It’s now I want to start comedy, says Klint da Drunk

Tell us briefly about yourself? My name is Afamefuna Clint Igwemba, popularly known as Klint Da Drunk. I am from Anocha local government area of Anambra State. I am married. I am a father of two boys and live in Lagos State, but I move around a lot. I’m a comedian who goes for shows […]

Tell us briefly about yourself?

My name is Afamefuna Clint Igwemba, popularly known as Klint Da Drunk. I am from Anocha local government area of Anambra State. I am married. I am a father of two boys and live in Lagos State, but I move around a lot. I’m a comedian who goes for shows here and there. I am proud to tell you that I am the only comedian in Nigeria who does his jokes in pure English language. I studied Fine and Applied Arts in school. I’m actually a painter.

What are your sources of income?

Comedy is my major source of income because that was what really pushed me out into the limelight. It is the career that I used to come out into the public eye.

Why did you choose comedy?

Comedy has always been in me right from when I was small. The truth is this: I have always loved comedy. I have always wanted to be able to do or say something to make people happy. I love making people happy; it is a thing in me. Believe me, if I should be allowed to choose another thing I will do in this life, I will choose something that will still have a lot of comedy involved in it.

What is your kind of jokes?

Unlike so many other comedians, I don’t do vulgar jokes. I just go straight to what is at hand there and then use it. It is so much fun when you can use something around you to create so much happiness in people’s lives.

Where do you get inspirations from?

It is a talent. It’s actually from God. I can see something going on and instantly, the idea comes into my head and I just see that thing I’m meant to say that will make people happy. I can’t explain how it comes. So, it has to be God that puts it there.

Who is your role model?

When I started comedy, there were no people that you could say ‘that’s my role model or this is my role model’. The only people we knew about were those in abroad – Eddy Murphy and the likes, but all those were not staged. They were movies. I just love the funny things that they were saying and all I wanted to do was just to be involved in this thing.

How did you get into comedy?

When I entered school, I was not really a comedian. I was a musician, but then, we had this guy in our village who was the caretaker of our house. His name was Scatter Mojo. Scatter was this kind of village guy that you will call to come and pound yam, kill cows, kill goats and everything in events. And after doing that, when you pay Scatter, Scatter will go and ‘Scatter’ the money on drinks. Sometimes, they give him drinks, give him the money but he drinks and still go ahead to use the money to buy more drinks. He kept on doing that until the time came when he would come into the house, we would watch Scatter dangle, sing and say all sort of things which to us, was amusing. So, sometimes, I got in front of the mirror we have in the house and started practising what Scatter was doing. I never knew I was grooming myself for the future. One day in school, there was a show and I was billed to perform and then Tuface came into IMT (Institute of Management and Technology) at that period. He sang before me. When the guy went on stage and sang, my career changed. Everyone was taking turns to do one thing or the other and I was wondering, ‘what will I do?’ By the time it came to my turn, I decided to do that thing Scatter used to do and I did the thing; and they loved it. That was when I started working on it.

Tell us about your early adventures?

When I finished from school in 2000, I went to Port Harcourt. hustling. The job wasn’t paying. Nobody really knew it then. It wasn’t called comedy. However, they started recognising me. Instead of answering Osofia, Ali Baba, Julius Agwu, Okeh Bakassi and Yibbo Koku especially, told me to change my name. Ali Baba actually gave me a name then: Clint Drunkhood and at a time we now changed it to Klint-Da-Drunk. My name is Clint and I act as the drunk.  Instead of the ‘the’, I had to change it to ‘Da’ to give it an interesting arrangement. It continued like that until what we have today.

What is your assessment of the comedy business in Nigeria?

It is like every other business. It comes out, it blows. We have people in it just because of the money. We have people in it because of the passion. When it started, we were just people that were there mainly because of the passion. During the Ali Baba time, they were so passionate about comedy. There were no financial gains then, but they kept on moving. At my first time of performing at the ‘Night of Thousand Laughs’, I could see other comedians because some people laid a foundation.

My father actually called me one day and asked ‘is it through this thing you are doing that you are going to make your money in life?’ He wasn’t happy until he saw me buy the first car in my life and he started telling me that there were jokes from the village he could tell me. Right now, a young chap can actually tell the parent he wanted to be a comedian and the parent will talk about it, but in our own time, there was nothing to talk about. Somehow, I’m happy for the movement (business). It is no more a hobby. It’s no more a passion. It’s now an industry.

What else are you into apart from comedy?

Comedy is a full time job. There are so many angles to comedy. You will find that out if you try to dabble into all of them. Each of them can settle you for your life, but if you try to dabble into all of them, you will die before your time. Unless I open a shop somewhere and keep somebody there to manage it and you know that most times when you do something like that, you lose. If you take comedy seriously, you will know that it’s a full time job. Do you know that for almost a month, I have not been able to get to my house because it has been from one place to another. In fact, as a comedian, sometimes you create the space for you to go and rest.

How does your stage name affect your kids?

I wish my father would had been known as Mr. Stupid, as long as he pays my school fees and he treats me well and I know who my father is.

Why did you decide to act a drunk?

The truth is this; I answer Da-Drunk because I want to make people understand the way they are when they are drunk. You make mockery of yourself when you are drunk. In a public show where you have a lot of people, especially some illiterates, I always end my act by saying ‘drink responsibly’. It’s one thing at a time. There are so many things to talk about. I wish other people can come out and show people how they behave when they smoke weeds and take drugs.

Do you drink alcohol?

No, I don’t take alcohol. It is not that I can’t drink, but I just don’t take it because I don’t want to set a bad example. And second, it’s not good for my health. When I take it, even just a glass, it gives me headache for like three days and my doctor advised me not to take it, that it’s not good for my body.

Do you have any ambition to delve into politics?

No, I don’t have any (political ambition). I know myself; I’m not channeled to something like that. I would rather be a well-known philanthropist than a politician. I can support a politician, but I can’t be one. There are a lot of things involved that I can’t personally handle.

How much time do you have for your family?

Yes, I do have time for my family. I talk to my manager; there are some periods I will just tell them “No shows this period”. I want to devote my time to my kids. I find out that I spend more time with my kids than most people that work in so many other places. For example, in Lagos most parents leave home before their kids wake up in the morning and return late at night when the children are asleep. They only have time with their kids on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of the time, we don’t have shows on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I can be at home with my kids from morning till night on these days.

What’s the next big thing for you?

I’m just starting. I have a project that I’m working on right now. Believe me, by the time that project hits the country, then I will start comedy. I’m looking at before the end of this year by the grace of God, because that thing is something that every single Nigerian would benefit from. They will love it, they will cherish it. It’s going to help a lot of people.