Comedian Teju Babyface has revealed he was offered a paltry $50 to MC an event in the United States.
The king of talk, as he is widely known, told QEDNG publisher Olumide Iyanda in a recent interview that the earliest days of his relocation to the US with his family was a “humbling experience”.
He said, “In the bid to make money, you get insulted in subtle ways and not so subtle ways. People assume that for you to have come to the United States it must mean that you’re finished. So Nigerians here offer you MC gigs $200. Somebody once offered me $50, she wanted me to come and MC a party.
“So it is a humbling experience and then they tell you ‘Well we have another MC we are going to use but somebody mentioned that Teju Babyface is here now. So since he’s here he should be able to do it. We have our own MC and our budget is $50 but because it’s you we’ll give $150.’ These things happen, it wasn’t easy.”
The talk show host and now podcaster added, “But the way to the promised land was never going to be easy anyway. Like I said in the beginning, part of the end product of all of that is that we’re now in the era where I am podcasting which is the way that I should actually have gone but I would never have come to that decision if I never left Nigeria and gone through that period.”
He said he would have been tempted to seek employment in the US “when the days were dark” but his extraordinary ability visa did not allow him.
The 45-year-old earlier said he returned to Nigeria to restart the popular Teju Babyface Show but realised that podcasting was a no-brainer as it would require less work to get the same or even better results.
