His story runs like a novel. From hawking bread and pure water to make ends meet, to cracking the ribs of the high and the mighty in the society and earning millions of Naira for making others laugh, Adebayo Ajiboye a.k.a Holy Mallam has seen it all.
Why did you choose to be called Holy Mallam?
When I started comedy thirteen years ago, I had conventional names like Mallam Audi, Mallam this and that. At a point, I felt it was necessary for me to have a unique name that would attract attention. But I still wanted to retain Mallam because I started with Hausa intonation. When I started my career in comedy, there were a lot of my colleagues who were exploring different intonations; Warri-pidgin, English-comedy but I was not part of the trend. This is because I don’t like things that are common. That is why when they organise their shows, I hardly attend them. I thought I should brand myself by adopting Hausa intonation. I was inspired by people like Tunde Sawyer who played an Alhaji in “Sunny side of Life” in the 1980s. I was also inspired by people like Patrick Itoye.
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