Nigerian stand-up comedian and actor, Onyebuchi Ojieh, popularly known as Buchi, has accused his colleagues of stealing his jokes.
The Delta-born graduate made the allegation during an interview as he noted that he is one of the most plagiarised comic act.
He said that people often tell his jokes at shows in his absence, but he noted that once the stories leave his mouth they no longer belong to him so he can’t do anything.
Buchi 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.”
Speaking on his relationship lfe, the actor said he has not had challenges with ladies taking him seriously unlike some comedians who claim that ladies do not take their love advances seriously because of their profession.
Buchi 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. 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, the comedian 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).”
