Ola Delights (All of the Lights)

“I don’t care if you’re offended, you’ll still find it funny!"

Various jobs allow me to make great friendships with a lot of talented people.
One being Ola the Comedian, that I first met at the Choice FM Comedy Club who ended up following me home, or because, as he says, he also lives in the same area... *side eye. Coincidently, four years later, I’m able to walk around the corner and say hi, congratulate him on becoming a fiancé and intrude on his wedding ideas! So to me, he’s just Ola, I don’t know Ola the Comedian to well, so I just had to ask...


What makes you Ola the Comedian and not just a comedian?

Good question, wow! I’m just me. I don’t wanna be ill conceived, you know me! But I’ve learnt that you have to be yourself! You could try to be someone else, but you’re always gonna be beaten doing that. No one can be you, but you!
You have to make your material stand out. Some people may think my material may come across smarter than other comedians that they’ve seen, but it depends on the individual; it depends how lively you wanna be, how controversial that you want to be, the key is finding your own unique setting.

So when did you find your own setting and thought, ‘I can do this, not as a hobby, but as a living?’
I had been doing stand up comedy for about a year; at that point, everything was going wrong for me. I failed a year at LSE, I didn’t get any of the internships that I applied for, I tried to get into investment banking and all I got from the employers is that I didn’t give them the impression that it was the field I had passion for. And they were right. What I wanted to do, is the thing I’m doing now. The final push the thought was on my 21^st birthday when I had a show, and thought, this is just a small element of what I want to do. 

 So now you’re a signed, agent- represented comedian, what’s the difference?

You can’t get gassed up on being signed, but it’s great being managed by a company established in the comedy scene that sees your talent and has as much passion as you do, and also, they’re much the wiser – they have the knowledge from working with various, and bigger clients to get me in regular, nationwide sets, whereas in stand-up comedy, you’re doing the same stages for a long time catering to the same people.

So now you’re aspiring to be more mainstream, how would you say it’s different, with regards to the way they receive your material?
Mainstream crowds are more open, they don’t like the same topics being joked about, they want to hear something different – they seem to know more about comedy. It seems that they are more about the content of comedy whether it be politics or current affairs , rather than how loud you can make the crowd roar.

The content of your comedy is acclaimed to be quite controversial, has it ever been more of an issue than what how you first thought it would be?
Not really, I always have an idea about a crowd to try and figure out how the audience may react to certain things. As a stand-up you read the crowd. But I still say it, knowing that this could be the joke that potentially ends the show for me, or the joke that looses them! I do it with the thought that they’re not going to like it or someone will be offended, so if they love it, it’s even better. So now, I don’t care, and I’ve found that when you don’t care, they find it even funnier!

Go on...

I did my joke on my views of homosexuality, based on my Christian beliefs. As it was a joke, there was some ‘funny’ in there, but kit was way too much hassle for what it was worth, because it wasn’t productive, but it was a hot topic issue, not to be taken lightly because it’s easy to be labelled as a homophobic, and that’s nothing I care to associate myself with.

When you writing, do you isolate yourself, or let it come naturally?
Normally it’s natural, but there have been a few instances of a stroke of genius when I have sat and put my head down. They may be two different points from two different days, but I can build on the potential from that.I may find something hilarious, whereas someone else thinks otherwise; it’s all about perspective and potential. Like when I saw a dude on the tube with a pint glass, which may be normal to some, but in my head I’m thinking ‘it’s 7.30pm, how much of an alcoholic are you to have your own glass on your way out?’, and I ran on that.



So you have an agent, do shows nationwide and abroad, have a DVD, what’s next?
More shows across Europe and establish myself as a headliner, rather than an opening act and maybe do more TV, more sketch writing, perhaps some comedy writing.

More TV...?
 I did the FHM talent competition on ITV4 ‘Search for a stand up hero, in which I came third and also on Kojo’s Comedy Fun House on MTV Base, and also The Jason Lewis Experience.
I haven’t done any formalised writing but have written with Jason Lewis, which is more of me giving ideas. I met him while working together in retail and learnt that we both had a passion for comedy and therefore was able to bounce ideas and views off each other – it was a meeting of the minds and he asked me to jump on board.

Any one else you’d like to work with? Top two?
Dave Chapelle and Steven Colberg

Favourite film?
Coming to America, without a doubt.  The comedy element is great, it’s timeless, and it’s a film that shows Africa in a good light. Eddie Murphy is my favourite actor. And Soul Gro its self is iconic! You know it! Everyone’s sung the song!
But why Coming to America?
Are you genuinely questioning my love for Coming to America? From the first scene where he’s in the bathroom, getting cleaned?? That right there is iconic! SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!
So if you had a once in a lifetime chance of remaking, or even changing the film in the slightest, what would you change?
Ah man.... I couldn’t! It’s art! I wouldn’t touch it! It would be almost disrespectful – it’s timeless!