Comedy in Nigeria

Comedy was introduced at the inception of this branch of art as slapstick. At that time, you would come across people putting on funny glasses, like the one I am putting on. I am the only person authorized to wear a sunshade at night. You see people trying to whip up laughter from different situations. But now we have graduated to a level that you can really make people laugh even if you are putting on suit. If God gives you a gift, it is not an easy thing. I talk, you laugh. I don’t know how I do it, sometimes. I am embarrassed.

A long time ago, I was asked to say the prayer at a function and I said in Jesus name and people started laughing. I take my prayers very seriously and I became very embarrassed. You see there are good and bad sides to those things. Anything you say, you wouldn’t be taken serious even when you are discussing serious issues. It hurts when such treatment is meted to you. But I think it is more on the positive side.

Most paid comic actor

I haven’t said that I am the highest paid. It depends on what you mean by payment. I feel very happy as one of the highest paid comic actors, and I am not complaining.

Embarrassing moment

It depends on your definition of embarrassment. What you might consider embarrassing to you might not be embarrassing to me. Except when you begin to go into my failures in life that’s when I get embarrassed. But if you are talking about everyday life, I don’t get embarrassed easily. I might, I don’t know. May be along the line as somebody might do something. I have not seen or heard before and be embarrassed.

Stronger than pain

It went like any other movie. We are not acting for ourselves, but for the people. The critics and viewers’ opinions determined the quality of the film. Acting with Kate Henshaw was fantastic. Kate is someone who has a measure of the characteristics I have. So we blended, it was nice and the film came out fine.

Nigerian movie industry

The industry is very big and heavy. The thing is that we stay here and do not know the weight of this industry because probably every body knows the other person in the industry. But when you go outside the shores of this country even outside your state, you could see the impact we have been making not only in Africa but around the world. I am talking from experience.

Worst day

The worst day in my life is when I will make people laugh too much. I don’t like making people overdo things. I don’t think I have ever had a worse day. I am a person who believes that the world is like that. You go up and down. If I have something people could describe as the worst, I have hope that I can always surmount it.

Between family life and acting

It’s very tough thing to do but by the grace of God we are trying to marry everything together.

The Holland experience

I was not arrested in Holland last year. It was a kind of experience that left a bitter taste in my mouth. For a bonafide citizen of a recognized country to enter another country and people saw him as a second class citizen. I was there and their police came in their numbers about one hundred of them. They came in their ambulance, on air, police dogs and all that.

They told me to end the show. I told the man it’s unfair. I told them that if I was the person they were looking for, they should take me, but should not embarrass the audience. The man said no and that caused my anger. After that, we arranged and staged a demonstration to relate my own side of the story. If that was the option left to us, I don’t think we were wrong in following it. Nobody arrested me the way it was reported.