Steve Onu is popularly known as Yaw on the entertainment scene. The tall and jovial personality is a man of many parts which sees him wearing the cap of a radio presenter, film and TV producer, as well as a stage play producer. However, the comedian has refused to wear the hat of a director.
In this interview with ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR GBENGA BADA, he explains why he can’t direct productions as well as his current production.
YOU seem to have embraced the role of a producer and actor well, would you be directing soon?
I refuse to direct because I’m too busy.
You have done a lot of producing, is that not taking you away from the Yaw we love to listen to on the radio?
No. My radio job is in the morning, I do my radio job and then in the afternoon, I produce. I went to the radio this morning and then I got here around 11. Once I finish radio I’m a free man. It’s the nature of the job, they believe you should go and do other things to refresh the head so you are not in one space too long because you will get tired.
What is up with your production outfit?
We are still producing, doing event coverage, and movies and that is all we are doing.
What has changed about Yaw in recent years?
A lot! Yaw has been involved in a lot of movie productions and doing other things. We just shot a new TV show “Sparadise’. It’s a humorous TV series, so that’s what yaw has been up to. Well, I’m still on the radio, the same radio station as wazobia FM. That’s what I have been doing with my time.
So, tell me more about your new production, Sparadise
Sparadise is a sitcom that I created. Originally I created it as a web series and then I wanted to do it last year but it’s a sitcom of the intrigues and happenings that happen when you go to a spa, all the gossip, and all of that. That’s just a short summary of what sparadise is all about. All the madness, fun, gossip, and all that you can get in a spa. This is a restaurant, it is important that people eat so we had to create a place where people can always come to eat. This is part of the set but the spa is in the main building.
For a lot of people, this is another series, what makes it different?
It’s a comedy and whether you like it or not, you can never have enough laughter with the situation of things in the country, we need more of it. So far we have things that are educational, interesting, and interactive, real-life situations that you just bring to bare. It will also stand on its own in the end and I think we can never have enough of it. It’s like we can never have enough musicians, so why not?
What informed your choice of the cast?
For the choice of cast, some of the actors were specifically written for the role. Kunle Remi, Ngozi Nwosu, the albino guy, Expatriate, Buchi, Senator, Lolo. Some of the characters were written for the series. I did an audition sometime last year for this same series and then we got other people from the audition.
How long will this last?
For now, we’ve shot 63 episodes but it’s supposed to run every day on StarTimes and so we are looking at a year but for now, it is 63 that we’ve shot.
We are used to seeing regular star faces. What is the percentage of up-and-coming artists as compared to stars in this show?
I think we have 50-50. We have 8-10 upcoming guys and then we have other guys who are the regular ones that we all know about. The cast is like 18-20 people.
Is this a commissioned series?
So like I said, I wrote it originally for the web so when they reached out to me that do you have anything we can bounce off, I said yes and they said let’s commission you to do us 63, and then once we are good with it we can look at how we can extend and expand. God created man from mud and then put the breath of life into them and that is the same way scripting is like that. You write a script and keep it, if there is no air into it, it doesn’t come to life and the star times came as that to make it possible.
Aside from the regular spa gossip is there something unique that will set sparadise aside from other sitcoms?
Will we have the spa, we also have the gossip that happens at the bar. We didn’t make the bar a posh bar so it’s a local bar where you have every kind of human being coming in to drink, gossip, quarrel, and fight. Don’t forget that 90 percent of the sitcom that you see on tv is our day-to-day reality. It is what is happening to everybody so it may not be too far from what you’ve seen but it is the delivery that is different. There is nothing that you want to sing that is different, there is nothing that you want to shoot that is different, it is the delivery that is different.
Are there plans to add more casts in the future?
Yes. To be truthful, in particular more comedians.
Why comedians?
Because it is a sitcom. It’s not easy to get regular actors to act in comedy. It is not that they are not good actors, it is not just their style. Back then in school, they did a play and then he was eleshin oba and he was acting and people were laughing. He’s not meant to be a comic character and he wasn’t saying anything to make anybody laugh, he was saying the lines Wole Soyinka wrote but when he delivers it people will be laughing. You cannot get serious actors to play comic roles. I’m adding more comedians. We’ve done them to play one or two scenes originally, we have brianjotter, a bold joint, and Acapella will also join us when we resume. We have Odogwu, and Dan the humorous, so we have many new actors we will add but mainly comedians.
You do a lot of stage production so how will you differentiate the two?
It is wide apart. This is more intensive. In a stage play with six weeks of rehearsals, you are okay but in this one, my head spins every day. When I gave StarTimes the budget for us to shoot, I gave them this budget last year in August or July. By the time we were ready to shoot they spoke to me finally in February this year. I could still manage it. The first diesel I bought was 1000 liters for about 300k. By the second time we were buying, we bought 700k. The third one was for 800k and then I submitted the budget last year. That is only diesel. The same problem with welfare is because the person said the budget that was given can’t work. It is not their fault. It’s not easy. If it’s a stage play, we just come out a few of us.
When they gave me the cost to construct this restaurant when we were ready to do it, everything scattered and I was thinking of what to do. I can’t go back to them, it’s not possible and I wanted to do this project, so one of the major men that I brought, some people even charge in dollars so that they can have things done so because of that it’s not as easy as it used to be.
After sparadise what is next?
I’m shooting movies, before the end of the year I should shoot 7-8 movies. Just one cinema production but the other ones are just content for tv.
If you have the opportunity to become the president of this country, what is the first thing you will work on?
If I have the opportunity to become the president of this great country, the first thing I would fix is the power. I will fix power because the thing I have noticed about Nigerians is we are hardworking people. The government hasn’t provided us with these things but we provide them for ourselves. Our lights, security, houses, and all…. all by ourselves to ourselves…so if I have the opportunity I will fix power so that people can grow well in their doings. The money we spend on our power alone is too much, too crazy! And gradually, we can start to have a train and electronic cars.
Despite all the flaws in the country, what exactly do you think the government is doing right?
This question ooo… laugh out loud. Oya you too answer for yourself o. Is there anything they are doing right? Health, Education, Road, Power, and minimum wages are still on how much? And yet the cost of living is so expensive, security, and children cannot go to good schools. You too answer o.
Is Yaw thinking of running for any political position in the near future?
The answer is a capital NO! I can never contest. Let me just stay at the corner to do and make my impact.