My ex-wife was too suspicious of my career - Funky Mallam

Comic actor, Saheed Mohammed popularly known as Funky Mallam, tells
The Punch what led to the collapse of his marriage in a recent chance
encounter.

Saheed Abubakar a.k.a Funky Malam, an otherwise reserved entertainer
opened up for the first time about his failed marriage and the
circumstances that led to his divorcing his wife in 2012.

While not many of his fans are aware of the fact that he was once
married, how much more a divorcee, the Aminu Kano University, Mass
Communication graduate tells E-Punch, that he is currently taking
things in his stride.

Narrating what transpired between his former wife and himself, he
says, " I was married for three years before the divorce and I think
maybe we were not compatible. We have a son who is presently with my
grand mum because of my busy schedules. I am looking forward to
re-marrying very soon because I still believe in the instituition of
marriage. I think I have found love with someone else and we are
looking to see how things will go on so we don't make the same costly
mistake. I think my acting career may have been partly responsible for
the collapse of my marriage because my wife is very sensitive of my
every movement and got so involved in my job.

"She understood the nature of my job yet it got to the extent that she
got loose and couldn't control her emotions. I never wronged or
cheated on her, but she got so suspicious that even if I was close to
my phone while it rang and she was fifty-metres away, she would rush
to pick my call.

She met me as an actor but I was surprised the day she told me she
didn't know what I really do for a living and it was a big shocker to
me. My new lover totally understands my job and she says it is a man's
world."

Since his sojourn into the world of make-believe in 2000, after he
starred in the now rested TV series,Paradise Park, he appeared to have
been stereotyped to peculiar and predictable roles like that of a n
uneducated Hausa man.

Unhappy with the trend and itching to take up more challenging roles,
Funky Mallam has since broken the 'jinx' by playing fresh roles like
that of a detective, an armed robber and career professional, in his
recent works.

However, in making a case for fellow northern actors who play the same
roles over and over again, he says, " It all boils down to giving
everyone an equal opportunity at the end of the day.
As long as producers want their cast to play believable roles, some
people will remain stuck characters. The same way you can't cast an
Igbo man to play the role of a Hausa man, you can't also cast a Yoruba
man to play a Calabar man. Besides the differences in intonation, the
audience will detect it. So, I don't think there is an injustice being
carried out on Hausa actors in this regard."

Widely travelled, he is a native of Kano/ Adamawa states as he puts
it. Born in Auchi, Edo State, he had his primary education in Delta,
Abia and Plateau states.

Not a fan of the activities of the Actors' Guild of Nigeria, the
one-time transport worker says, "I only identify with the guild
because I am a Nigerian actor but I shy away and distance myself from
its politics. For the time being, I see that a lot of them vying for
political positions in the guild do so for selfish interests. The
guild is full of stupidity so that's why I can never be a part of it."

Having spent over a decade in the Nigerian entertainment scene, the
funny man is looking to conquer new frontiers, saying, "This is a new
chapter in my career and I am delving into other chapters as a talk
show host and film maker all in due course."