Larry J is a popular name in the comedy industry in Nigeria who has carved a niche for himself with his unique delivery and witty punchlines. In a recent chat with ROTIMI IGE, he talks about his upcoming event this Sunday and why he is promoting women in comedy, among other issues.
What do you think makes this particular show on Sunday different from others?
Comedy comes in different parts. There are some people who are spontaneous and will crack you up in two minutes while some people will tell a story, which is the category I fall into. Majority of those coming are story tellers. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll even lose it.
Comedy is about me making you laugh about a bad situation you’re going through and when you remember it you’re still laughing. Realistic jokes are what make us different.
Looking around, we have less than 20 percent of women in the stand-up comedy industry when compared to men. What do you think has been responsible for this deficit?
One of the things that made me want to do this is because I was literally looking for a female comedian that I could invite, but I couldn’t find them. I would have called Helen Paul but she’s a professor abroad and I cannot afford to bring her down here. I’d have called Real Warri Pikin but she doesn’t live in Lagos. If we have a handful of female comedians who are in Lagos available and almost at every comedy show, what are we still looking for? A comedian is a comedian. It’s not, and shouldn’t be gender-restricted.
You plan to hold the comedy amazon competition and your show on the same day, why?
Logistics. I’m realistic, it would cost me a lot. It’s not like we have a sponsor. This is me doing this because I love it. We have supporters though yet we’re cutting our cloths according to our available material. Investing in this is because I have a passion for it. I’ll do everything in my power to push them, and even those who don’t win and are funny will be given a platform to shine.
Is there room for both shows being separate as time goes on?
I don’t intend to separate them, what I intend to do henceforth is to have two shows. This one will be the competition and the next one will be for relaxation. I have a show coming up on December 25 at Eko Hotel, and we will be having some of the female comedians perform at that show. It’s a family event and people will get familiar with these female acts. I think that from there on, the sky will be the limit for them.
In your lineup of comedians for the show, there is no female comedian to at least give a feel of what the industry is missing by not having female comedians?
The female comedians on ground will be the ones to judge the female comedians. We have the likes of Lepacious Bose who’ll be judging. We are confirming Taaooma, who is billed to be one of the judges. There would also be one male judge to balance it up.
As someone who has seen a problem and is trying to find a solution to it, what do you think caused the problem of dearth of female comedians to start with?
From my point of view, I’ll say the reason is because women don’t like to be confronted. They don’t like confrontation so they have tagged the comedy industry as a male dominated area, and don’t want to go into it. Many females also don’t like rejection. Some will fold in the face of rejection but men will keep on going till it works. I think it’s the power of consistency for the men. Women have more tendency to talk themselves out of it. The rule is not to give up. No comedian will say they’ve never had a downtime. Even if the down times are more than the high times. The high times will come and they’ll take you higher than you can even imagine.
Do you think making vulgar and unethical jokes are part of the reason there’s a gap between female comedians and male comedians?
People think having a female comedian might make her do a vulgar joke in a bid to impress, which is necessarily not the case. It’s either you’re funny or you’re not. It not about cracking vulgar jokes or not. Cracking jokes like that is for a particular kind of crowd and the number is small. Some people can afford to hear it, but they don’t want to say it.
Are you not worried that participants in the ‘Comedy Amazon’ may just be using stand-up comedy as a springboard for where they want to be in the entertainment industry?
I have realised that life and people evolve. There are wonderful actors right now who never started up as actors, they started as comedians. For example, Mr Macaroni started as a comedian but now he’s a brilliant actor. There are loads of them like that. They’re some of them who are stand-up comedians who have ventured into skit making because it’s still in the same entertainment space, it’s still under comedy.
God gave everybody different talents. Some have one some have more than one, and it should all work together.
In comedy, how far is too far when making jokes. How do you regulate the type of jokes that are to be said at your show?
All I need to do is to check the comedian’s history, the kind of things they’ve been doing and the type of materials they’ve been producing. I can’t bring someone who has been producing vulgar jokes to an ethical environment. The set of people I’m inviting are very sensitive people. It’s so bad that even if they want to say it, it’s only the people who have access to vulgar jokes that would understand what they are saying.
There’s this popular thought that women are not funny. Do you think sensitivity of women caused the gap between male and female comedians?
For every competitor in ‘Comedy Amazon’, I’ll have a one on one talk with them explaining that just because people don’t laugh doesn’t mean what you’ve said is not funny. It might just be funny in some other cases and just not at that moment. One of the things I want to do is to make women understand that this ideology of women not being funny is a thing of the mind. fifty percent of comedians are not making real sense. The funniest things in life don’t make sense. If you’re taking it to heart, you should try as much as possible to tune your mind off it to deliver the real result.
Even with my own style of comedy, people called me crying comedian. It didn’t work at first, but later people started embracing it. That’s why I’m always happy when I see comedians on stage who have a bit of my style because I’ve done a good job crying on stage to be emulated. You just keep at whatever you’re doing regardless of what people say and you’ll get your crowd.
Have you ever told a bad joke?
Yes, I have. It was needed at that point to get back at someone. As a comedian, a number of jokes will come to your head, and the ones you can’t tell, you may pass it on to someone that can tell it. I can’t count how many jokes I’ve given to colleagues who are able to tell vulgar jokes without regards to feelings. In the comedy industry, that’s how it works most of the time. Once you’re a stand up comedian there’s a high tendency that things you see become comedy to you. You just have to know the ones you’ll say and tell the others to those who are comfortable saying it. That’s why comedians have comedian friends because they share things. Almost all the jokes that I’ll be saying the day of my show, I’ve never said it anywhere else before. Sometimes jokes are not just the thoughts of a person. Sometimes it’s community thought.
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