“Tony Tetuila believed in me and stood up for me” – Basket Mouth

Every great thing starts small – this fact was replayed by comedian Bright Okpocha, popularly called Basket Mouth in a new book series titled ‘Before I Write a Book’.

Basket Mouth, who intends to write a book eventually, shared his experience in this short story.

Back stage at the Rothmans Groove tour which held @ TBS in 1998, there I was seated with the likes of The Plantashun Boiz,Dr. Fresh,Remedies and more…I was just a young boy trying to weigh his options on what direction to go with his career as drumming,rapping,producing and comedy were few of my options.

That night was the 1st time I met Tony Tetuila, one of those humble guys you come by, he was warm and accommodating considering the obvious fact that I was nobody in the industry.

Fast forward a few months later, Comedy had won me over and in the course of my hustle and journey to where I’m yet to get to, I bumped into Tetuila  in Festac, just about the time his single ‘you don hit my car’ came out.

We reconnected while playing catch up. We had common friends so ‘bumping’ into each other became a tradition. The 1st time he saw me perform @ a concert was at a gig The Plantashun Boiz used to host @ the Den in Ikeja.

I must have impressed him 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 (Shell Office). A director at Shell was retiring and a send-forth party was being held in his honour. My performance fee then was ₦10,000, Tony pushed it up and convinced the client to pay ₦30,000 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.

I was paid in full a week to the show.

After picking up the cash I went straight home. Now here I was, a young comic with his 1st major pay-out of ₦30,000. Considering the fact that my 1st performance fee was ₦300 (1%) of what I had in my pocket, I couldn’t help but to thank God.

I got home, gave my mum ₦25,000 and kept ₦5,000 from which I bought a shirt, pants and shoes from Tejuosho market to wear for the event. Ready for my first big show.