Environment determines my joke – MC Thuraya

By Bamidele Kolawole
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A Nigerian Comedian and Master of Ceremony, Oluwaseun Samuel Idowu, popularly known as Mc Thuraya, has said that any environment he found himself determines his kind of jokes, based on what he sees.

According to him, just like Thuraya phone never found it difficult to get network anywhere it finds itself, he flows anytime he is in the midst of people.

Thuraya who made the assertions during an interview with Friday Extravaganza noted, that he ventured into comedy and MC when he was in secondary school and chose it as his career since then.

The graduate of Economics of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko in Ondo State noted that he inherited the job from his grandfather because he was very funny while alive.

 He stated that he has been anchoring events since he was in secondary school but professionally for about 18 years now.

“The whole thing started when I was in secondary school, then, when I talked in class or anywhere, people there would just be laughing even when what I said was not funny to me.”

The same scenario usually played up whenever I was at home, but one day, a girl in my secondary school was celebrating her birthday, I and my classmates were invited, on getting there, the MC for the day came late and my school mates unanimously asked me to stand in for him, it was a unanimous decision by all the guests and I took the courage of taking the task and to my surprise, the whole event was taken to another planet with laughter and at the end of the event, everybody was just asking me if I have been doing MC and comedy before and I replied them by saying.” This is my first time.”

“Since then, everybody in my school and area started inviting me to anchor their ceremonies and my stage name then was Malaga which was later changed to H.O.D, until I gained admission to the University and I changed it to Mc Thuraya.”

“At the early stage of my career, my father was against it, but when he saw Governors inviting me to anchor their occasions, he started giving me every support I needed to grow in the business before he died.”

Thuraya who hails from Ilutitun, in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, but born and brought up in Lagos State and still lives in Lagos, said that his style of comedy is not written down jokes or cooked joke for booked events but pure spontaneous jokes.

He mentioned some of the challenges he has faced since he has been in the business to include a situation whereby his senior or junior comedian will copy his joke and whenever he, the original owner cracks it at an event, people will say he is copying other comedians.

According to him, many comedians cannot sit down and think of funny things, but whenever they are fortunate to be in a place where good comedians dropped funny jokes, they will start saying it, that will not make people know the original owner.

According to him, his mission is to take people out of their worries and to impact knowledge through his comedy.

He urged upcoming comedians to be creative and to know that life is a gradual process, saying they should wait for their time.

Thuraya stated that everybody has his or her own time adding that, all they need to do is to work hard anytime their service is needed at any particular place.

He noted that he has been able to visit 16 states in Nigeria and four African countries, hoping to visit United Kingdom this year.

According to him, “I thank God for the kind of woman I married in view of her understanding and the wisdom God gave her to know my job and the things that revolves around it.”

He noted that whenever he is at home, he gives his family all the necessary attention they need to see him as a responsible father and husband to his wife saying whenever he is at work, he does his job without allowing anything to distract him.

Thuraya mentioned Basket mouth as his mentor saying he like his style of comedy and his achievements in the industry.