Layi Wasabi: Content creation is opportunity to share jokes, ideas

Isaac Olayiwola, popularly known as Layi Wasabi, is a comedian, actor, content creator and influencer. The 22-year-old Osogbo-born talenty took social media by storm with his unique blend of wittiness and infectious energy. The law graduate of Bowen University, with over two million followers on Instagram, creates contents that are satirical and reflect everyday happening. In this interview with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA, he shares his life as a content creator and nominations for the 2024 AMVCA.

Congratulations on your nomination for AMVCA Award. How does it feel being recognised for your creative work?
I’M grateful to God for life. I’m also grateful to African Magic and MultiChoice for the opportunity and recognition as a lot of work goes into digital content creation and it is gratifying to have my work listed as something worth this honour.

Can you share with us your journey as a content creator and how you got started in this field?
My journey as a content creator has pretty much been on jet fuel. Although I’ve been doing content creation since I was about age nine. I’ve also been acting since I was 13. I started content creation for digital space in 2021 and there were a few challenges here and there but overall, it’s been an amazing experience. I was able to gather an audience quite quickly. It came with a few challenges but the upsides are more than the downsides.

What inspires you to create content, and where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
What inspired me to create content was the opportunity to share jokes and ideas. I’ve always been someone who loves social gatherings for that opportunity to just tell stories and share jokes with friends. Creating content felt like a way to do that.

You acted in Anikulapo Series, what was the experience like for you?
I said it before that for me I felt like a kid in a museum seeing veterans on the same set with me and I’m a novice to them. It was humbling and very much inspiring. That was the experience I had on set.

Having worked with Kunle Afolayan, how then will you describe him?
He’s an artist. I won’t think about it twice. I love working with people who are fundamentally artistic and I respect him. I’ve seen a lot of his movies and you can tell that whoever is behind the camera, or, whoever directed this movie is a lover of the art and is committed to nurturing that art.

What do you consider to be your unique style or niche as a content creator?
I think I create content for different purposes. Some content I create and the purpose could be entertainment, some for people to relate to. My shooting star, which is one man in front of the camera and behind the camera will be mixed style. A niche as to the genre of comedy, I really don’t know. I just feel like I create content for a particular purpose or one that I have in mind at the time.

How do you stay motivated and overcome creative blocks or challenges in your work?
What motivates me the most is my audience; it’s very motivating seeing the pool of people who didn’t know you before or haven’t met in real life just rooting for you, hoping to see you win, and looking forward to what you want to do next. It’s a very motivating feeling and how I overcome creative blocks, sometimes, I just step back from the drawing board and just experience life a little bit. I might as well grab a book and read or watch a movie. That’s the process of overcoming creative blocks for me.

Can you walk us through your creative process, from idea generation to final execution?
I think it differs from idea to idea. Some ideas come as finished thoughts so from the inception of the idea you have the beginning of the concept and how it’s supposed to end. The only thing I would do as a creative, sometimes, is just to build the dialogue and the acting it would require. For some ideas, it could take months, or weeks to have a perfect ending to the beginning of the story. It differs. In situations like that, ideas that don’t come as finished thoughts, I have to focus on the ones that are almost complete or finished already. Sometimes I revisit the old ones that I’ve not completed. I don’t force it most of the time.

What advice would you give to aspiring content creators who are looking to establish themselves in the industry?
They should try out a number of things and stick to what they know how to do best and what they think will make their audience thrive. Do what you are most comfortable in as a content creator, because at the end of the day, if you are not comfortable doing that kind of content at some point you will feel the need to outgrow it. It is important as a content creator to have a niche so that you will be able to grow your audience more strategically.

How do you leverage social media and online platforms to grow your brand as a content creator?
It’s important for a content creator to grow a significant amount of following and not just that but a following that you understand. If you understand how to navigate your audience and you have amassed a significant amount of audience, this is what builds your influence as a brand and a content creator. That’s how I try to leverage on social media by understanding my audience and trying to expand the reach I have as a content creator.

As a full-time content creator, how do you manage your time effectively to balance producing content with other aspects of your life?
Content creating can be very energy and time sapping. It’s a huge bulk of your mind space because after doing content you think of the next content and the next phase as a brand. Having family and friends around keeps me sane. Trying to balance that other aspect of life but it’s quite a struggle and it takes planning to be able to balance the two.

What are your goals and aspirations for the future of your content creation career?
The goal will be to reach as many people as I can and to be able to see that the work that I do will leave a significant impact on the industry that I am. That is my goal and aspiration in the line of content creation.