Babatúndé Aléshé panicked and quit his first Bushtucker Trial just seconds into the challenge, and he also used to regularly get “scared” at work and talk himself out of performing numerous stand-up comedy gigs.
The Celebrity Gogglebox star, 34, has told how anxiety affected his early stand-up career, during which he backed out of several shows because he feared gig-goers wouldn’t find him funny.
Asked if he ever worried if he would receive racial abuse at comedy gigs, he said: “No, I never thought that anyone would try to abuse me, but I thought they might not find me funny. I was scared. I talked myself out of a lot of gigs because of that.
“I was just like, ‘Man, they’re going to think I’m crap.’ I didn’t know where that came from until I really started doing more and more gigs.
“Finding out that, actually, the mainstream crowds are the best crowds.
“They just want you to come with funny. They don’t care about black, white, this or that. ‘Tell us a joke that’s funny, be smart with it.’ Even if you’re not too smart, [they want to know] what’s funny about you.
“All this black, black, black stuff - they really don’t care. That’s why I love mainstream crowds.”
Babatúndé - who previously worked for Transport for London (TfL) before finding fame as a comedian - appears on Channel 4 ’s Celebrity Gogglebox alongside fellow comedian Mo Gilligan, 34, and he credits his good pal with saving his comedy career and changing his life.
He told That Josh James Show podcast: “I remember when Mo was building up his name, when he started going on [The] Big Narstie [Show] I was still working for TfL in the office, replying to customers. I sat there and they had just split up my team, so all my good, good friends had gone to other departments.
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“I was there by myself and thinking about the success Mo was having and thinking, ‘Am I never going to make it? Is this me for the rest of my life?’.
“I sat there and a week later Mo was like, ‘Come on my podcast, let’s have a chat.’ At this point I had stopped doing comedy. Then he asked me to do his tour. From that day, life changed. Crazy.
“He hates it because I thank him all the time. Just out of nowhere I will just call him and he’ll be like, ‘How you doing brother?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I just want to say thank you.’
“He’ll be like, ‘Get off my phone man,’ because he’s tired of me saying that. But I really am grateful. Things have changed for the better. They like to call me ‘Mo’s friend,’ but I don’t mind. He’s such a good person.”
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