Nigerian comic actor Tokunbo Malvins has recounted the hardships and struggles he endured at the beginning of his acting career.
The actor, during a recent interview on Oyinmomo TV, revealed that he left his father in 1991 to pursue a career in acting, starting with stage performances at various ceremonies alongside a travelling theatre group.
He said that despite performing tirelessly at different events, the group earned nothing in return, which led him to sleep in a burial ground for six years.
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The film star added that during the period, he was squatting with six other apprentices in cramped quarters, but even that space came with conditions that pushed him to unimaginable lengths.
“I slept on the burial ground for six (years). It was the house where I was living when I was learning about travelling theatre. The burial ground was directly behind the burial ground of the landlord named Alhaji Toriola,” he said.
“The room was small. I only kept my luggage in the room. I stole a woven cloth at a movie location. It was the cloth I would spread on the burial ground to sleep on. Any time the door was locked, it meant I would be sleeping in the burial ground. That was how I slept for six years.
“From there, I graduated to the passage. There was a woman who always warned us not to sleep in the passage. Anytime we refused to listen to her, she would intentionally pour urine on us.”
The comic actor revealed that his breakthrough finally came when he met Gbenga Adewusi, CEO of Bayowa Films, who gave him his first television compere gig at LTV 8.
It was that appearance, he said, that brought him into the public eye and set him on the path to recognition as a comic actor.
