Nkem Owoh

I never knew I could make people laugh – Nkem Owoh
By SAM ANOKAM
Friday, May 09, 2008

It was no surprise that the fourth edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) held in Federal Capital City, Abuja, following last minute cancellation of the Bayelsa venue by the state government. Bayelsa State’s Commissioner for Information, Culture and Comunication, Pastor Ebiowei Sokare at a press parley said that the event would be shifted to Abuja due to the sensitive nature of the current political impasse in the state.

Meanwhile, Nkem Owoh, the popular actor who clinched the Best Actor of the year Award was full of praises to God and the organizers for his success. He told Daily Sun about his talents, his role in the movie, Stronger than Pain, the movie industry among others.

How it has been so far?
There has been the negative and the positive sides. It’s like every other thing in life. I believe once you have the zeal and God gives you the health, you have to forge ahead. Whenever I meet the hill I believe I have to climb the hill and that’s life. So I just take this industry and what God has given me and I thank God for the special talent which I never recognized, until people started recognizing in me. Now, when I look backwards I always feel I have something that people love and I am happy and I thank God for that.

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.

Osuofia in London Eloho Kinglsey Ogoro Nigeria 2003

Soup jokes. Lots of soup jokes.

Surprisingly amidst the dire production values, continual mugging of the lead Nkem Owoh and the ubiquitous soup related titillation, there are a couple of moments when Osuofia in London, a popular Nigerian or Nollywood comedy, distinguishes itself beyond being a mere fish-out-of-water comedy vehicle.

At one, the villain, a second generation African solicitor living in London who is trying to steal the hero’s inheritance, jumps into a monologue. Breaking free of his cut glass received-pronunciation he ascends into his more natural Nigerian-English inflection: “When I get annoyed I lose my British accent.” Although likely humorous in intent to the decision to use a monologue here works superbly linking the bad guy back to Africa and vindicating Osuofia’s constant paranoia that everybody is out to con him.

Earlier in the film when Osuofia is arrested for catching pigeons in a London park, a family charm stuns a policeman who tries to restrain him in a brief spark of witchcraft. What is compelling here is that the brief burst of occult just happens. Nothing is explained concerning ‘why’ or ‘how’ beyond Osufoia remarking that the charm belonged to a family member. Although it is slightly unfair and falls into the typical arthouse trap of assuming that a film from a foreign country serves as an ambassador the nonchalance with which this event is treated (even by the Metropolitan police officers in the scene) speaks volumes about where this film has come from.

Such moments give Osofia in London a distinctive air

Comparable to many popular Hollywood rags-to-riches tales such as Mr Deeds goes to Town or Brewster’s Millions the conceit in Osuofia in London is the fish-out-of –water aspect again similar to many US films such as (to pick some fun US examples) National Lampoon’s European Vacation or Crocodile Dundee, giving comedians plenty of culture shock material to play around with. Roughly shot and often with poor sound (especially in exterior scenes) Osuofia in London does have a good pace that rapidly gathers momentum form a standing start in Osuofia’s village in Nigeria towards a last-minute dash to the airport at the end that also beckons the sequel with a trailer!

Even for a UK audience of one (me!) Nkem Owoh’s (famous for this film and possibly for Western internet audiences for I Go Chop your Dollar – a song about Nigerian scammers from the film The Master where Owoh played a 419 style email scammer) performance is amusing as he continually tries to buy Nigerian style food in London (asking for soup in MacDonalds is a howler when it arrives).

As the repeated use of Sting’s Englishman in New York shows, the feeling is of a film that showcases a foreign perspective of London (like the inevitable episode of US sitcom when they visit the capital and UK audiences are forced to realise how different values may be however charismatic the production may be normally). It’s also refreshing that Osuofia doesn’t want to stay in London. Despite widespread popularity Osuofia in London has been knocked for showing a stereotyped village-centric poverty-strewn picture of Africa. It’s true the film does but this it’s about the little guy beating the big guy, so it probably shows a hackneyed nostalgic view of Nigeria/Africa similar to UK fantasies of life along the lines of Richard Curtis’ films (i.e. a solely white Notting Hill…!).