People are wondering if Nigerian comedian and filmmaker Ayo Makun, better known by his stage as AY, is concerned about the release of his film The Waiter, which coincides with the release of Funke Akindele’s smash hit Everybody Loves Jenifa. When asked if he is nervous, AY responded as follows on BonOnRadio.
During the interview, AY was asked “You have decided to release your movie at the time when it’s like going into the lion’s den. Does that make you nervous that you’re releasing your movie at a time when there’s a lot of competition?” AY responded:
AY: It doesn’t make me nervous one bit. First of all, we must understand something that a lot of people don’t even know about AY.
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There are a lot of people out there who don’t even have a basic understanding of my background. I’m a trained theater artist and as a theater practitioner, there’s one belief system that we have. One, no matter what The Show Must Go On, no matter what. You might just get a call that you lost somebody this minute or something happened, The Show Must Go On.
So for me, embracing that show biz stamina and coming from the perspective of somebody who has been there, coming from the perspective of somebody who has been there not just being there for the fun of it, somebody who has been there that a lot of people that you are saying that form the competition to bring about some sort of fear or withdrawal, you know fully well that these were people who came to learn one or two things from you. It should give the information that I don’t need to find myself in a position that I need to be scared.
I don’t even see it as a competition in the first place because I just believe that the sky is wide enough for everyone to fly, and as a matter of fact, December is engulfed with so many holiday moments. And then you know what people say about variety being the spice of life. So you make a decision: I want to navigate to the right or I want to go to the left.
Today I may just make a decision, I want to go see “Thin Line”, tomorrow if you have the money, that same person can say I want to go see “Everybody Loves Jenifa” or I want to go see “The Waiter” or I want to go see the other titles that we have out there. So it all depends and when you do your research, people have a certain kind of film that they like.
You would not lose your audiences in that regard. and there are people who also love a certain other kind of film, you would not lose them. It’s just like if we relate it to the game of football, there are people who will say categorically that we are Arsenal fans, and there are people who say we are Man U fans. So what is important is that you play your league, you play to your patterns and then you win, that’s it.
So for me it’s a personal goal of me trying to beat my former record, me trying to improve and doing what I love to do and don’t see myself as someone in any form of competition.