Although Tayo Amokade, better known by his stage name Ijebu, is currently enjoying a successful career, he faced obstacles along the way.
The comedic actor recalled some of the difficulties he had when he first began acting in an interview with Saturday Beats. I encountered several difficulties when I first entered the field, he claimed. On the other hand, while one must go through some sort of training, I won’t truly term them challenges. I received my training at the Authentic School of Drama in Ibadan, which is run by actor and director Muyiwa Ademola. He was my trainer for seven years. He taught me how to face the audience, move the camera, and other things.
The training helped me a lot. One of the challenges I faced was having to buy food for people that I knew I was older than just because they got into the industry before me.
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“I said on my Instagram Live video recently that anybody coming into the industry has to be patient, focused and prayerful. One could spend 10 years in the industry without succeeding and one may spend only six months and people would like you. You also need to be humble.”
On his relationship with his female fans, the Ogun State-born actor said, “It is good to marry a wife that was destined for one. My wife supports me a lot. Whenever I tell her I am going on set, she knows that I would be on movie locations. On my Instagram Live videos, fans tell me they love me and different people say they want to know me better. I cannot fight them; they are my female fans. At the end of the day, I can become good friends with them and also advise them. It’s not compulsory I have affairs with them. We can still be of help to one another in the future.”
Ijebu, who lost his father last year, noted that he missed his advice. He added, “I miss his advice. He usually advised me whenever I visited home and he would recite my praise poetry (oriki). When I was growing up, they didn’t speak the Ijebu dialect to me. My brothers urged my parents to train me with ‘pure’ Yoruba. But when God said it was time, I had to start calling some of my friends who spoke the language so well. My dad also tutored me on how to speak the dialect well. I really miss him a lot.”