With his two other colleagues, Ayo Ogunsina Williams, popularly known as Papilolo, formed the Jesters International, and they performed their special type of comedy around the country through the 1970s and 1980s. Today at 80 years old, Papilolo acts occasionally. JOE AGBORO JNR. interviewed him on the location of Kunle Afolayan’s latest movie, Mokaliki, as he walks down memory lane and unveils future plans. Excerpts:
HOW did comedy start for you?
We started our group in the early 1970s. Before then, we were with my master who was a comedian too, very known in Nigeria, Mr Ajimajasan, Baba No Regret. Then we pulled out in 1979/80 to form our own Jesters International, the three of us (Jacob, Papalolo and Aderukpoko). We started producing comedy; we called it jesters because we didn’t want to be comedians only, just jesting. We started jesting around 1980. We produced for so many television houses in Nigeria then, NTA Ibadan, WNTV Ibadan, OYO Ibadan, OGTV, all across the whole nation. And the three of us then travelled as a travelling theatre throughout the federation. We went to the east, west, north, particularly, we were very famous in the northern part of the country then. And some of our plays then were ‘Jacob is Ku’, which is so popular because that is where Jacob was so drunk and he thought he was dead. He had lost his memory and he started crying that he was dead because there was a newspaper that wrote that one Jacob was proclaimed dead. That programme was so welcome in this country.
That was which year?
That was in 1980. It was produced on both record and television play came out in 1980. Then, we have ‘Soldier Kekere’ when the army was still in power. By then, fake soldiers were so plenty.
So, you actually used your comedy for social cause?
It was for social enlightenment. This ‘Jacob is Ku’ taught us not to be greedy. ‘Soldier Kekere’ taught us that things that are not our own. You’re not a soldier man and you want to go to the barracks to collect benefits. We were caught. So, anything we produced then must get a meaning to grab.
Now, you talk about all these episodes with fun memories. Where have you been?
Really, I was always taking part in films but not as before because of old age. And the kind of children we produce now, they mainly reckon with their caucuses, artistes. They have so many caucuses.
Tell us how you got to be on the set of ‘Mokaliki’
Kunle Afolayan is, I may say, my son because his father, the late Ade Love, was my senior in the acting industry. So, he just thought of it that all those old people who have been in the acting industry all these years, where are they? He remembered us and he called us to come and partake in this production for which I’m very happy. And I’ve shot about three or four films since last year till this year. There’s one with Kunle Afod shot at Ilorin. Jeje ni egun agba njo. If we’re called, they’ll know we’re still on.
You make it sound as if you don’t make all your living through acting again. What else do you do?
Thank God in my younger age, I trained my children. Though, we received very little money but I made sure that education was very compulsory for my children. So, I gave them the due education so they can be on their own feet tomorrow. Now, they’re investing in me. They take care of me. I don’t really care whether I go to location but notwithstanding, whenever Iam invited for these small small jobs, I do them. I go to stage with my boys. We want to revive stage plays. So, we have done about three or four stage plays. And people are demanding for my comedy again because they know when I’m still alive, I must do something. They want to see old plays. So, I’m working on that now by the grace of God, maybe anytime from now, that production would be coming out.
When you said ‘you and your boys’, who particularly are you referring to?
Some of the people I’m with in the Jesters are still alive and they are still with me. And my partner is still alive, that is Aderukpoko, Baba Gbokugboku. We’re still together. The Jesters are still alive. We’re on our two feet. So, we’re trying to revive those comedy plays to entertain our people because people thought there’s no more comedy. But there is comedy where comedy is because day in day out, there will always be comedy.
So, how young are you?
Thank God I’m so young that I celebrated my 80th birthday on May 6 (2018) at Premier Hotel, Ibadan.
At 80, how do you look at life now?
Thank God, life is so sweet. But all we need is endurance. We have to endure. According to a Yoruba proverb which says, ‘Igba ki lo bi orere’, meaning, ‘every day cannot always be sweet’. So, we have been passing through some ‘hot’ things and we’ve been passing through some sweet things in life.
When you look at comedy between when you were active and now, how do you see the industry?
When I started my comedy in the early 70s, actually I started in ’63, ’64; I was then with my mentor, my master, that is, the late Chief Hubert Ogunde. It was he (Chief Ogunde) that propped me to be a comedian because he saw that I was very good in comic displays. So, he tried to help out. We were in Ghana when we started this comedy. I started in 1963 at Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah was the prime minister of Ghana. He said Ogunde must stage a play or record a television series for him but it be comedy because E T Mensah was the only actor in Ghana there, giving them comedy, plays and we would dress like women.
When I came back to Nigeria, I formed my own group in 1965, Araba Concert Party, with my friends. When we started, I thank God people accepted us. In Lagos here, I staged a play at Glover Hall. I staged at Lisabi Hall, Ebute Metta. From there, I left Lagos for Ibadan to train myself more. That was why I joined people – they were then in television – one of these groups performing for the old WNTV/WNBS. That was the first television station in Nigeria. I said, ‘This is an opportunity for me to make myself known to the whole world.’ So, I teamed up with then in 1973. And since then, 1973, I started, people started to know my type of comedy because it’s a different type of comedy entirely. I mix comedy with songs. I look at you, look at your songs. I change them to my own to amuse people. So, even those musicians, when they saw me doing this, they were amused.
But today, because we sit down and think and realise ‘what do people need?’ there is tension in Nigeria because there is war. How can we make people happy? So, we think of what can make people happy. But today, comedians just think of making money. They don’t realise what they’re doing is we’re trying to teach people or to enlighten people. Comedians nowadays have to sit down and think more of what they are doing, their production ability to last long because I’ve been on this programme since 1970. And up till today, I thank God people are still demanding for me. Whatever you want to give to your audience, you must think it over and over, make sure that it is sensible. They have to sit down and work on their production better than what they are doing now.
You were mostly acting and performing in Yoruba.
Surely.
What informed that?
What really happened was, you know, in the Yoruba- speaking states then, they needed our demanded more. If you watched Zebrudaya play (New Masquerade) then, you know, we worked together. He was reigning in the east, we were reigning here. And there was another one in the old Bendel State. So, those are the only people that were really in comedy, apart from Baba Sala and Ojo Ladipo group.
So, they performed in their own major languages. But whenever I travelled out to the east or to Bendel then, we performed in pidgin English. But on television, we performed solely in Yoruba language so that our people can reach us better. If we had known then, it should have been either in pidgin or mixed pidgin and Yoruba. I did that later with the Galaxy Television. I did about 26 episodes for them in pidgin English, which was very very acceptable then. That was in the early 90s.
How was your acceptance suddenly performing in pidgin English?
People loved it because you know, you’re just saying I performed in Yoruba. Mainly the easterners were even my better audience than the Yoruba because whenever I travelled to Alaba (in Lagos), I can’t just walk freely. All those Ibo boys would say, ‘Baba Papilolo’. They would run after me. If I got to Mushin because I lived very close to Olorunsogo then, they don’t let me rest. They understand Yoruba. And my music travelled round the whole country because as I sing in pidgin, I sing Fela, I sing Bob Marley, I sing Indian songs.
What’s your role in Mokalik?
In this film, I happen to be the chairman of this mechanic village. I’m the boss of all the mechanics here. So, I take control. Whatever happens, if there is any fighting, they take it down to me to settle. If there is anything wrong, I have to move here and there to settle it. So, I’m the boss in this mechanic village.
The post HUBERT OGUNDE PROPPED ME TO BE A COMEDIAN –80-YEAR-OLD PAPILOLO appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.
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