Summary
Overview
Comedian Babatunde Adeshe joins the Mile Fly Club to discuss his journey from East London comedy circuits to primetime TV success. He shares hilarious stories from I'm A Celebrity (including confrontations with Matt Hancock), terrifying experiences filming Dangerous Roads in Zambia, his close friendship with Mo Gilligan, and his upcoming High Expectations Tour. The conversation covers his travel adventures, family life, and how Nigerian culture has influenced his comedy.
Early Comedy Career and Breaking Into the Industry
Babatunde traces his comedy roots back to being the class clown in school, inspired by Eddie Murphy. At 17, he started writing jokes intensely and got his first gig through an unexpected connection—Dipsy from the Teletubbies, who was also his first manager. He explains the crucial difference between being a joker with good banter and being a structured comedian who can perform on stage.
- Started as class clown in school, inspired by Eddie Murphy to pursue comedy professionally
- At 17 in college, joke writing became intense and consumed him
- Got first gig at Croydon Library through John Simmet (Dipsy from Teletubbies) who became his manager
- Distinguishes between being funny in conversation versus performing structured comedy on stage
" I was always the class clown in school. So that was my thing. After watching Eddie Murphy at a young age, I was just like, man, that's what I want to do. "
" When people meet me and we're just talking, they're like oh you know I thought you'd be telling jokes like every minute and I'm like nah I'm a normal person right but when I get up on stage it's different. "
Family Life, Travel Preferences, and Work-Life Balance
Babatunde shares insights into traveling with his family, including why they prefer Barbados over Jamaica (where his wife is from) for holidays. He discusses the challenges of flying with young children who now expect business class, and the struggle of maintaining work-life balance as a father and husband. He's candid about therapy, personal growth, and the guilt of choosing work over family time while recognizing the necessity of both.
- Family loves Barbados for peaceful holidays without family obligations that come with visiting Jamaica
- Flies business class with kids but concerned about son getting too comfortable at age 8
- Recently went to Crete with wife for her birthday, adult-only hotel with no beach but loved it
- Starting therapy and focusing on health to be best version of himself as husband and father
- Struggles with balance between family time and work, experiences guilt when leaving wife with two kids
- Creates equal space for wife to pursue her business coaching independent travel agents
" My son got on the flight and he went and I went what are you doing Rocco and he went, the seat doesn't lie down and I was like, are you for real. "
" The feeling of having to say to my wife I gotta go and she's with the two children and I'm like I gotta go now and I could see she clearly needs me but I'm like, if I don't do this, we won't be eating. "
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