Valentine’s Day Fallout: How Basket Mouth Ruled Wembley Arena

Ace Nigerian Comedian, Bright Okpocha popularly known by his stage name as Basketmouth, made history on Valentine’s Day at the SSE Arena, Wembley  London, as fans came out to support and watch Nigeria’s biggest comedy export as he became the first and only African comedian to headline Wembley arena.
Basketmouth thrilled the audience with an hour and 30 minutes of unrestricted and pure comedy, coupled with a few surprises for the audience, which made it a valentine to remember, and received a standing ovation from the entire arena. The mayor of Brent was in attendance, accompanied by the MP of Brent; Dawn Butler, who confessed to being a huge Basket mouth fan.
Speaking on the success of the event, Mr Ropo Akin CEO Cokobar Event Promoters who has supported Basket-mouth in the UK for the last 10 years, said they are elated as it is a big win for not just Nigerians but Africa as a whole. Basket mouth started showbiz as a rapper, he formed a group called “Da Psychophats” which had 7 members, and they started going for shows and rapping in 1995.
This did not go down well, the group broke up and he formed another rap group known as “Da Oddz” with his brother Godwin and Muyiwa Osunrobi. This venture was equally unsuccessful, as their style of rap was not popular in the Nigerian arena. Basketmouth’s career started around 2000 when he met one of the fathers of comedy in Nigeria, Ali Baba. His professional stand up comedy act came into play in 2001.
During these defining years, Basketmouth and his team launched his one-man standup comedy concert tagged “Basketmouth Uncensored”, a show that reached every form of success. The show witnessed 4 years, 2005 – 2009 and each of the instalment was a sold out concert.
He stopped hosting the show to introduce other comedy brand “Lords of the Ribs”, “Nigerian kings of Comedy”, “African Kings of Comedy” and “Laffs in Jamz” in 2014 after which the popular comedian re-launched his one-man comedy show which was unarguably one of the best he has done.