By Agatha Emeadi
Emeka Erem is a Nigerian comedian popularly known as Ajebo. He means different things to different people when he on stage flowing naturally on jokes laced with animation, which has given him an edge.
Even as a comedian and singer, he was also a radio personality and cartoon skit-maker, a skill he ventured into early enough unconsciously without realizing the height he would hit so soon.
Today, the House of Ajebo which he created 10 years ago has garnered over a million subscribers.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, Erem recounted how his parents became his solid rock as he began his journey into comedy, cartoon skit-making, as well as On-Air Personality (OAP).
He also revealed that while growing up, he was his mother’s prayer point because of his stubbornness even as he recreated his character as a young fellow in his ‘Tegwolo cartoon series’. He also talked about going into children’s educational learning and entertainment as his next plan.
How have you been able to sustain the House of Ajebo?
I started the House of Ajebo in 2013, but I had a breakthrough in 2021. So, for those eight years, I was just making skits for the love of it and just having fun. Any day I had little money, I would create something and post online which trended for almost a year. It was after the lockdown that I started seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I was already giving up hope because I had no money again to continue to create content. After the lockdown, it seems this is the only thing I can do from home since there were no shows again. I started all afresh and became consistent with my skits. In one year, between 2020 and 2021, we moved from 120, 000 subscribers to one million subscribers, the same skit I have been doing since 2013. As a matter of fact, my first Tegwolo skit was created in 2016, but it was not consistent.
How did comedy start for you?
Comedy has always been there for me since I was a child and that is why people call me ‘Ajebo’. I was not born with a silver spoon though not poor as well, but I started with church drama where I used to sing all through in secondary school. I was the school music coordinator. We used to compose songs, stand in front of teachers and fellow students and send our renditions. Again, I used to watch a lot of Night of a Thousand Laughs by Opa Williams where I learnt a lot from and started cracking jokes. In SS2, I hit the stage for the first time and I shut my school down. When I said shutdown, I did shut my school down and everybody was on their feet clapping for me. Till date, my classmates still remind me of the jokes I started with which they call killer-jokes. So, what I added to my brand was to convert those jokes into a skit, which has garnered millions of views over the years.
Could you share some of your early moments?
When I was in the university, I had my first show and my mother bankrolled it, but she would remind me that I would pay her back. I remember that show when she lent me N80,000 back then when I was at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). At the end of the show, the hall was full and the show was sold out, but then, one knows students must be students, some got into the hall through the window. So, our finance was low, but the show was successful. I told my mum that the show was successful, but we didn’t make money and she asked: “Did you do your show? Did people come? Was it successful,” I said yes and my mum said, “don’t worry you are owing me N80,000, which you will pay sometime in the future, just know that you have learnt your lessons and your experience, you will avoid those mistakes in the future.” With that we hit it afresh, first show, second show and that was it. So, because I have toed that path of creativity from the get-go and was convinced that this would be my career. I was in my third year when I wrote down that one day, I would crack jokes with animations so when I got out of school I started it immediately, that is my journey so far.
You are not from Warri, how did you create a Warri character, Tegwolo perfectly well?
Sometime in history, comedy became popular and most people wanted to centre their comedy around Warri pidgin language. But first of all, Tegwolo is the story of my life. I was a stubborn child while growing up and became my mother’s prayer point as well. I am the third child in our family, but I am ‘that child’ because anything I watch, I must replicate it. I liked Jackie Chan a lot; so, if he kicks somebody’s stomach in a movie, I would kick somebody’s stomach in school the next day. I did not jump off as superman from a building because I didn’t see a skyscraper to jump off from or what would hold me when I am landing. I was very stubborn, but smart as well. I liked to replicate what I watched in movies. So, most of the things you see Tegwolo do are my personal stories. But to sell the skit at the time, I thought it was easier to model it after a Warri character because they are naturally stubborn. As for his long head, I had a classmate we used to call bicycle seat head. Of course, I exaggerated it in the cartoon. Well, again, my understanding of Tegwolo story is that children especially in the Diaspora want to hear more about the African story. Therefore, the character Tegwolo dresses like a street kid and speaks pidgin fluently. So, he is exporting our culture to foreign countries and that is the feedback we get from buttie children in the US, and UK. Some Nigerian parents in the Diaspora said this is the closest touch of home their children have because once they start to watch it, they speak a little bit of pidgin. So, we want to let the world know that House of Ajebo is taking its place in the children’s space right now. Plans have been concluded to launch a new brand which should hit the Internet from the 1st of November. We have taken our place as number one in the animation space in Africa, so we are like let’s give something that the next four generations of African children will talk about. So, we are delving into learning and entertainment that comes with it.
How many views do you garner and how does it translate to money?
Well, I have a subscriber base of 1 .9 million, but what converts to money is actually watching the videos. Not just the subscribers, but the views. You can have fewer subscribers, but have people who just want to watch and go. What happened was, over the years, we snowballed into a proper animation company. So, I have a team of animators who reach out to Nigerians in dpthe Diaspora. All I do is make sure that every month, at least four episodes must go up on YouTube. It is a lot of work, which is also on the high side, but then, the show must continue. What has happened now is that Tegwolo was created as a cartoon brand where children started following on. So, the moment we realized that the children especially in the Diaspora do not have enough African content, it became a gap that needs to be filled up. We also agreed that he who pays the piper dictates the tune. If somebody is creating cartoons from abroad, they will do it according to their own mindset, with their culture and biases, but here, we relish African content.
What was the reaction of your parents then and now, because most parents wanted their children to be in professions like medicine, law, engineering, etc?
My parents were the most supportive ever. When I graduated from school, which was the era of career for most people, every parent wanted to become Mama doctor or Mama lawyer, but my parents had already seen the creativity in me and knew that the way this guy is going, he was special and they didn’t want to drag career with him. From the onset, they know I have chosen my path in the entertainment industry, so they did not want to drag it with me. When I said to my parents that I wanted to be a comedian, my mum told me: “If you want to be a comedian, you have to be the best ever comedian; you will study to hold a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) so that one day you might have to teach comedy,” and that was it. So, when you hear others say ‘we suffer o, we dey trek,’ that was not my story because my parents were super supportive ab initio. If I go for a show, come back and complain that I wasn’t paid, my mum would count money about N2,500 to N3,000 then and pay me. She will say, this is to encourage you; keep doing what you are doing. And that encouragement is what most young ones need to fly to the sky. So, I was attending events with the belief that payment or not, I will be fine. My father had a brand-new Toyota Corolla back then in 2006 and when I wanted to go to events, the Corolla was mine, if my father had anywhere to go, he would take a yellow cab, literally that was the kind of support that I got from my parents that is still pushing me higher.