Comedian, model and actor, Mac-Ake Todum, popularly known as Boma, has been in professional entertainment business since 2005. He has anchored many events, acted in major productions, including Tinsel and Everyday People, appeared in commercials for Etisalat and was one of the celebrity judges of Fanz Championship Africa Season 4.
But are his plans geared towards taking over the industry, especially the comedy sector, which is his forte?
“Well, the truth is me, myself and I as Boma, I don’t plan to take over anywhere, I just want to take over my own space. You know, for instance, why I may not be too much out there is because I have my own plans and I have my own strategies. It’s now I want to do mainstream, but the industry players know me. Clients know me. Event companies know me. But at a point, I just felt with my plan, let me just gather some grassroots fan base from weddings, corporate bodies. So, this is now the time to come out to the mainstream, because I didn’t want a situation where I come out to the mainstream and the fame will be more than the fortune. Right now, when some other comedians see me, they don’t believe the way I look, what I drive. Everything is from comedy because I’m not so popular in quote, but I’ve been building the foundation. So, right now, I can stand on top of the roof and say I won’t fall any time soon,” he says.
Boma had to practically search his memory to choose which of his performances has been his most fulfilling, so far.
He recalls, “Can I remember the year right now? I don’t think I can, but then Goodluck Jonathan was vice president and there’s this his close pal, brother, elder brother kind of person from Bayelsa. He’s a King, A.J. Turner, and his daughter was getting married. So, it was more like a political convergence with senators and other VIPs. And we were just three entertainers on ground. Obviously, it was Aso Rock MCs and suchlike and we just came in as stand-up comedians and it was myself, Sim Card and Timi Dakolo. Then he just won the West Africa Idols.
“I started off as Sim Card Junior. I was his boy; so he was my oga at the top, and Timi Dakolo was the rave of the moment. So, I was even checking myself that can I really meet up, but I stole the show. It was good, and that was the first time my dad and mum sat down and watched me. Initially, they were like you’re going to Abuja, too, for this wedding, I was like yes, I went to see them in their hotel, obviously my own hotel was better than the one they put them. So, when I told my dad my hotel, he was like ‘Wow this thing is paying oh.’ My dad was always against you travelling from Ibadan to Port Harcourt to anchor a wedding. How much are they paying, stop risking your life, and then for the first time he was like ‘Ok, I see reasons why you make those travels and why you don’t disturb me too much for money.’”
Boma is, however, of the view that of all the entertainment genre, music is the most accepted by Nigerians.
“Well, basically in entertainment, music is the biggest. I can, with my personal knowledge and observations, confidently tell you that acting and comedy put together are not up to music. Musicians get paid more than actors and comedians. I don’t think Olamide is paid less than N8million to N10million. And P-Square and 2face have been above that range for so long now,” he says.
Asked if he’s married, Boma claims he doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet. “I don’t even have the bae yet. I don’t know if I’m searching, but I’m single,” he says jocularly.
Pressed further on why he’s finding it difficult to get married, he smiled, saying in an admixture of pidgin and Queen’s English, “No, I go marry oh, because I like children. But the deal is, inasmuch as I’m not directly searching, searching, searching, I’ll still tell you the truth. It’s difficult.”
But while admitting that women make advances at him, he adds, “We call them groupies. They don’t really like you as an individual. They like you for what you do, for the spotlight. They just want to take pictures with celebrities. They’re ready to give you everything that makes you feel like they are your girlfriend. They’re ready to tell you the ‘I love you’ word, but the day you begin to date them, probably marry, and you’re no longer a celebrity to them, because you guys are now one, they lose it and head on to the next one. That’s why a lot of celebrity marriages don’t last. There’s this lady, when I was in The Next Movie Star, and it’s the most useful advice I’ve got from a celebrity, a bigger entertainer, Foluke Daramola. She said, ‘Don’t marry your fan, as an entertainer.’ She cited the example of her own crashed marriage. Because the day you marry your fan, the person will be your fan until your wedding. After marriage, you guys are now one. So, it was your entertainment flair that attracted the person.
I’m struggling not to marry my fan, but with the nature of my business, I get to meet people who are around entertainment, and it’s a fight not to get close, no matter how beautiful they are, except that one that really proves a point
“Just as a comedian, by the time you’re married, your wife probably must have heard all the jokes at home. So, even if she’s watching your show, she’s not laughing. So, she’s no longer your fan that she was. So, I’ll say it’s hard, because I’m struggling not to marry my fan, but with the nature of my business, I get to meet people who are around entertainment, and it’s a fight not to get close no matter how beautiful they are, except that one that really proves a point. Like I have a friend, he’s a colleague, I’ll withhold his name. His wife doesn’t even know Wizkid. So, that’s the best an entertainer can marry and I look forward to having that kind of a wife. And then again, I’m still open, because it doesn’t mean you can’t find a woman in entertainment that can be responsible. I look up to people like Timi Dakolo, when it comes to marriage. Some will say don’t bring your marriage to social media. But he does it. Obviously they have their odds. But so far so good, you don’t need rocket science to know that they’re having a beautiful life.”
Asked what inspires him as a comedian, Boma says, “Well, I don’t know really because it’s inborn. It just started, like I got the name Boma when I was five years old. My aunty just came back from America when I was five, and at five, I could engage her, I could engage adults. I just talked and then there was a famous radio broadcaster in Rivers then, Boma. So, they were like, this kid is Boma. You know because I wasn’t just making noise, I was actually talking to make sense.”
