I never knew I could
make people laugh – Nkem Owoh
By SAM ANOKAM
Friday, May 09, 2008
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•Nkem
Owoh
Pix: Sun News Publishing |
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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.
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