‘I’ve been doing comedy 20 years and now I’m the newcomer – thanks to BGT’
Kojo Anim, the Britain’s Got Talent comedy star, is coming to Derby and Loughborough. We caught up with him for a chat about his 22-date UK tour
How has life been since the final of Britain’s Got Talent back in June?
Life is great – it’s all kicking off since the show, I mean… I’m going on a UK tour!
Tell us a bit about your background?
I was raised in Hackney, East London. My parents are from Ghana, and they got into a bit of trouble, so, from the age of five I was in foster care until about 16. I had an amazing experience of foster care. My foster family were from Guyana and Grenada, and I was with them the whole time. I was never moved around, which is brilliant, and a big part of what I want to share about having been a foster child – it’s important for both foster carers and the children to hear that message; foster care is not always a temporary thing.
It’s great to hear a positive experience of foster care. Are you still close to your foster family?
My foster mother, Aunty Sandra, she’s the main person in my life that I had a strong relationship with, and I still see her regularly now. She’s the first person I tell anything. My parents are in and out; we have good times and bad, but that’s all in a good place at the moment too. We’re all happy. With being a dad now, it’s important for me that those things are ironed out, for Roman’s sake. I’m big on energy, and I don’t want negative energy in his life. He is my priority, for him to be a happy boy – and he is.
When did you realise you were funny?
I’d always been entertaining my family and friends. I was witty and quick with a response; in school, if I got in trouble, it was what I said not what I had done. I had an answer for everything. Comedy happened almost by accident. My first love was always football,
but I had terrible discipline as a footballer. I was selected for a school of excellence with some of the best young players in England, on a course to study and play football. I was selected, but I had a terrible attitude about being on time, etc., and relied on being very talented. But it didn’t work out. I learned a big lesson in hindsight, and it turned out to be a blessing. Missing that opportunity to change my life, the pain I felt when it ended, that kept me disciplined when I found comedy. I would never let an opportunity ever slip through my hands again.
You were “discovered” on Britain’s Got Talent, but you’d already been working on the comedy circuit for 20 years. How did you turn that natural ability into a career?
So, yes, I’ve been doing comedy 20 years, and now I’m the newcomer – thanks to BGT. Twenty years in a nutshell… I was doing talent shows at university, and had the chance to go to comedy school, so I borrowed £150 from my Aunty Sandra – I’ve more than paid her back now. After that I did a lot of university comedy gigs and built up a fan base. From that, I was able to set up Kojo’s Comedy Fun House, which ran every Sunday for eight years, with 300 people queueing up outside each week, packing it to the rafters and coming along week after week. I came from a partying background, so would invite celebrities to the comedy shows, as well as hosting exciting new comedians and DJs, so it became somewhere people wanted to be. What really made it big though was when David Chapelle was in town and heard about the club. I called someone who had seen him and got them to put him on the phone. He just came down and performed. “Going viral” wasn’t even a thing at the time, but that’s kind of what happened. People started talking about the Fun House.
Alongside stand up – you’ve worked in TV, made a film, done radio,,. tell us about all that…
On the back of the Fun House, MTV Base got in touch, wanting to film the Fresh Prince Of Hackney, a take on the Will Smith show – when he was kind of fostered by his relatives in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. That was my first national exposure, and led to radio bookings – I did the Choice FM Breakfast Show, which is now Capital Xtra. I started writing too. I made a film called The Weekend on an absolute shoestring budget and with a lot of new talents involved. And it got picked up by Netflix.
Before BGT, you were almost better known in America than here in the UK. How was that?
I’d met Nick Cannon through friends, who at the time was still married to Mariah Carey – how crazy is that?, and he was bringing a big improv show Wild N Out back to American TV and wanted to include some UK talent. I leapt at the chance.
So what made you audition for BGT?
I was approached by BGT, they’d seen some videos online – although I didn’t actually know it was BGT at the time. I decided “Why not?”. I’d always said it wasn’t for me, I didn’t think it was credible. But, when I discussed it with my fiancée, she said the fact they’d had to find me as an “unknown” meant they didn’t know me – so I had nothing to lose.
What was it like preparing for that first audition?
I didn’t just plan for the first audition, I planned my acts for every round from the first audition to the final. I had 20 years of material, so why not? I just had to decide which way round to use it, and to get my head straight about what was to come. As I gradually went through each phase, I realised what the opportunity was actually going to mean to me. OK, it’s Britain’s Got Talent – but I didn’t realise the world would be watching online. I know people in the comedy industry were saying “Why is he doing it?”, but people across the country didn’t know me. I had to be able to look at my son and know I had taken the chance, taken that massive leap of faith.
How did it feel to get Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer when he famously hates comedians on BGT?
I was so nervous. The judges genuinely do not know what’s coming next as you walk out; it’s a conveyor belt of talent. Simon had given two comedians on before me absolute hell that day. My plan was that I wanted Amanda Holden and David Walliams’ approval. Alesha Dixon had seen me at gigs, so I hoped she’d be on side. I’d actually written Simon Cowell off, as I knew I only needed three of them to back me. It was the very first day of filming, and – to add to the madness – Simon had never pressed his golden buzzer on day one. So when it happened, everyone was so shocked; day one and a comedian!
How’s it been since the show?
Absolutely life-changing. My dad was in Ghana and it came up on the news. I didn’t leave the house for four days after the golden buzzer audition was on TV; I had so many messages on my phone and everywhere I went, people were giving me their love and support. All the work during those 20 years had been gearing up to it, and that’s made it all a bit easier to cope with. It’s crazy, and has all been at the same time as adjusting to life as a first-time dad. Roman’s oblivious to it, but we’re capturing it all on our phones and it’s amazing that he’s been on the journey with us.
How do you feel ahead of the tour?
Touring nationally is a dream come true and the hard work is happening. We are working on the material, there’s definitely going to be a look at fatherhood – looking at what goes through a man’s mind as a new dad, as well as asking some kind of serious questions, like “Will I end up looking like my parents, will my child end up in the same situation as me?”
■ Kojo Anim plays Loughborough Town Hall on Saturday, February 8. Tickets: loughboroughtownhall.co.uk, 01509 231914, £21, and Derby Theatre, Sunday, February 23. Tickets: derbytheatre.co.uk/whatson, 01332 59 39 39, £20.