- Speaks On How He Started Acting In Primary School
Kayode Olaiya, popularly known as ‘Aderupoko’, is one man whose name must be mentioned whenever the success of the Yoruba movie is being discussed. He is one of the veterans, who have immensely sacrificed and contributed to the growth of the industry, having started acting at a very tender age as a pupil. He was introduced to acting through story telling programme on television back then when there was nothing like the recorded programme, but a live display with what they called hard rehearsals then.
Even as an actor then, it never came easily as there was nothing like camera effects. And this man and other veterans as him scaled through that period as an actor and are still participating and very relevant despite the improvement in technology. Aderupoko has featured and produced uncountable films and people can’t forget his excellent delivery in flicks such as ‘Agogo Ewo’. ‘Ti Oluwa Nile’, Thunderbolt as well as many others and lately Kunle Afolayan’s movie, October 1st, where he acted Sergeant Afonja alongside Sadiq Daba. In this interview with City People’s Correspondent, DARE ADENIRAN, Aderupoko shares his very intimate story, and how acting started for him. How he met Jacob and Papalolo and many other interesting issues. Read on.
How did acting start for you, sir?
It all started a long time ago when I was in the primary school, St. Sephirian Primary School, Oluyoro Oke-Ofa, Ibadan. As it was a Catholic school that was first introduced to us in my area of Ibadan, before we started having Muslim schools But because I came from a Muslim background; my father and my mother were Muslims. So, when I got to primary three, I was taken to a Muslim school, Ratibim Primary School, Oluyoro, Oke-Ofa, Ibadan. That was where I completed my primary education; It was also during the time that I started acting because entertainment in schools then was as important as education itself. For instance, when we wanted to do send forth for the primary 6 pupils, we used to entertain them and all that. “I have been known since then because I’m also good in drumming, story-telling apart from acting, coupled with all the moonlight plays.
We migrated from the village to town, from our village, Laduntan in Ona-Ara Local Government area of Ibadan. “So, it was because I was familiar with moonlight plays, which I developed on and made good use of in my acting career at the initial stage. Ibadan was not this big back then and I used to go to location where the Government House is now situated; it was called ‘Oke’bo’ back then. The place was created for white government officials with scanty buildings; the place was more of bush, a reserved area.
I used to go there to fetch firewood and pluck mangos alongside my colleagues from the primary school then. It was during that time that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo introduced television, second, in Africa, WNTV/WNBS and there was this narrow path that passed through Oke’bo and in the front of the television station that is today called (NTA). ‘’So we were on our way from the place one day when one of the staffers of the TV station was calling us to come. We thought he wanted to accuse us for stealing mangos.
But he later asked us if we can be coming to the station to be telling fables. That time there was nothing as recording, it was live display. You could even see television sets in houses of a few persons back then, even radio. That was how I started organising pupils for the station.
Can you remember some members of your group then?
I was the leader, taking pupils of my school to the station then. It was a live programme, as television programme started by 4pm and ended by 10pm. It wasn’t a 24-hour thing that it is now. In the morning, we’ll do dry rehearsal for the producer to see and then camera rehearsal before the commencement of the real programme. And the programme was being presented in pure and clear Yoruba language, not this diluted one that people now speak; just as D.O Fagunwa’s books were written. We were given fifteen minutes for the programme then.
I did that for about three or four years. But along the line, I started seen people such as the late Hubert Ogunnde, Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola also coming to the station for their stage plays. They were about 5 then. I noticed that their own line was different from our own. They were doing pure theatre, while we were telling stories. So, I got attracted to what they were doing then and good enough I was still going to school.
After my primary school, I proceeded to Goodwill Grammar School, Adekile, Ibadan. I had become popular among the students then, owing to my featuring on the television programmes and all that. Funny enough, we were not doing it for money, it was just for personal interest and the side attractions. One of the incentives during our live programme on T.V then was that, there used to be more than enough soft drinks for us, as a kind of advertisement for the companies that supplied them.
That was part of what was always attracting the pupils to want to follow me to the station then. You know, we don’t just drink soft drinks such as Coke and Fanta any how back then, you only enjoy such things during the festive period. I could remember that they used to pay us.1 pound and it was the amount we used to share among ourselves.
On getting home, we would give the money to our parents and they would help share, but my own share used to be more than that of any other as the leader of the group. So, it was the money we were saving and using in buying school uniforms and books. And by so doing, my parents couldn’t complain about my going into theatre; they were even proud of me. Meanwhile, my father died when I was 10 years old, so it was my mum, who was financing everything, until I started making peanuts, which came as a kind of relief for her. However, as much as I loved the theatre groups, I met at the television station, I couldn’t join them because they were not based in Ibadan.
Until I saw someone, who was also into theatre, (Edunkunle Travelling Theatre), that I later joined; one man called Taiwo was our leader in the group then. They have not got the opportunity of featuring on T.V then. So, we started touring schools, but the group was later absorbed into the Television station. After we were taken on to be performing at the television station, during one of our rehearsals, Ola Omonitan aka ‘Ajimajasan’ came and saw me playing the 4-faced Konga drum, I had been playing drums right from my primary school days.
He then sought our boss’ (Edunkunle) permission to allow me to come and play for him at his theatre location. I was allowed to go and that was how I became part of Ajimajasan Group and I couldn’t go back to Edunkunle group again because I found that the Ajimajasan group was different and better. That was where I met Cecilia Olowu aka Iya Ijebu. She started spotting the long head gear that Madam Kofo now wears. That was where I met Ganiyu Alapalegbe ‘Baba Eleko’ and ‘Arikuyeri’; Tajudeen Gbadamosi {Jacob). He was my senior there, for two months. I got there two years before Papalolo, but the group boasted of matured minds who really attracted me, I mean experienced people.
‘’It wasn’t as if we started with comedy, we were doing serious drama right from time. Pa Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala) was known to be Alawada on W.N.T.V then, but then there wasn’t recording. We wanted to take theatre to many places to get more audience and to then come back home for television play would be problem. Besides, what we used to earn in travelling was more than what we earned on television plays, in terms of money, so the television people used to beg us to come back home.
So, it was only Baba Sala, who was doing comedy and once he was on tour, no one would replace him and the number of us doing serious drama were more; Duro Ladipo, Oyin Adejobi, Ayinla Olumegbon, Baba Johnbull and so forth. That was how an audition was called to draw some people from serious drama to comedy and our group and about five other groups were invited, so also was Baba Mero; Duro Ladipo, Lere Paimo was with Duro Ladipo then, as his Manager.
So, it was our group that came first, simply because we didn’t allow our play to be centred on the main character, we did it in such a way that any actor who came on stage must deliver the desired message and make people laugh and that the play must have meaning with a strong lesson, must have a beginning and a good ending.
So, whenever Baba Sala was away, we were always called upon. Baba Mero was second in line; Oga Bello and co were with Baba Mero group then. Baba Sala was named ‘Alawada’ on W.N.T.V and we were also called Alawada until Baba Sala came back from tour one day and told us that he had already registered the ‘Alawada trademark’, that we should desist from bearing it. They now called our own ‘Awada’ and when they absorbed Baba Mero group into the W.N.T.V station, they added ‘Keri Keri’ to it that was how it was called ‘Awada Keri Keri’, because we had also registered our own Awada trademark.
But out of your group, three of you were the most popular. You, Papalolo and Jacob. What explains this sir?
We were still with Ola Omonitan then because we worked with him for good ten years before we went our separate ways, to form our own group.
How many of you left Ola Omonitan to form the group then?
Myself, Jacob and Papalolo, we were the three who left the group to form Jesters international in 1980. Meanwhile, before we left, King Sunny Ade was our mentor; we were recording in the same company. So, he was the one, who introduced side attractions to his live performance on stage, by incorporating our group into his band. We were still with Ajimajasan then. Though, he (Ajimajasan) didn’t believe it was sensible enough for us to be making people laugh on stage initially until Chief Yinka Esho, whom we were recording for, being a close friend of KSA, added his voice that if he didn’t believe in it, he should allow us to do it. That was how we started live comedy on stage with KSA.
About that time, in 1976, KSA travelled to America and people came up with the rumour that he was electrocuted, he had run mad and all that. So we carved wood in form of guitar and started changing Sunny’s songs to our own funny ways. Fortunately, for us, the audience really liked it, to the extent that they started spraying us money. So our leaders Yinka Esho and Ola Omonitan, who followed us to the shows turned out to be the ones packing the money, but being on Sunny Ade’s stage was our joy then, the money meant nothing to us. Even with the fact that Sunny was paying for our booking and with money we normally realise on stage, everything would be packed by our ogas. And when we didn’t have children or wife, we saw no big deal in that.
We subsequently went on several tours with Sunny Ade, unknown to us that we were preparing for something huge ahead. With Sunny Ade, we were able to gather more experience on the job as an axiom says; “that travelling is party of education.”
But in 1980, we decided to stand on our won by forming Jesters International, after spending nine years with Ola Omonitan and that was what brought about Jacob, Aderupoko and Papalolo and Jesters International.
That was how we started doing our own recordings. We did ‘Jacob is Ku’, ‘Soldier Kekere’ etc. We waxed up to seven audio records before Jacob died in February 22, 1987. After his death, we wanted to continue with the group, but after two years Papalolo stepped down from active theatre; that was how I was left alone with the boys. Meanwhile, about that time, all the television stations that used to collect our programmes as government stopped voting budget to them, telling them to start looking for sponsors. So, all the money they used to pay us stopped. We were asked to be looking for sponsors too.
Tell us some of the films you did when recording started in the industry?.
They are many, we did ‘Kutelu’, ‘Service Madam’, ‘Oko Alhaja’ etc, you know they were series then.
So, out of all these films, which one would you say really shot you into the limelight?
The one I would say brought the fame was Jacob is Ku. It was so funny and well accepted by our fans home and abroad. We did an audio record of it and some people even thought it was the play that killed Jacob. But it was not so because Jacob died seven years after we did the film and many others. It has nothing to do with his death. Maybe because it was related to what happened in the film.
How easy or difficult was it for you to have adjusted when home video came on board?
The beauty of it was that the development met us on the job. We have been there and we were sitting on our box, so as the technology was improving, we were growing too. It was easier for people like me to have adjusted because of the experience we had gathered in the industry.
Which caucus did you join after Jacob’s death, and Papilolo’s exit?
Yes, there were caucuses back then especially when stage play started going out of fashion and home video came. It was Ade Love that first shot home video that invited all of us back then; he did ‘Ajani Ogun’. We also participated in ‘Bisi, Daughter of the River’ later and that was done by another actor I can’t remember his name now.
That was when we started having experience of what the home video is like, but not many could afford it. It was celluloid then, it wasn’t VCD. It was something they take abroad to produce after shooting. I can’t say I belong to any caucus, but I was always invited for participation in films as it is now. There are many of our group members who were doing well now; Tope Alabi, singing Gospel now was part of the group. Dr. Bayonle, he is now working at Radio Nigeria and many others.
How does it make you feel when you remember your days in the time of stage play and now the home video? What is the success story like for you?
I thank God for the grace because He said He will be merciful to those He will be merciful upon, I am one of those He has been merciful on
You are also blessed with talent and good delivery, as you did in Kunle Afolayan’s movie ‘October 1st’. Where do you normally derive your inspiration from?
I am an artiste with special gift from God. It has been part and parcel of me, having started at the early stage of my life. It is not a matter of going to the university to study drama, it is an inborn thing.
Has there ever been a time you felt like quitting drama?
Bad days are more than good days, but in all, I thank God. I thank God that even with the challenges one has encountered in life and on this job, I am still relevant.
What do you think is making you still relevant in the industry?
There is nothing than the fact that I’m not a lazy man on the job. I always put in my best in whatever I lay my hands on, no matter how small and I don’t disappoint.
Tell us some of the films you have produced on your own?
I don’t release film anyhow and I have done several. I did ‘Ilekun Asiri’, ‘Oko Alhaja’, ‘Ayorunbo’, ‘Layipo’ and many others.
If Aderupoko is not an actor what would you have become?
‘’Many people don’t really know that I am a trained tailor’’. I learnt fashion designing after my secondary education. All the costumes we were using on stage and on location right from the time I was with Ola Omonitan ‘Ajimajasan’ were designed by me. I still sew all my clothes by myself because I have my own tailoring shop. I have also trained more than eight apprentices on the job.
Where did you learn tailoring from?
I was trained under Pa Lawrence of the blessed memory in Ibadan here, at Methodist, Agodi-Gate. That was after my secondary school because I couldn’t go further to the higher institution. All other education knowledge I have got are self taught and the fact that I relate with educated fellows such as Kola Oyewo and co.
Which one do you like most among the films you have produced or participated in?
I love all my films because I always put in my best in whatever I’m doing as I told you. I like Mainframe works, especially ‘Ti Oluwa Nile’, where I acted as Motuary Attendnat. I love ‘Saworo Ide’, ‘Agogo Ewo’, ‘Thunderboalt’ etc.
Is there any difference between Aderupoko an actor and Aderupoko in real life?
This is Kayode Olaiya popularly known as Aderupoko speaking with you. The character Aderupoko is quite different from Kayode Olaiya. Some believe Kayode Olaiya as Aderupoko in films is gentle, funny and sometimes brainless. But Kayode Olaiya in real life is cool, accommodating, a caring father, but at same time a no-nonsense man. Who doesn’t want to be cheated because he doesn’t cheat others. He believes all the things of life are vanity upon vanity, a very contended person.
