Exclusive:The Skit That Made Me Popular Was Posted By A Stranger Without My Consent–Adisa Oni Taxi

Abeokuta, Ogun State based top broadcaster, Musiliu Adisa Sanni better known as Mr. Bebe, or Bebe Musiliu, had made some name for himself over the years as a presenter, Master of Ceremonies (MC) and comedian before he started shooting skits for the social media. But the fame skit making has now garnered for him playing a comic character of “Adisa Oni Taxi” within a year has arguably dwarfed the considerable popularity he seemed to be having before venturing into skits. Meanwhile, the particular skit which brought him fame out of the different episodes he has shot so far which is tagged: “Se k’Ake wo’le?” was a skit he said he never really liked for a certain reason, so he abandoned it after shooting. But how did the abandoned skit later find its way on to the Internet and consequently went viral? And why did he not like the skit in question in the first place? He gave detailed answers to those questions and some others in this interview with SAHEED OJUBANIRE. It is a very interesting piece. Read on please:

Q: For the purpose of this interview, can you introduce yourself please?

R: My name is Musiliu Adisa Sanni.

Q: You are a popular broadcaster, singer, and very funny Master of Ceremonies (MC), but you recently started exploiting another aspect of your multiple talent in skit making at which you have also become quite popular. So, how did the idea of making skits online as a funny cab driver known as Adisa Oni Taxi come to you?

R: Let me start by saying that, when you are born with certain degrees of talent, you would always have the urge to exploit each aspect of the talent at some points in time. And I’m saying this because my skit character, Adisa Oni Taxi, which now happens to be the new aspect of my multiple talent being exploited may soon be followed by another thing as time goes on. Because it is all God’s gift. Even you; who are gifted with the talent, may not be able to explain how it came to be.

Q: But can you tell us about the advent of Adisa Oni Taxi in particular? 

R: Yes, talking about the character of Adisa Oni Taxi which is my latest offering to the online entertainment industry, it is just a gift I’m given by God to entertain the world. So, how did the idea of Adisa Oni Taxi start? I sat down somewhere with some friends and I cracked a joke about taxi drivers in Abeokuta and how funny they could be. So, I cited instances of some funny behaviours of taxi drivers for my friends which really cracked them up. In fact, they asked me to say the joke again.

This was when I went to Crescent University for a Diploma Course in Mass Communication, and it was during our break time while we were having our exam that the situation took place. We were actually having a group reading and on a lighter note, I commented about a taxi driver that drove by and was arguing with someone, and threatening fire and brimstone. I was like, Abeokuta taxi drivers, that is how they are: always all bark and no bite. So, I used the scenario of the arguing taxi driver as the bases for my joke that, he might end up prostrating to the person he was arguing with and threatening once the issue begins to get out of his hands.

And from there, I cited cases of the funny attitudes of taxi drivers I had witnessed before in Abeokuta and everyone laughed intensely. So, by the time we all returned to class to continue our exam papers, my friends such as Suko, Sukonmi Oyejide, who is the PDP Youth Leader in Ogun State, Asiwaju Akinloye Bankole, who is the PDP PRO in Ogun State, the founder/publisher of Penpushing Online Newspaper, Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, and the likes who were all there for the course at Crescent University at that point in time, started picking lines from the taxi drivers jokes I told them to which everyone laughed again. 

Interestingly, they all started referring to me as “Oni Taxi Egba” (Abeokuta Taxi Driver), and from that point, I saw the bigger picture of the idea looming large before me. So, while I was driving away from campus the next day with one of my junior colleagues in the broadcast media, Soji Akindiya better known as Okanlomo, he told me that I could develop the idea of the Abeokuta Taxi Drivers into skits and so, I decided to give it a trial. 

Q: So, how did you now turn the idea into reality?

R: There is a young man in the movie industry, Monday Abiose, who is a Director of Photography (DoP) and he is very close to me. Monday is the one shooting Saamu Alajo series for Odunlade Adekola and a lot of other movies like that. He is a popular name in the theatre industry. 

So, I put a call to him that, there is an idea I wanted to toy with and he came to meet me for the money needed to rent the necessary equipments. I told him I wanted full professionalism because I could have chosen to use a smart phone to shoot my skit, but I opted against that. So, that is why I called people who are dab hands in the theatre industry to exploit the shooting of the skit idea with me. To cut a long story short, I asked Monday for the type of camera they use to shoot, he mentioned some very sophisticated cameras but added that we could also use Mac 4, and I gave him money to rent a Mac 4 camera. 

I asked him further for what else they use in shooting movies, he said we needed sound equipment and some other things. And I asked him for how much all would cost and gave him the money. Interestingly, after paying for the equipments, I got so busy that I did not have the time to shoot. So, about two weeks after giving him the money, Monday was the one running after me to come and shoot that, he had paid for all the needed equipments since, and the money was non refundable. Eventually, on a Saturday, though I had an MC job on the day, but Monday kept calling me and I told him I had an MC job to do that day. But he was like, the shooting would not take long; 30 minutes maximum. He even added that he had the rented equipments in his custody already. 

Q: You mean he had already gone for the equipments before he started running after you, the actor?

R: Yes, and Monday would not accept any excuse from me not to shoot on the day. So, I just put on a Jalamia, I took one of the local caps I had with me in the house, and drove to meet Monday and picked him up with my car. So, he asked me to tell him one of the concepts I had in mind. And I told him about the concept of a taxi driver threathening to deal with VIO officials on the high way which happened to be the first episode we shot. Though, shooting it gave us some stress as I had to call Mr. Babalola, a top brass in the VIO office in Ogun State, to help with one or two VIO officials in uniform. Being a Saturday, a day on which VIO officials don’t work, it was initially difficult to get their officials but Mr. Babalola pulled the strings for us to get two officials.

But then, while the shooting was already going on, we soon realised that we would need to end the skit at the VIO’s office in Kotopo where a top official would orientate the public on some of the rules of the VIO. So, we felt we needed a popular face in the movie industry to play the role of the boss since my humble self who played the lead in the skit was not a popular face in acting yet, and Monday suggested we called one of the big brothers we have in the theatre industry, Ijayegbemi Monsuru. Without further ado, I called him and he left where he was in Ijaye to meet us in Kotopo to conclude the shooting. As a matter of fact, we initially thought we would need uniform of a very senior official for him but the VIO officials who already acted with us told us that it would not be necessary, that a very senior official could be in mufti in his office. 

Q: Is that how you shot the very first episode of Adisa Oni Taxi?

R: Yes, that was the story of the first episode of Adisa, the Executive Taxi Driver like the character would also refer to himself as. I also need to add that, it was the same Monday guy that went through the process of editing and all that, after initially directing the shooting to make the final video of the skit available to me in due course. And as soon as he was done, he sent the video to me and asked me to post on different social media platforms, after initially posting a watch out clip of it on my WhatzApp, and some other platforms. Meanwhile, as soon as I posted the watch out, I realised that the turn up of the people to the clip was very encouraging. So, it prompted me to release the full skit one Saturday morning after creating my YouTube channel. And as soon as I released the first episode, people started calling me from far and near to commend me for a job well done.

Q: You must have really impressed the viewers. 

R: Yes. In fact, many asked me if I had been acting long before and I said no. My acting before then was not beyond the likes of Mr. Latin and Co giving me one, or at most, two scenes in their movies and telling me to say this and that in the scene. But I was definitely not a full time actor. Meanwhile, on the day we shot the VIO skit, Monday told me we had access to the camera for a whole day and that we could quickly shoot another episode of the skit. And he asked me for another concept I could think of. So, I told him we could shoot that of a female commuter who would be waving down my taxi that she wants to go to Ake, a popular area in Abeokuta.

And she would be calling the area with heavy Egba dialect such that, it would also be wrongly translated to mean something else by me, the taxi driver. So, when the woman is saying: “Se k’Ake wo’le?” Meaning should someone going to Ake hop into the taxi, but saying it with her heavy Egba dialect would also make her seem to be asking if she could cry into my taxi. And that would be the punch line of the joke being acted out in the skit.

So, we felt we would need a woman who could speak Egba dialect very well and that is how we thought of Funmilayo Sonola better known as Iya Sapon. When I put a call across to her to know where she was, she said she was at an area known as Rounder towards Crescent University in Abeokuta. And we went there to meet her for the shooting.

Interestingly, I told Monday after shooting the second skit with Iya Sapon that I did not really like it simply because it was too short. So, I dumped the skit and started shooting other episodes of Adisa Oni Taxi. And we had shot up to episode 15 when I suddenly realised that the “Se k’Ake wo’le?” episode I refused to post on the Internet was now trending and going wildly viral online.

Q: How did that happen? 

R: This is it. There is a video editor in Abeokuta here by the name Olayiwola Babatunde Yusuff better known as Golden Boy who found the skit on a memory card used to record something else too, and was taken to him to edit. And when he stumbled on the recording of the “Se k’Ake wo’le?” skit on the memory card, he felt it was funny, and he decided to post it on his social media handles.

So, on a Sunday morning when I went out after Golden Boy had posted the “unauthorized” skit, I just realized that people were hailing me from left, right and centre, with “Se k’Ake wo’le?” And I was dumb founded because I knew I did not release the episode people were hailing me with. So, where could people have seen it? I thought to myself. And immediately, I put a call through to Monday to ask if he was the one who released it, he said no, he was not the one. And before I would know what was happening, I had seen the skit on the WhatzApp status of about 20 people in my contact who picked it from Tiktok. And on checking the Tiktok page they picket it from, I saw “Yoruba Lawa Tv”. So, I decide to check out the owner of the handle through the profile and I saw his contact there.

Q: So, what was the next thing you did?

R: I called him to ask where he got the skit from, and he told me he is an editor and found the skit on a memory card brought to him to edit another recording on, and he felt the skit was funny which was the reason he posted it. That he actually thought I had released it already by myself. He said that he liked to put funny videos on his page without meaning to infringe on anyone’s copy rights. So, I told him I had not released the skit at all as that time. And he knew immediately that he was in for it. Meanwhile, on hearing how the skit was released without my authorization, Monday and the rest were already fuming and threatening to deal with anyone responsible for it. But I said no, that would not be necessary.

Contrarily, I actually saw the whole development from the angle of divine intervention. Because it was that same episode that was released without my authorization that brought the skit character of Adisa Oni Taxi to the limelight. It achieved what about 15 episodes released before it could not achieve, and it did that within minutes. So, all I did was to tell Golden Boy to bring me the original copy of the skit for me to put on my YouTube channel. And it was the “Se k’Ake wo’le?” episode that sold all the other episodes before it, and built the brand into what it is, today. It grew my followership on the social media massively to the extent I could not imagine within a short period of time of its release.

Q: So, it was the “Se k’Ake wo’le?” episode that made people to start surfing the Internet looking for your other skits, right?

R: Yes, it was. In fact, I had released an episode with a very big Fuji artiste in Nigeria, Alhaji Sefiu Alao, which gave me a lot of traction on the Internet too and which I thought was the biggest stride because it went far when released. And that gave me a lot of hope that with time, the brand would become a house hold name. But unknown to me, the episode to crown the effort was somewhere abandoned already. So, after “Se k’Ake wo’le?” catapulted the brand to the top, I had to change all my social media pages from my broadcasting brand to Adisa Oni Taxi brand. Where I could not completely change it, I added Adisa Oni Taxi to it. 

So, it was after I changed my pages that people started relating the Adisa Oni Taxi skit to the ones I had posted before including that of Alhaji Sefiu Alao as they all began to gain more viewership. And the rest of the story, as they say, is history.

Q: So, how is your relationship currently with the guy that released Adisa Oni Taxi without your authorization? 

R: For me, I always look at things from a different angle away from others. As a local and cultured person, if everyone is going this direction, I always want to look at the other directions. So, while everyone was saying he should be arrested for copy right infringement, I thought otherwise about it. And my position was that, how come it was the abandoned skit released without authorization by Golden Boy that became the golden one among the skits I have done which brought its glitter on others to shine? And what that means to me is that, my star aligns with his own star properly. 

After concluding that we should work together, I put a call through to Golden Boy to come and see me but he was very evasive thinking I wanted to lure him into police arrest. But I later sent him a voice note that he should put his mind at rest as no one was planning to arrest him over that matter. I even had to swear to God before he could believe me. And he agreed to come and see me eventually. On meeting him, I greeted him warmly and told him since he said he is an editor, he would be the one that would be editing my skits from that point in time. And since then, he has been the one editing all my subsequent skits. It is also important to add that, he has been the best editor I have used on Adisa Oni Taxi skits.

Though, those before him really tried their best too which was good enough, but Golden Boy has the edge because he has the time to really do the job. For instance, there is someone I once used and he was always coming from Oshogbo in Osun State. In fact, they call the guy Oshogbo. He is a very good editor too. He edited about three episodes for me and did a wonderful job. It is just that it is very hard to see him because he is always very busy. So, I told Golden Boy at our meeting to be honest with me and to always let me know what ever he needs to do a good job and that is what he has been doing. And so far, he has edited about 15 episodes for me. 

Q: Apart from Sefiu Alao, who are the other celebrities in the entertainment industry that you have also featured?

R: I have featured Soji Taiwo popularly known as Omo Banke, Tunde Usman better know as Okele, Ogboluke, Anthony Ogundimu alias Ara, Kayode Akindina popularly known as Mr. Paragon, Monsuru Ijayegbemi, Owolabi Ajasa, Sola Oyedele better known as Ejikeme, Dare Agbejo alias Filefun, Olu Olowogemo better known as Harejan, Iya Sapon, Hamuda Eko, Abidemi Ishau, Aliyah and few others. But at this point in time, I want to start featuring popular skit makers too and not just the regular actors. 

Q: Can you name some of the popular skit makers you are hoping to feature soon?

R: I hope to feature people like Mr. Macaroni, Remote, Broda Shaggi and many others. And I hope to explore strong contents with each of them.

Q: How easy and how expensive was it for you to invite the stars you have featured so far to your locations?

R: Well, the thing is, you use money to look for money. In other words, it has not been easy financially to bring the popular people to take part in my skits. And if not for my strong base in broadcasting as a presenter, it would have been more difficult and expensive. And it is from the little I make from my job as a broadcaster that I have been using to fund the shooting of Adisa Oni Taxi skits so far. You know what, those skit makers who are using smart phones to shoot their skits can also use proper video cameras too, but where is the money to rent the camera and other accessories required? 

So, financing is what has been killing talents in this part of the world. More unfortunately so, talent alone is never enough in this clime, it must be backed with finance. And if you don’t have the money yourself, you must have someone funding you which is why some people are called promoters. So, it is not that the person being promoted cannot do it all by himself, but he needs the funding of the promoter to progress. Meanwhile, apart from me spending on equipments and the crew to shoot my skits, for instance, I have a permanent director who needs to be paid with other crew members. Filefun is the person I’m using as my regular director, but Ejikeme has directed for me too before, but he is very busy.

Away from that, another thing that has been going for me with my shooting is the cordial relationship I have built over the years with many of the stars in the entertainment industry. For instance, Soji Omobanke has been my friend for a long while. He has always known me as a broadcast journalist, a master of ceremonies, a comedian and the rest of it. In fact, we have met on stage as MCs many times. The same thing with Okele. So, I have met most of the big names in the line of duty before, and we have very good rapport which is now giving me easy landing with them in respect of my skits.

When Soji Omobanke came to shoot with me, I was planning to give him something for fuel, but he declined the money. He even dipped his hand into his pocket and gave the camera crew twenty thousand naira to buy drinks. He did not collect a dime from me and that boils down to our rapport over the years. Similarly, when Alhaji Sefiu Alao came to shoot with me too, a Fuji music star that people pay millions to have at their events; he came and did not collect a dime from me after the shooting. When I went to meet him for the skit, he said my idea was fantastic that he loved it. In fact, he is one of the first set of people that encouraged me to keep up with the skit. He gave me hope by calling me on phone to commend me.

Meanwhile, many other artistes of his status would have given me problems. They may say they can’t enter the kind of taxi I use for my skit. But Sefiu Alao left his multi million naira jeep to rode in the taxi with me around Abeokuta during the shooting. And being a popular figure, area boys were all over him by the time we concluded the shooting, and he still gave them money from his pocket. He even gave my camera crew money. So, how much could I have paid him for featuring in my skit? He did not collect a dime from me. And when the skit he featured in was posted, it gave my brand a lot of traction on the Internet. So, that really gave me the impetus to continue. 

And I must also add that, apart from Alhaji Sefiu Alao, a lot of the big names in the entertainment and media industry have also called me to encourage me. I’m talking about people like star actor, Olaiya Igwe. People like Yemi Sonde alias Jigan Akala, the CEO, Yes F.M., Ibadan, he said I should not relent. People like Jide Morofounlu, a top broadcaster who is now based in Canada. He called me all the way from Canada after getting my number from someone. So, those are the things giving me hope in the industry.

Q: Now, fans of Bebe Musiliu know that he stages a comedy show annually known as No Cure For Laughter. But now that the brand Adisa Oni Taxi has come, would Bebe Musiliu still be staging No cure For Laughter show, or would he design another show around the character of Adisa Oni Taxi?

R: You see, I never knew the brand Adisa Oni Taxi was coming when I started No Cure For Laughter show some years ago to showcase the comic side of my talent, but I don’t plan to create another show around the character of Adisa Oni Taxi. So, No Cure For Laughter show would remain as it has been, but it would now be tagged: No Cure For Laughter featuring Adisa Oni Taxi and Friends. In other words, it is going to remain as one show annually for me.

Q: The character Adisa Oni Taxi comes with speaking heavy Egba dialect as seen in your skits. So, how did you master Egba dialect fluently like that, because, not everyone from Abeokuta can speak Egba dialect like you do in you do in your skits?

R: Thank you. My father hailed from Abeokuta, Igbeyin, to be precise. My mum hailed from Igbore stroke Gbagura. So, both my paternal and maternal backgrounds are from strong Egba source, and I was brought up as a child speaking the Egba dialect. My dad and mum would not speak in any other form than the Egba dialect. And ditto for my grandparents when we used to go and holiday with them in the village at Eriki-Odofin, Wasimi/Gele-Odun in Orile-Igbeyin, Obafemi-Owode Local Government. 

And interestingly, speaking of the Egba dialect in my skits has given me more fans amongst the people of the Egba extraction around the world. There is a man who called me and sent me money from abroad on the basis that I had become his teacher of Egba dialect. He is in London. He said he is even in the habit of playing my skits on the television screen for his kids too to pick some words from the Egba dialect. And they all live in London. 

And many other people have been showing me support in that manner. I have seen someone who posted on Facebook that she was looking for my contact that she wanted to bless me because I’m promoting her cultural heritage through my skits. And people started tagging me with her post. By the time I got in touch with her, she sent me good sum of money. 

Q: Talking about the people and fans of yours in diaspora, if they send you invitation to come and entertain them live, would you be willing to go?

R: With immediate alacrity. If they call me today, I would fly first thing tomorrow morning. I’m willing to go anywhere to entertain my fans abroad. Meanwhile, I have had the opportunity to travel to some countries abroad even before the brand Adisa Oni Taxi came up. I have been to all the 7 Emirates in the United Arab Emirates. I have been to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and many other African countries. So, I have some exposure already.

Q: Finally, what is your message for your fans home and abroad? 

R: I want them to keep supporting the Adisa Oni Taxi brand because it belongs to them. My believe is that, if you are doing something and people don’t accept it, you are nobody. And that is why I don’t respect celebrities who snub their fans when they are being hailed on the street. Most of them forget that it is those people who validate their status of being celebrities and once the people turn against them, they become nobody. 

So, for me, any time I see my fans hailing me on the street that, “Adisa Oni Taxi”, I’m always happy with them. And when I can, I wait in the midst of my fans and play with them. You should never feel too big because you are not different from them. And you don’t use your talent to make people feel they are inferior to you. Therefore, I would always condemn stars who don’t respect their fans. So, I’m saying thank you and thank you to my fans, all over the world.

Content created and supplied by: SaheedOjubanire (via Opera
News )