Thread by @nke_ise

In today's edition of "Anything can happen"
Had to hail an early morning ride to San Francisco yesterday. As the Indian driver and I discussed our backgrounds, power bikes, rent in the Bay area etc. Suddenly he turned to me and asked:
“You are Nigerian right?”
#thread

“Yes, “ I said, expecting the usual follow ons, like questions around the security/economic situation or him recalling a Nigerian roommate/classmate from way back.
“Do you know Mark Enji kimidi?”
“Who?”
“Mark Enji kimidi”
“Errr….”

“That guy Mark Enji, with that little girl , very funny!”
Then it hit me. I had allowed myself to be caught off guard with his thick Indian accent, having caused others the same with my thick igbo accent, i could not fault him.
“Ooooooh!!!! You mean Mark Angel Comedy!!!???”

“Yes!!!, and Emmanuella, very funny people, I love them!!!”
I gotta say.. I never saw that one coming.
For those who do not know ,@markangelcomedy is an online Nigerian, low budget comedy series that features Mark Angel, his witty niece Emmanuella and her friends.

While Mark Angel & crew are well known in Nigeria and amongst the Nigerian diaspora, thanks to @facebook , @YouTube and @WhatsApp . I never in my wildest imagination thought that I would be discussing them with an Indian driver in rush hour traffic on my ride to San Francisco.

He told me how he subscribed to all their videos, how they dropped two new videos every week, how their brand of comedy was unique and a few Indian acts were even beginning to borrow their style.

Next thing I knew, with few taps on his phone (same one he used for nav), he whipped it into widescreen mode and next thing I knew, we were watching Mark Angel on YouTube complete with the bluetooth connected audio as we rode on. It was like being in a mini cinema.

A risky move i know, but in that moment I cared little, I was just fascinated looking at this guy laughing his head off for 20+ mins as he struggled to keep his eyes off the phone screen as we watched skit after skit.

Besides with the slow traffic the main thing he was risking was his insurance premium
A number of thoughts passed through my head.
I had never been so happy to see a pre-roll ad play, its different when you know that those ad dollars would be going to someone back home.

I also now understood why Mark Angel and his team made sure to use subtitles and follow all those best practices. It was great to see them paying off!
The last thought occurred to me when we parted ways as our ride came to an end and we shook hands and wished each other well.

It was clear that we had shared a special connection in those 15- 20 mins and the thought that came to me then is that laughter and love are a universal language, if you can find any of the two , you can never be alone anywhere in the world.

Thank you @markangelcomedy and team for helping to remind me of this.