My name is Akuidolo Orevaoghene but popularly known as FOREVER as that is my comedy brand name. I am from Delta State and Isoko by tribe. I am a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu.
I studied mechanical engineering because my parents wanted me to work in an oil company but life has its own navigations. Right from school, when I started doing stand up comedy, I knew I wanted to do it for a long time. So, when I graduated in the year 2010, I decided to commit to comedy fully because I asked myself that if I could achieve the feats I achieved in school while I was still studying and doing other academic activities, it means if I commit fully to stand up comedy without having other commitments to distract me, then I can achieve success and that was the decision I took and I am grateful for it today.
To be honest, right from when I was young, I was already very funny. I was the one making everyone around me laugh but at that time, I didn’t know there was anything called stand up comedy. So it wasn’t until 2005 when I watched legendary comedy “I Go Dye” on Nite of a thousand laughs that I said to myself that I can make people as well.
So, I can do this too. I was simply a happy fellow in my secondary school days. I was where you needed me to be at all times.
If it was football time, I would be found there. If we were teasing someone, count me in. So I would say I was simply a happy fellow.
The very thing I love the most about being a comedian is my superpower of joy. I walk into a place and everyone automatically lights up with smiles. They are either remembering a joke I made that made them laugh or that they are just happy to see me.
It gives me great fulfillment to just see people happy because they saw me. My fans and supporters are like the passion that drives me because they come to watch me with high expectations and thus, I have to deliver and meet their expectations. Every joke must land on something.
Also, every joke must stand on a thing. That thing could be a person, a place, an ideology, etc. There are tough topics to make jokes about but the best way to also address difficult issues is when it is mixed with humour.
So, every comedian has the right to lend their voice to critical issues. The comedian knows it could go either way but the comedian has to at least, try to perform the joke, hoping that the people that would laugh will be more than those who don’t find it funny. This is very true.
We have a lot of successful comedians but the industry is still growing because most of these successful celebrity comedians did it all by themselves. There is no system in place that enables their talents to be fully maximized. We don’t have theatres in the country in every state where comedians can perform and this is the major reason why Nigerian comedians cannot go on tours in Nigeria.
In America for example, a comedian can be on tour for four months straight because there are venues ready to host their shows at not too much expenses. We don’t have promoters for the comedy industry too. There are many issues.
Hopefully, we would grow effectively soon. A comedian must first be funny. After that, your ability to network and collaborate is essential because you can never do it all by yourself.
Then, build a team that has your best interest at heart. You must have a vision of that you want to achieve with your career or else, you will be ordinary. You also need to constantly evolve and improve and above all depend on God’s timing.
This is not true. I think that the general public is misunderstanding the whole thing. We are actually working together to grow the comedy industry.
This is just saying that gynecologists are pushing surgeons out from medicine. We all have different sectors that we cater for. My beginning days were not funny ooo.
I remember when I was paid the sum of fifty naira and Tampico juice for a performance. I looked like someone who didn’t have a plan for his life. In fact, my mother was going around helping me look for jobs, so that I can have a proper job but we thank God for everything.
Firstly, God is the one who enables all men to prosper and succeed. Secondly, I have a vision of where I want to be and what I want to do with my comedy. So, there is a clear path for me to follow.
So, I think this is what has enabled me to get to where I am today. Nevertheless, like they say, success is relative because for me, I am just getting started. There is so much yet to achieve that I am yet to even scratch the surface of what my potential can access.
This year I have been with the popular comedian BASKETMOUTH on his Cancel Culture tour. We have done the United Kingdom and some countries in Europe. We did Ghana on Easter Saturday and we just concluded the North America version and this included Canada and the United States of America.
The tour was hugely successful as we visited nine cities and Canada: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg and Brandon. Performing to people of all races and nationalities had been a dream but this tour has made it a reality. The reception of the fans has been really amazing as they have been kind to us.
It has been been an amazing experience. Of course! It is affecting the comedy industry because for example, if I have a comedy show coming up, the cost of producing the show and renting equipments since we don’t have ready venues like I mentioned earlier, have all increased and then, you cannot necessarily increase the ticket fee too much because the people, who intend to buy the tickets are also facing the hard economic situation. So, it is affecting us as much as everyone.
The truth is that asides stand-up comedy, every comedian tries to explore other areas of entertainment and thus, I have created a new series called THE MARRIAGE THERAPIST. This is going to create a lot of joy among viewers because it is not just humour, life lessons will be learned too just by watching. The inspiration behind the creation of this series was born from seeing a lot of marital issues online that seemed to me like a joke.
Many of the issues about marriages posted online were to me, not serious enough to cause the kind of problems we see. So I thought to myself, how can I help this marriages and relationships with my comedy? So, I created this series called THE MARRIAGE THERAPIST, simply to address relationship issues but from a comical point of view. We have a few comedians on the show like Young Chief, Kaycee, Phage, 16 ONIRU but the others are actors because we didn’t want it to only comical.
We tried to create a balance with our cast. The Marriage Therapist premiered on August 14, 2024 and will run for 16 weeks because it is a 16 episode series. So every Wednesday, a new episode will be released on our social media platforms: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Threads.
Yes, I am married. I have been married to my only wife since 2016. The series is a blend of comedy and life lessons we can learn as couples.
Even though I am doing this series, I am still a comedian and of course, I do advice some couples when they reach out to me but I don’t do it professionally though. So, my advice would be to approach a proper relationship professionally. Nevertheless, they can learn a thing or two from this comedy series.
I think the most common problems I have seen married couples experience is that most of come into the marriage with ideas of fantasies that they have created either from movies they have seen or experiences they formed with other people. Thus, their partners are now suffering from the expectations they have created in their minds before meeting their current partners. So, I think it is important to rid yourself of any preconceived ideologies and allow yourself to bond with your partner.
Create your own realities..
