Comedian , Buchi Accuses Colleagues Of Stealing His Jokes

A popular comedian, Onyebuchi Ojieh, aka Buchi, has said that he has never had the challenge of people not taking him seriously because he is only a comedian when he is on stage.

In an interview with Saturday Beats, he stated that unlike some comedians who claim that ladies do not take their love advances seriously because of their profession, he has not had such experience. He said, “It is funny when comedians say this. This could happen because some people are comedians all the time. I am not a comedian every time. When I am on stage, I am a comedian but when I am off stage, I am Buchi. I try to marry both of them. I have never had that problem of people not taking me seriously. Before I got married, ladies took me seriously. One must be able to draw the line.”

The Delta State-born funnyman also accused some comedians of plagiarising his jokes, he said, “I am one of the comedians who have suffered joke theft the most. But, what can one do? As soon as the joke leaves my mouth, it is no longer mine. Even if I say that no one should steal my jokes, there is always that place where I will not be present and someone else will use my jokes.

“We (comedians) can’t copyright jokes and nothing can be done on the issue of stealing jokes; at least for now. Maybe in the future, proper copyrighting may be done on it.”

Describing his journey in the industry so far, he said, “My experience in the industry has been grand. Initially, I was doing comedy in the church and I used to wear a costume. During that period, many people did not know me. From there, I started going to other churches for performances.

“When I decided to settle for comedy and not what I studied in the university, it wasn’t a hard decision to make because I had already done a lot of comedy performances (before I got into the university).”