honour. My performance fee then was N10,000
but Tony pushed it up and convinced the client to pay N30,000 which they paid cash. Prior to this, they had never
heard of me and only used me because Tony believed in me and stood up for me,
convincing them to buy in.” — BasketMouth
Looks
We Love
Awards
And Records
Back to back,
through the last 4 years, Bright has won the National Comedy Award for Best Comedian of the Year, and Best Stand-up Comedian for these years:
2005 and 2006… I really don’t think we can list all the awards BasketMouth must
have received.
And in 2010, BasketMouth became the first African comedian to
host a comedy show—Lord of the Ribs—at
the 02 Arena.
Crazy
Things Done
Constantly doing
crazy things, I wonder if BasketMouth doesn’t have crazy dreams when he sleeps.
And you I just
saw this on his official twitter page … you can call it preparation meets
opportunity—nigga is #MikellzBluez
Certified Crazy!
I think the
best quote I can pick for this post is the same “RAPE” joke that BasketMouth
faced heat for because it is actually hilarious and we at #MikellzBluez
understands it is just a joke as we neither support any form of
aggression or violence against women. Enjoy….
Mikell
[sources:
MTVBase, YNaija, Gistus]
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