The name, Olatayo Amokade, might not readily ring a bell but when his nickname, Ijebu, is mentioned, people will remember the popular Yoruba comic actor who puts smiles on the faces of his fans.
In a recent interview with Saturday Beats, the actor revealed the role of his wife in his life and career as he further talked about how she sternly warned him not to ever marry another woman after becoming famous.
He said, “I have a wife and children but no girlfriends. I have a lot of female admirers but I know how to deal with them because they are my fans. I met my wife when we were both at The Polytechnic, Ibadan. I would say that my wife is my guardian angel and she is part of my success story. When we were in school, I had my internaship at Radio Lagos and I was paid about N10,000.
“Most of my friends used their money to buy shoes and clothes. My wife, who was my girlfriend at that time, told me that she needed N4,000. So I gave her the money but explained to her that I would have loved to use the N10,000 I received to buy a form and join Muyiwa Ademola’s theatre group. She returned the N4,000 to me and told me to go and get the form. It was that money that paved the way for my success today. My wife is someone who wants the best for me and she is always after my success in life.”
He continued, “When I became famous, my wife warned me not to marry another woman. Now she is used to seeing female fans around me. I am lucky that my wife is not a jealous woman. Whenever we attend an event, she is quite shy so she just goes to sit at a corner where she will not be noticed. I have never cheated on my wife and I would not lie; temptations have come my way. There is no man that would say he has never faced temptations, but men should learn how to overcome them.”
Sharing the story of how he rose to become famous, the actor said that at a point in his life, for seven years, he was responsible for carrying generators to movie sets in case there was power outage. He said he was also a chauffeur to popular actor, Sanyeri, for some years as well.
“I faced so many tough times in my life before I became famous. I was once a ‘generator man’, for about seven years. My job entailed carrying generators to movie locations in case there would be outage.
“I did that for about seven years. I also chauffeured Sanyeri for two years; I was more like his personal assistant during that time. I was also with Bayo Tijani (film director) for about a year and while I was there, I helped them to buy food whenever they were hungry. Before you become great in life, you need to pass through some tough times.
“All the time I was serving other people, I never knew that I would become popular; I just had a passion for the job. I was not thinking about the fame and I would have never thought in my wildest imagination that I would become this popular. Till date, Sanyeri and I have a cordial relationship,” he said.
