The Soft Issue
Interview
August 2017
BIG JOHNNY AND THE
NEW WAVE
The world of comedy is changing. John Ojiebhun’s
game is changing too. He has sworn not to make you
laugh alone; he will also leave you with a message to
ponder after his performance. James Jolayemi holds
down the ace comedian in this sophomore interview
with The Lens:
Interview By: James Jolayemi
Transcription: Uriel Idowu
Can you tell us about your upbringing and how it has
affected your career choice? the situation is. You might end up not saying anything at
all. I used to but now, I don’t anymore.
Well, the thing is, I cannot really say my upbringing actually
affected my career because I am from a family of six kids
excluding father and mother. As at when I was growing
up, I don’t talk at all. I was the conservative type. I keep
to myself a lot. e only thing that helped me when I was
growing up was that even though I don’t talk, I observe a lot.
at was why it was very easy for me to observe somebody
at a point and then when I observe him, I believe that I
could do what he does. Even though now I talk a lot but
still it is easy for me to observe situations around me and
convert them into anything that we need and that’s the
major thing that we need in what we do now because,
people have problem of copying something they cannot
paste. So there is difference between copying what
somebody said and copying the personality alongside it.
So it is easier to see something, observe it, then observe
everything that led to the result and then use it in a better
way. at is the only way I could really say that my upbringing
has affected what I do. Alright, apart from being a comedian, you are also an
MC. So what are the skills that have proved valuable
to you on the job?
Do you write your jokes before you start the event? I love eating (laughs) okay apart from being an MC and
a stand-up comedian, something else that I love doing
is acting. That’s just it, acting. e third on the list apart
from stand-up comedian and being a communicator
and apart from that also trying to incorporate beans an
event manager into everything do. Acting is just a hobby
from childhood and it is still part of me till today. So I can
say if I was not a comedian, I would have been an actor.
I write them not before the event anyways. I have an
archive of jokes which I don’t even carry around anymore
because most of them, I say them a lot; I know a lot of
them offhand. But, I don’t take them to event because
each event with each scenario. There is a way that it can
be that even when you write jokes; you might not end up
saying from it anything depending on how spontaneous
Just like I said the other time, the ability of being
spontaneous helps a lot. e thing is just that at a point
in time, I realised that it’s just about using what you
have around you to your best advantage. That’s what it
basically entails. So overtime I can say that being a mass
communication student has actually helped a lot too. At
least it has helped to teach you how to increase pitch,
inc rease development of your voice, how to actually
synchronise a part of a program with another part of
a program, how to use words well. So all these have
actually added to what I do in the real sense. So you can
actually say that being a communicator and then being
a comedian has actually been a great advantage.
If there is anything that you will love to do aside from
being an MC or a stand-up comedian. What will it be?
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