Julius Agwu: The man with the many tentacles

For comedian, Julius Agwu, entertainment had somewhat always been in the radar. Infact growing up in the village of Choba, which later metamorphosed into a town of sorts on account of the University of Port-Harcourt located therein, Julius would often steal the show from the Uncle Bee Jays who came around to sell drugs with their eye-catching dance moves.

"Growing up there were these group of people called Uncle Jay Bees that sold drugs and they would put in false, protruding stomachs and backsides and they would be dancing to gathered people before they begin to sell their wares. So I would go in their middle and begin to dance and end up stealing the show. So, rather than have people paying attention to them, they would begin to spray me money. So entertainment had always been there for me"

In more ways than one, the location of UNIPORT in his village would turn out to be a blessing for Julius. For one, it not only accorded him the chance to have an education, it also armed him with some very handy socialisation skills.
In his words:

"Thank God the school was in my village if not I won't have gone to school. I was a village boy to the core, I would wake up in the morning, go to the farm and then go for catechism classes later in the day. I used to scale the fence into the UNIPORT campus to play with the lecturer's children, that's where I acquired socialisation skills"

Striding into our Pulse Nigeria office, it is clear that the actor/comedian/musician and now aspiring politician has come a long way from the fence-scaling young boy he used to be. As he settles in for the interview, he gets into a friendly banter with the Pulse crew. Soon enough, the conversation veers towards politics and it provides the perfect opening to ask the all-important question:
Why the decision to go into politics?
His response, delivered in his usual humorous manner is simple and straight to the point - after years of being told, 'we are the leaders of tomorrow', its time to jump into the loop and do just that. Moreso, its not enough to sit on the fence and complain on social media, to bring about the desired change, the youth must get involved and cleanse the rot of the leaders past.
Inspite of his burning desire to rule his home state, Rivers, Julius however admits that he's had to withdraw from the race after due consultation with his kinsmen.
"My people said Ikwerre people in Rivers have been in power for a while so they thought we should give people from the Riverine side a chance this time".
But before politics and even comedy, theatre held a great appeal for Julius stemming from his younger days when he would go to UNIPORT to watch Theatre Arts students rehearse. This would later spur him to do a degree in it at UNIPORT (where he was classmates with Rita Dominic), majoring in Directing. During the course of his degree, he would often make night trips to Lagos to attend auditions. He would eventually land his first role in the movie 'Endless Revenge' directed by the late Sam Loco Efe. The release of the movie was however preceded by 'Rattle Snake', a movie produced and directed by the late Amaka Igwe and which featured the likes of Francis Duru, Bob Manuel and several others.
Perhaps the most memorable of his works in TV/movies was 'Paradise Park', a sitcom which aired on NTA and followed the misadventures of himself and side kick, Okey Bakassi. Since then, there's been no slowing down for D'Genius as he's gone on to make serious business of comedy.
So what are the notable moments that have stood out for the comedy don through the years?

"The first time I started 'Crack Ya Ribs' at Muson Centre in 2001, that's when Plantation Boiz and Maintain were still together. Also when I created the genre of music called 'musi-comedy' in 2000 with my first album, 'Okombo'. Then when I started my show in London, exporting talent to Nigerians in diaspora. Another moment was when I created 'Laff for Christ sake' which was basically a gospel comedy show created to glorify God."

On the flip side, he recalls a particularly embarrassing scenario;

There was a birthday celebration of a pastor, and it was a period when I was passing through some turbulent times. I was the MC at the event and there was another comedian who was there to perform and the guy was just there reeling out my jokes. I was stunned and completely embarrassed, I couldn't perform or tell any of my jokes. The pastor's wife who got me the gig was so disappointed but after the event, I went to apologised to her and she understood.

In the recent past, the entertainment industry has witnessed a huge explosion with the arrival of several hot new acts on the scene. In all of this, we want to know if he ever feels threatened by the new kids on the block.

I never feel threatened. Even the worst comedian has their own fan base. If I'm threatened, I won't give the upcoming acts the platform to come and showcase themselves or take them out of the shores of this country. Also if people like us did not step up our price, the new ones won't even come up, so we shift and make space for them. As a matter of fact so many of them started off by using my content, they would buy my tapes (there were no CDs then) and then try to rearrange the characters and tweak things abit.

Not one to ever be found wanting in the fashion department, Julius describes his style as eclectic.

I mix and match. I try as much as possible to distinguish myself and stand out. When I was about to venture into entertainment, I realised that entertainers were regarded as n'er-do-wells and dregs of the society who didn't dress well. So I said to myself, if you want to do this, you must dress well. Also don't forget its called show business, so you have to show for the business to come. You also need to dress the way you want to be addressed, the way you turn out adds value to the event too.

He explains further:

I've been at a wedding where the bride was innocently admiring my attire and got so carried away that her groom had to put up a fuss. I make bold to say I was part of those who inspired a lot of the new generation of entertainers to start looking well and being dapper.

Julius who admits to being short-tempered, credits his wife with being extremely understanding and supportive. He also admits to bribing her with gifts due to his excessive love for shopping.

I used to spend so much on fashion items till I got married. After I got married, I won't buy anything till my wife travels or sometimes I'll buy and put it in the trunk of my car and lock it. So these days how I bribe her is when I shop for mine, I shop for hers too.

Comedian, actor, musician, author and aspiring politician, the sky is hardly the limit for Julius and in all of this, these things ring true;
Every relationship is about what you PUT - Patience, Understanding and Tolerance. Also you can't do it yourself, just hold on to God.