Exclusive: “People Who Listen To Me On Radio Think I’m An Old Man” – Yaw
Steve Onu popularly known as Yaw, is a popular on-air personality with his creative tentacles cutting across acting, comedy, stage production, film production, broadcasting and event management.
A theater arts graduate of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, he speaks more in this interesting chat with Samuel Orji.
Q. How difficult was it to transit from theatre to broadcasting and becoming a radio OAP?
If you are a trained actor, you must be able to do everything. You can be anything you want to be: a doctor, lawyer, armed robber, engineer etc and you can transit into any character .There is nothing difficult about transitioning to an OAP aside that you know how to do your job and do it well.
Theatre also helps to emboldened you because as a theatre person, you are open to a lot of options. So, when I started; a lot of people didn’t know much, they thought I was an old person, some thought I was young. I think my being good with my job on air; theatre has a very good role to play.
Q. Since you graduated from LASU, have you done any collaboration with any former member of your theatre group in LASU,
You know it’s not easy to do theatre or do just theatre alone. One of them called me recently for a stage play that they wanted to do. We still collaborate from time to time but most of us are not into films. When we do find time, we still go back to theatre.
Q. Tell me about Sparadice, the TV series you produced for Star Times?
Sparadice was in partnership with Star times. After the first edition, we tried to reach an agreement based on the current realities of the country but it did not work out. We decided to put it on hold for a while to hear what they will say because the economy is not helping anybody at all but they refused to shift.
If it was an individual thing, it could have been a different thing. For instance, if I tell you to do this for me and what I have for you is ₦1000 and you agree to it, it’s a different case. But if I tell you, bring all your guys and what I have for you is ₦1000, you may agree but your guys may not.
Notwithstanding, we’re still working on it, but if it doesn’t work, we will move on.
Q. Many have argued that we don’t appreciate stage plays in this part of the world, what are you doing differently to draw that interest to stage plays?
We must learn to flow with the tide. Give it to Bolanle Austin Peters and the other people that are still organizing stage plays. You must learn to adapt to the current reality of digitalization. A typical Nigerian budgets and wants to see value for their money when they pay. Gone are those days we stage long plays.
The attention span of people is getting shorter. People are thinking of how to make money and also remember that nowhere is safe again. You can’t go out to watch plays for long, so, there are so many factors that are affecting the stage play industry. Gone are those days you go out at night to watch plays. It’s not easy now.
Now you have to use some celebrities to market your stage plays if truly you want to have a sold out stage play. I mean those that have made their mark on TV, theater or other aspects of entertainment. These are the people you must feature in your play so that it will sell because that’s what the people want to see. Have it at the back of your mind that the shorter the play, the better because people don’t have that patience for long drama.
Q. In the BBC drama series ‘Story Story’, you played the character Ejike, a troublesome young man. Give us more insight into that character.
As a trained thespian, you must be able to do everything. That experience was a huge help for me. The transition was just seamless; it was just easy for me to play. I remember the director then, Akeem, a British Nigerian told me to feel free to do whatever I am comfortable doing.
How will the average troublesome Igbo man behave? They gave us that freedom and also asked us to give the character life. Like my lecturers in school will always say, ‘when God created and molded man, he now breathe life into man and gave him soul. That’s the way scripts are, when the writer creates a character, you must give it life by bringing yourself into it. That’s the way it was for me.
Q. Share with us any embarrassing moment you were confronted with in the past because of the nature of your job.
Those things happened in the course of the work. All those things happen a lot. You meet people on the road because of my role on Flatmates; they will look at me and say, “Are you not the same guy on Flatmates, so you can speak very well, even the clothes you are wearing. However, I don’t think it’s embarrassing. I think it’s part of the job, you execute your character so well that people now believe it’s part of you.
Q. What about the story of the lady who pulled down her clothes…?
That was a long time ago. The Lady you reference tattooed my name on her body and she came to the radio station. I don’t know anything about her. All those just happened, for me; it’s nothing because they are history now and we are focused on other things. Everyone is looking for money now.
Q. Let’s look at some of the media backlash against you. Can you recall one or two incidents that really touched you?
I think they write some of those things just to sell. If I know you one on one and read what you have written, I will meet with you and tell you that what you wrote is very wrong. I have seen one or two, and I tell them, ‘my brother you should have asked. Aside that, in Nigeria, stories don’t last more than two weeks. One or two weeks and we move. People have written things about other people and it did not last more than a week. We don’t dwell on the past, is it putting food on my table?
Q. I remember that someone asked you if you will establish your own radio station. You were not comfortable with that question, why?
Radio stations are no longer making money they were making then. We have other platforms. You must move with the times.
Q. You always call your mother ‘Abada’. Why are you so passionate about that name?
I am from Awka in Anambra State and we call people by their nick names. That’s the name we call her. But bear in mind the love between mother and child is very strong. You cannot rule that out. When the father is not around, the mother toughens up and these are some of the things that sharpen me.
So, my story is not different from any other person. I still talked about her on radio today because if you remember certain things… though now we laugh over them. Growing up was not funny, however, being on radio and sharing those experiences on radio flows better with some people. People will understand you better when you are talking on radio because you talk about issues that are relatable.
That helps your radio show and helps me as an actor on TV because by the time you are talking to people and relating real life situations, they see reason with you and understand the situation and that’s what makes me who am.
Q. You started your professional career as an actor in 1995. You have featured in one of the longest running TV series Flatmates. What has changed between then and now?
Once money is being pumped into the industry everything will improve. Thank God for the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Showmax. These organizations have done a lot for the industry. Actors now earn better and script writers will go out of their way to write quality scripts. Why some script writers don’t write certain things in their stories is because as a producer, if they write where car exploded, where am I going to see money that will buy a car that would be exploded or a car that will be destroyed.
Some of these things limit the script writer from the beginning. Even if the writer wants to write how they burnt down the house, the producer will ask, with which money? Because you know that when you do such, Netflix will evaluate your movie and say waoo, you really burnt a house; your story line is beautiful. Your acting is on point; they will pay for it because they see value in what you have given to them.
Back then, we tried without government support but when these movie companies now came, you will not be scared to spend the money. If I come to you and say I want to shoot a movie with ₦300m and I have done my estimation and budget analysis with Netflix and they said once I finish they will buy . If you have the ₦300m, you will give me because you know Netflix has agreed to bankroll it. So, if I want to burn down a full house; I will do that with pleasure because it will be paid for.
Flatmates is better than what it was before because we were using one camcorder to shoot but now we use three camcorders and we try to straighten the story line to align with the current realities
Q. We’ve not seen much of you in movies of late.
I feature in movies but I also produce. I am producing two movies this year.
