Tunde Aluko is a respected voice and key player in the Nigerian entertainment industry with special focus and passion for comedy.

With over two decades of experience in the industry, Tunde sheds light on the inner workings and how the pandemic impacted the business. 

Speaking on the effects of the pandemic on the industry, he said, ‘I am certain nobody in the world younger than 70 years old thought of a pandemic in the actual meaning of pandemic. We had ebola and it was curtailed quickly; it didn’t go beyond a few African countries and in the countries affected by Ebola, only a few cities were affected. So when Coronavirus started, nobody thought it would cripple the world economy as it did and have us all completely locked down and locked in’. 

He spoke on how the industry operated before the pandemic hit, saying, ‘the previous year, 2019 was a good year, having worked for a few years in partnerships and providing allied services for different events and productions.  Toward the end of 2018 I had set out to go solo and start my own production company, so when we rolled out by December 2018, some of the new acts coming to mainstream comedy entrusted us with their full production for 2019. It was so good that on one occasion, we produced and worked on three different shows in a single day: two in Lagos and one in Ibadan on the same night. Thus, we were hopeful and certain 2020 was going to be bigger. In fact, we had started promotions for Forever Funny (the third in the series), the venue booked; then covid happened and we were introduced to the word  “Lockdown”.’

On how comedians coped during the lockdown, Aluko said, ‘the impact of covid and the lockdown cannot be quantified. Between March and August, there was almost no event anywhere across the country till certain states gradually opened up. No one person can speak for all comedians, but when you consider that the entertainment industry was basically shut down for a year in Lagos, you can then imagine what it meant in terms of lost revenue. Again, smart comedians had to innovate and rely on technology to reach their audiences’.

He then advised the industry and comedians generally to be global in their approach to their craft. In his words, ‘nothing is guaranteed and we should work on producing for the global stage. That is, create excellent local content with export in mind. I think the world as it is now will never go back to the way it was pre-covid. We are adapting to this new normal and now we are producing content for the global audience. Kenny Blaq already worked on a special on Netflix. Basketmouth also has a deal with Comedy Central. Everyone producing a standup show now in Nigeria is working on better content, better cameras, proper lighting and the best possible audio so your content will compete with any content produced anywhere else in the world.’