By Tolulope Atanniyi and Itunu Adeniyi

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Comedy skit is a very short play or performance usually meant for comic purposes.

Skit making has become a thriving industry in Nigeria, Some of the top notch in the industry are Mr funny a.k.a Sabinus, Mr Macaroni, Broda Shaggi, Taaooma, Oluwadollarz, Brain-jotter and the likes.

The skit-making industry in Nigeria has grown into a full fledged industry of its own and is turning out to be like the new oil market for comedians. The skit making industry has gained prominence and comedians no longer need to draw a large crowd to a stadium to make money, or entertain them.

Nigerian skit makers make money through various channels like You Tube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, endorsement deals, promotions and steaming platforms where they make a lot of money in dollars before converting them to naira.

In 2021, Tech company Plaqad revealed that the skit industry in Nigeria paid over $300,000 which is N125million when converted to Nigeria currency to influencers in two years.

Muhammed Meekail popularly know as paladin Ika during a chat with The Hope said he started making skits in 2018._ During that period people told him that his actions, words and doings were funny. So when he discovered people laughed and got entertained with most things he said or did or do, so he decided to start making skit of jokes and comedy and chose it as a career.

“For now, I can’t say I’m earning much money in making comedy skit, I’m still doing it for recognition, fame and to entertain people/’ he added

He further narrated some challenges that got him depressed and frustrated.

Starting from the lack of funds to make content skit with quality edit/ to money for promoting his skits on social media and other channels.

He said he has a YouTube channel paladin Ika which is purposely created for his comedy skits but no sponsorship only few people support him. The comedian said people do not really promote his talent even if they enjoy it and were entertained. He said it may be due to jealousy or seeing him getting bigger.

M.K Paladin also opened up on one of the major challenges he is facing in the industry which is location. “No permitted location in my area for shooting videos which is a big turn off for me when about to make new contents.”

He further explained that sometimes there are some suitable locations that befit the setting of the skit production but won’t have access to them for the shooting while other people demand for money to release their available location.

Isaac Junior Abah, popularly known as Shy Boy, an upcoming skit maker during an interview with The hope defined comedy skit as his preferred profession, a good career to work on because his intentions were to make people laugh and happy as a free person. He is determined to let everyone know how much talent he possesses in that aspect and ease the heart of people filled with burden at that particular moment so everybody loves him for that.

He explained when he started with his friends years back , during the last presidential election in the hostel/ it all started like a joke because everybody had gone back home…. then he was left with few of his friends in the hostel. They were idle doing nothing at the exact moment when he decided to bring on a joke starting from the motivation and courage to put more effort in doing it.

Shy Boy described skit comedy as a very lucrative job for example some people might need to run adverts for a particular product, you negotiate with them on price or maybe assigned commission and after the skit production. People will be able to get the advertisement from the products or message passed through the contents.

The skit maker also stated the challenges in terms of likes, views, shares and comments. It’s a thing of joy as a comedian to see people watch your skit production, when you have numerous likes from people and got over hundreds or thousands of viewers watching your videos, many people will love your work and introduce you to their friends. From there, your video starts going viral Then you start becoming famous.

Femi Faj a.k.a Faj during an interview with The Hope said “I have been doing this from a very young age. It is one of the toughest things to bring smile on people’s face despite their mood swing when watching it. That’s why it is a bit more difficult than the normal acting, it’s a big thing to make someone that is angry or not in a good mood to smile and be happy. In acting, you can actually have two or three scenes as normal role to pass message across to viewers while in comedy it’s based mainly on laughter, fun and vibes”

“It all started with a church drama, where I was given a comic role to play. I was cheered by the audience and received some complimentary remarks. From there, I felt so amazed and proud of myself, that influenced me to go into skit making and build on it.

Faj said there have been lots of challenges he was facing in skit making, because one needs to be consistent. “It is not easy promoting your videos, you need to be financially stable which is the main problem because you need enough money to push your work to make the video go viral.”

Atanniyi and Adeniyi are interns with The Hope from Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko