Julius Agwu: I Groomed Many of the Established Names in Comedy Now

You can call him an all-round entertainer. That’s because he acts, sings, dances, and compere shows. A master in the art of entertainment, Julius Agwu years after hitting fame in the industry was beset with a brain tumour that threatened his life, dimmed his career, and forced him backstage after a successful surgery in the United States in 2015. Notable for his wisecracks, Julius Agwu is now back fully and ready to crack ribs with laughter.  Following a chance meeting last weekend, Julius, fondly dubbed ‘D Genius’, tells Ferdinand Ekechukwu about his flagship show, Crack Ya Ribs set for Christmas Day. He also shares memories of his days growing up in Port Harcourt, and the lessons learnt during the period he was off the scene. Excerpts:  

Not a lot has been heard from you in recent times, what have you been up to with regards to happenings around you?

I just want you to know that while things are happening you just have to pick a side to lie low, to restrategise, and start from there. My resting period is over now. So I’m back fully. And I have also decided that based on that, I’m having an event this December, on Christmas Day. I have my ‘Crack Ya Ribs’ with Julius Agwu in Port Harcourt. I’m telling people that no matter how the country is, they should come out and laugh away their sorrows, laugh away their pains since we are entering 2025 and thank God for the new year.

What should we be expecting this coming Crack Ya Ribs? Who are you featuring, who are the other artistes, and comedians performing?

The other people performing are basically from Port Harcourt. I’m featuring artistes in Port Harcourt. And I have some artistes coming to Port Harcourt, like Arinze Baba, he’s a Port Harcourt artiste; I’m mentioning the Port Harcourt boys to you now because social media has helped. Unlike those days when there were no social media which made all of us come to Lagos to grow our brands. You know I’m a full-time Port Harcourt boy, I’m from Rivers State. So I have them; they are based in Port Harcourt Arinze Baba, KO Baba, Angel D’ Laff, Akpan Okon, GSN, Son of Man, and then Kevin Briggs. And there is another one, Busy Mouth. He imitates Tinubu. The other comedians that are coming and are not based in Port Harcourt  are M.O.P, MC Casino, Abarie.Com, Action, Effizzy D British and many more.   

Why the choice of mostly Port Harcourt grown/based artistes, one would have expected established names on the list?

You know the truth is many of these big stars, started from somewhere. I grew many of them; they started from somewhere. But nonetheless, I have Senator. He will come for the show too; that’s the surprise. There’s another thing… most of these Port Harcourt guys I’m featuring are big too. Like MC Casino, he is big and a couple of others that are on the list from Port Harcourt but based outside Port Harcourt are big artists.

Basically you are featuring majorly some of your home boys and I have watched you speak fondly of Ikwere your hometown, why are you proud of being Ikwere?

I’m proud of being an Ikwere boy because when I say I’m an Ikwere boy some people doubt it, they see me as an Igbo man. I’m proud to be an Ikwere man because Ikwere is a large community; it’s a family to me because my mum is Ikwere, my father is Ikwere. Ikwere is always contended with what it has. Ikwere is always proud of itself as an Ikwere boy (laughs). An Ikwere is always a hardworking person. An Ikwere man is a hardworking man. So yes… that’s why.

Also at Port Harcourt, what fond memories does it hold for you looking at your childhood and career?

The truth is that Port Harcourt is home for me. Its home for me because everything about Port Harcourt I live those days my childhood was that of seeing people playing around with people; watching everybody how they do things. Intermingling, going to visit people, watch them how they play, and growing up. I miss those lives, those things. I’m seeing that this is a homecoming for me because I miss those times when we used to dance, go to visit, eat anything from one place. But times have changed. Those days I remember that if you are chewing gum and someone begs you ‘abeg give me chewing gum,’ you will take it from your mouth and give the person and say, ‘take I never chop am finish.’ But these days now they buy chewing gum in cans there are plenty of chewing gums.

Does it sort of bother you as it seems though that your fans, friends and colleagues would and had wanted to see you come back fully?

Yes, I’m sure they would. They would want to see me fully back. This just goes out to everybody who prayed for me while I was ill that I do not know. I’m telling everyone that knows me that I do not know that thank you. God should bless all of them.

Now that you are back fully are we going to see you bring up your other shows like Laff 4 Christ’s Sake and Festival of Love which you seem to have rested following the period you were resting?

Yes, yes, yes… we would see Laff 4 Christ’s Sake, we would see Festival of Love, yes.

So far, are there any challenges or struggle you were faced with lately?

After my surgery I was told by my doctors to rest so that I can fully recover. But now I’m better, I’m ready to entertain my fans like never before.

The period you were off the scene, what lessons did those moments teach you?

It taught me that anytime somebody works, that person should find time to rest. ‘Body no be firewood e no dey easy.’ And then the fact that it is always good to trust God. And have good friends. Because I have friends; some friends who have never asked me ‘brother how are you managing?’ And some friends have been with me all through the journey. They ask me, ‘how far, how you doing you know?’ That’s life for you. I have friends who celebrated with me when everything was ripe. That’s how life is so that people can learn. But I will tell my friends, my well-wishers, everybody, that in life, everybody should believe in God. Or if you want to believe in ‘juju’ na you know. Anything you want to believe in hold it very well (laughs). I know that God works. God works in miraculous ways, Satan works in mysterious ways. And to my fans and my fans to be, be good always. Keep your hands clean and always strive for the best no matter what it takes.

You have stated a couple of times that you ‘died’ and were about to be taken to the mortuary before you came back to live. Can you recall that experience?

Yes, I just started shooting “The Vendor” that year. I remembered that I went back to Lekki, and I decided to rest for a while. So I slept off, and behold I just had a serious seizure. And then my guard had to rush to the kitchen and brought spatula to use to demarcate my teeth so that I don’t jam my tooth. So they rushed me to a hospital inside the Estate in Lekki then in Phase 1. After a while, the doctor declared me dead. So after some time, they called my elder sister to tell her. She told them not to rush me to any mortuary because that was what they were planning. She started rushing to houses, begging people to pray for me, Julius Agwu. So they were praying for me. In the realm, I remember vividly that I met some people that had died, they hugged me hailing me ‘welcome, welcome’. As they were doing that I saw about two of them that I remember well. And then I saw my father. I was trying to hug my father and my father said no, I should go back and at that point, I started shaking my hands. That was when the doctor announced that I was alive. As I came back to life I told my wife that we should book the next flight to America. That was how we got to America. That was in 2015. We got to America and then did an MRI of my head and behold they saw a tumour in my brain. That was how I ended up doing the tumour surgery. However, it may interest you to know that, the ‘Vendor’ that I was shooting, that I paid people to write, after shooting the whole thing someone else went ahead to release ‘The Vendor’. I had finished shooting my 13 episodes before I was involved in my surgery. But someone else went and shot the Vendor the same way I wrote and released it on Netflix and titled it the Vendor. Well the bottom line is I thank God that I’m alive.

Skit and social media have become the in-thing now and the new tools most young acts are exploring to break even. What impact do you think that has on the traditional comedy like the standup genre?

The truth is this social media has helped a lot of people to become popular. A lot of them have become so popular and people want to see them and hear about them, people just crave them. But they can never be funny when it comes to real-life comedy.

Youtube pay people now, content creators pay people. Facebook, everywhere they earn so much. It’s their time. But a lot of them, let me say 95 percent of them can never make people laugh when it comes to real-life comedy, to do standup comedy. So I like that.