Bimbo Manuel is a Nigerian actor, playwright and Director. Jerry ADESEWO caught up with him in Abuja during the shooting of a new drama series title Purple Plaza. He bares his minds on various issues relating to the project and the film industry.
Tell us about yourself
There is nothing extra ordinary about me. I am human. I am male. I am Bimbo Manuel.
Who is Bimbo Manuel?
I am a Yoruba man. Unrepentantly so. And I am a Nigerian by virtue of my being a Yoruba man.
There has always been this issue of actors been born or made. Where do you belong?
I have always tried to avoid getting entangled in such definitions of how actors get into existence because it can start from wherever as far as I know. You can grow from training and diligence. You can also be naturally gifted. If you are gifted but do not work at developing that yourself to enhance that talent. It soon fades away. Gift alone is not enough. You need training. There are technicalities to it. It is science as much as it is an art. It is not just a thing you walk on the stage and start doing it or you walk in front of a camera and you start to do it. There are principles. There are technicalities to it. It is a science as much as it is an art. Yes, very high art.
When and how did your sojourn into acting as a career started?
It has been a while. I actually started out radio as a broadcaster. That was at Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation in the late 70s and 80s. Then I decided to further my education. I study Theater Arts under the late Ola Rotimi, majoring in Directing at the University of Porthacourt. The way we were trained. Even if it was stage management you are doing, you are required to be proficient in order areas of theatre. So, as a director especially, you were trained with the consciousness that if you don’t know an aspect of theatre, you can’t direct people in it. So you were required to know everything about theatre as a director. I guess that was where it all started from. When we left school there were not very many directing jobs available then so we were sharing our times between working as director small-small projects and acting. Acting became the main thing that was putting food on the table and I guess that was why people have grown to know me more as an actor. And ofcourse there is the hedge of you standing in front of a camera. Many people don’t know who the directors are. Most people don’t. So that is basically how it all started.
Can you record which your first movie was?
When we went into the electronics. We started out on television. And that was of course on NTA because that was the only place it was happening then, you know. We were been paid between N20 to N40per episode. Pink paper and they will owe for a long time. A think that was the way it started but if I am to define how it started for me in films. I would say its Hostages. We shot Hostages when there was no film industry but it came out as home video. It was initially shot for the television by Tade Ogidan. If we were defining in terms of time I will say its Hostages but film…film being a video feature. Can I really remember now? It was when it all started for everyone else. Home video, Em…92-93 or thereabout. There was Glamour Girls. There was something Millionaires…I can’t really remember now.
Beyond acting and directing…how much of writing have you done?
Haa…(laughs) I have done quite of writing. I write comedies. When you say comedies, we’ll be defining a broad genre of creative writing but the type that I like to do is more is more dialogue content driven not the Ha-Ha slapstick type. I have never been really been a fan of those. I have done Mama Grace, a couple of video feature scrpts and now Purple Plaza. I have done quite a bit.
That rings us to why you are here in Abuja. What is Purple Plaza all about?
It is the brain child of the management of NTA Plus. I was brought in because they had seen something that I did. They wanted something like Mama Grace. They were coming from somewhere. They were coming from Area 11 which I learnt was a very successful local comedy drama. They wanted to go to the next level with it to fill some of their drama slot in the week. That was how we got together and started to discuss it. We conference it and started to write the script. We have started shooting and it’s looking good. It’s been fun for me because I am getting to meet very new and fresh faces and very gifted too. Especially in a place like Abuja here. The general assumption has always been that all the stars are down south but it is amazing the kind of talents I have found here.
Some of the characters I have seen in this play, are they a depiction of some living character of a product of your own creative ingenuity? What exactly do they represent as far as this play is concerned?
Each of those character, I created by myself. I was not looking at anyone who is alive or dead. I was not even looking at characters or individual. I was looking more at situations. I was looking at people who function usually in situations like that. I was looking at scenarios and the people who play themselves out in scenarios like that. I was also looking to working the undercurrents of my own convictions as a person into some of those lines that they say and some of the attitudes of the characters. We have people like Musa and Uche for instance who are from very diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Yet they are in the market selling individual things. They are selling totally different things. They are friends. They are constantly quarrelling and constantly making up. Nothing last. They work to understand each other. For me, it’s depictive of the Nigerian society. For those who are able to see beyond the laughter, they would be able to ask the same question that we are raising if truly that is how we live on the street and we don’t remember the tribe where the other person come from. We are we forever killing ourselves bothering about religion and tribe while in reality we live and work in the same place. You see, Nigerians really don’t care which religion or tribe you belong. People want to eat. They want wake up in the morning knowing that there breakfast is guaranteed; they can look forward to supper and lunch is taking for granted. That they can ride on the road without anybody chasing them down. That they can aspire for greatness. That’s all people want I think. I may also be willing to admit that I may be living in Kukuland, in Uthopia. What’s wrong with that? (Laughs)
How do you think Nigerians will connect to the situations you depict?
People are always going to be able to find themselves in the different characters you find in Purple Plaza. There are the good, the bad and the ugly. Nobody deliberately set out to be evil. Even the good people are not committing themselves to goodness. There are things that come to us as human being naturally. There is a goodness that we need to work hard at because it is more difficult than being bad. So people are going to be able to find themselves in such situation. You see, we don’t laugh. We are not able to laugh at ourselves. Maybe if you find something of yourselves in pieces like that you will be able to hit the pillow in rib cracking laughter (laughs) and say waoh! That looks like the same kind of thing I did the other day. We also will be able to also pick up little nuggets of lessons and wisdom. In that same environment of stupidity and fun and crime and so on people are still working hard to be their individual selves. Musa wants to be Musa. Uche wants to be Uche. They all have aspirations. They are chasing something. Mama Philo is there. Wireless has her goals. Asppapy has objectives. It is about objectives. All of them are chasing their goals. They are traveling somewhere but how they get there is different person to person. That’s also the strength.
How long is this series intended to last?
Infinity.
What is your opinion of remunerations artists between then and now?
Oh no! (Laughs) Those time, don’t even go there now o! In fact, you must not think about it. You know that apart from stage, NTA was the only employer of acting labour. And you know they are free then to choose what they pay anyone. Why they pay people what they pay, people like us may never know. May be relative to their budget. In relative to the importance of those project to them. You can’t compare what happens those days to now. People earn more decent fees now and we thank God for that. It has made it a lot more interesting for people. That does not imply by any stress of imagination that artistes are getting their dues. No! Not in 2008. There is no reason why anyone should offer you N10,000 even as a lowly actor, an extra which we call waka pass. What kind of money is that? But then we are going. It is not what it uses to be in the 80s or the 90s. It is far better.
What is the future of live theatre in Nigeria?
We need to first ask what the future dramatic writing for stage in Nigeria is. What happen to the generation of writers, dramatists that seems to be fading away now. Dod they leave any children behind? No. What has Wole Soyinka led behind to fell his shoe? Who has Ola Rotimi left behind to write like him? Who is taking over from the Osofisans of this world? The Niyi Osundares, Amos Tutuolas, Zulu Sofolas. Who is taking over from them? We don’t have. And if you are not writing, you are not raising the bar in art, it will die naturally because it starts from there. Unless you are going to be recycling the same old plays and very soon every body will see it. That is number one; the other reason is that the society is not safe anymore. People can’t take their children to the theater the way it use to be. There that those people are no travelling theatres like they use to bring it to us our school then. It doesn’t exist anymore. Even in the universities where they have Dramatic Arts Department, how many productions are happening? And you see, we like to use film and home video as the excuse for the reason why theatre is dying or are dead. I think theater killed itself because theater did not recreate itself. It did not rejuvenate itself. It did not move with the tides in Nigeria, There are no new things happening. It’s sad really because our professionals must feed so naturally they will migrate to radio and film and television because theatre cannot guarantee their earnings. You tie an actor down for three months, rehearsing one piece and he ended up performing only for one night. For one Kabiyesi, Governor and the President who probably do not even understand what the story is saying. What is the use as a dramatist? There are jobs that have been playing for generations and they are still active. On Broadway, Westend, everywhere. If you get a project that plays for one month, it’s exceptional. How do you feed the people, the stage manager, the actors, the set man, the technical people and the director? How do you feed them when you have only one show in a month? After that one he doesn’t know what happen because you cannot keep them in the job. Theatre is dead and I think theatre kill itself.
Nigeria’s film industry is rated the 3rd largest in the world. What is your take on this considering it side by side with Hollywood and Bollywood?
That is an embarrassment. I have always found that statement as a major amusement. Is it the proliferation of crap that they are using to define the size of the industry or what? We may be growing horizontally but are we growing vertically? Are we growing in intellect? Are we growing in capability? Are we building capacity in that industry? How are we travelling? Are we able to enter places where true film makers enter with our projects? For me that is what will define our status. Bollywood is not saying they are the second largest because they produce the greatest number of films but because after Hollywood they are probably the best producers of films. And it will be fair for them to label themselves as such. China is there. China is producing. Hong Kong is there producing. Is it because we don’t hear there numbers? Who is giving us those titles now? That is how we go about the world parting ourselves on the back with these awards and that award. Awards that Nigerians are giving to Nigerians and we call them International awards. What have we won on the true global film stage? What have we won with our films? Tutsi has won. Cool Running from Jamaica has won. What has Nigeria won in Quagadogou? Nothing now! In FESPACO, what have we won? Not things won by Nigerians in Europe but those won by Nigerians here who are producing films.
Your last word
It is well.
Tell us about yourself
There is nothing extra ordinary about me. I am human. I am male. I am Bimbo Manuel.
Who is Bimbo Manuel?
I am a Yoruba man. Unrepentantly so. And I am a Nigerian by virtue of my being a Yoruba man.
There has always been this issue of actors been born or made. Where do you belong?
I have always tried to avoid getting entangled in such definitions of how actors get into existence because it can start from wherever as far as I know. You can grow from training and diligence. You can also be naturally gifted. If you are gifted but do not work at developing that yourself to enhance that talent. It soon fades away. Gift alone is not enough. You need training. There are technicalities to it. It is science as much as it is an art. It is not just a thing you walk on the stage and start doing it or you walk in front of a camera and you start to do it. There are principles. There are technicalities to it. It is a science as much as it is an art. Yes, very high art.
When and how did your sojourn into acting as a career started?
It has been a while. I actually started out radio as a broadcaster. That was at Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation in the late 70s and 80s. Then I decided to further my education. I study Theater Arts under the late Ola Rotimi, majoring in Directing at the University of Porthacourt. The way we were trained. Even if it was stage management you are doing, you are required to be proficient in order areas of theatre. So, as a director especially, you were trained with the consciousness that if you don’t know an aspect of theatre, you can’t direct people in it. So you were required to know everything about theatre as a director. I guess that was where it all started from. When we left school there were not very many directing jobs available then so we were sharing our times between working as director small-small projects and acting. Acting became the main thing that was putting food on the table and I guess that was why people have grown to know me more as an actor. And ofcourse there is the hedge of you standing in front of a camera. Many people don’t know who the directors are. Most people don’t. So that is basically how it all started.
Can you record which your first movie was?
When we went into the electronics. We started out on television. And that was of course on NTA because that was the only place it was happening then, you know. We were been paid between N20 to N40per episode. Pink paper and they will owe for a long time. A think that was the way it started but if I am to define how it started for me in films. I would say its Hostages. We shot Hostages when there was no film industry but it came out as home video. It was initially shot for the television by Tade Ogidan. If we were defining in terms of time I will say its Hostages but film…film being a video feature. Can I really remember now? It was when it all started for everyone else. Home video, Em…92-93 or thereabout. There was Glamour Girls. There was something Millionaires…I can’t really remember now.
Beyond acting and directing…how much of writing have you done?
Haa…(laughs) I have done quite of writing. I write comedies. When you say comedies, we’ll be defining a broad genre of creative writing but the type that I like to do is more is more dialogue content driven not the Ha-Ha slapstick type. I have never been really been a fan of those. I have done Mama Grace, a couple of video feature scrpts and now Purple Plaza. I have done quite a bit.
That rings us to why you are here in Abuja. What is Purple Plaza all about?
It is the brain child of the management of NTA Plus. I was brought in because they had seen something that I did. They wanted something like Mama Grace. They were coming from somewhere. They were coming from Area 11 which I learnt was a very successful local comedy drama. They wanted to go to the next level with it to fill some of their drama slot in the week. That was how we got together and started to discuss it. We conference it and started to write the script. We have started shooting and it’s looking good. It’s been fun for me because I am getting to meet very new and fresh faces and very gifted too. Especially in a place like Abuja here. The general assumption has always been that all the stars are down south but it is amazing the kind of talents I have found here.
Some of the characters I have seen in this play, are they a depiction of some living character of a product of your own creative ingenuity? What exactly do they represent as far as this play is concerned?
Each of those character, I created by myself. I was not looking at anyone who is alive or dead. I was not even looking at characters or individual. I was looking more at situations. I was looking at people who function usually in situations like that. I was looking at scenarios and the people who play themselves out in scenarios like that. I was also looking to working the undercurrents of my own convictions as a person into some of those lines that they say and some of the attitudes of the characters. We have people like Musa and Uche for instance who are from very diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Yet they are in the market selling individual things. They are selling totally different things. They are friends. They are constantly quarrelling and constantly making up. Nothing last. They work to understand each other. For me, it’s depictive of the Nigerian society. For those who are able to see beyond the laughter, they would be able to ask the same question that we are raising if truly that is how we live on the street and we don’t remember the tribe where the other person come from. We are we forever killing ourselves bothering about religion and tribe while in reality we live and work in the same place. You see, Nigerians really don’t care which religion or tribe you belong. People want to eat. They want wake up in the morning knowing that there breakfast is guaranteed; they can look forward to supper and lunch is taking for granted. That they can ride on the road without anybody chasing them down. That they can aspire for greatness. That’s all people want I think. I may also be willing to admit that I may be living in Kukuland, in Uthopia. What’s wrong with that? (Laughs)
How do you think Nigerians will connect to the situations you depict?
People are always going to be able to find themselves in the different characters you find in Purple Plaza. There are the good, the bad and the ugly. Nobody deliberately set out to be evil. Even the good people are not committing themselves to goodness. There are things that come to us as human being naturally. There is a goodness that we need to work hard at because it is more difficult than being bad. So people are going to be able to find themselves in such situation. You see, we don’t laugh. We are not able to laugh at ourselves. Maybe if you find something of yourselves in pieces like that you will be able to hit the pillow in rib cracking laughter (laughs) and say waoh! That looks like the same kind of thing I did the other day. We also will be able to also pick up little nuggets of lessons and wisdom. In that same environment of stupidity and fun and crime and so on people are still working hard to be their individual selves. Musa wants to be Musa. Uche wants to be Uche. They all have aspirations. They are chasing something. Mama Philo is there. Wireless has her goals. Asppapy has objectives. It is about objectives. All of them are chasing their goals. They are traveling somewhere but how they get there is different person to person. That’s also the strength.
How long is this series intended to last?
Infinity.
What is your opinion of remunerations artists between then and now?
Oh no! (Laughs) Those time, don’t even go there now o! In fact, you must not think about it. You know that apart from stage, NTA was the only employer of acting labour. And you know they are free then to choose what they pay anyone. Why they pay people what they pay, people like us may never know. May be relative to their budget. In relative to the importance of those project to them. You can’t compare what happens those days to now. People earn more decent fees now and we thank God for that. It has made it a lot more interesting for people. That does not imply by any stress of imagination that artistes are getting their dues. No! Not in 2008. There is no reason why anyone should offer you N10,000 even as a lowly actor, an extra which we call waka pass. What kind of money is that? But then we are going. It is not what it uses to be in the 80s or the 90s. It is far better.
What is the future of live theatre in Nigeria?
We need to first ask what the future dramatic writing for stage in Nigeria is. What happen to the generation of writers, dramatists that seems to be fading away now. Dod they leave any children behind? No. What has Wole Soyinka led behind to fell his shoe? Who has Ola Rotimi left behind to write like him? Who is taking over from the Osofisans of this world? The Niyi Osundares, Amos Tutuolas, Zulu Sofolas. Who is taking over from them? We don’t have. And if you are not writing, you are not raising the bar in art, it will die naturally because it starts from there. Unless you are going to be recycling the same old plays and very soon every body will see it. That is number one; the other reason is that the society is not safe anymore. People can’t take their children to the theater the way it use to be. There that those people are no travelling theatres like they use to bring it to us our school then. It doesn’t exist anymore. Even in the universities where they have Dramatic Arts Department, how many productions are happening? And you see, we like to use film and home video as the excuse for the reason why theatre is dying or are dead. I think theater killed itself because theater did not recreate itself. It did not rejuvenate itself. It did not move with the tides in Nigeria, There are no new things happening. It’s sad really because our professionals must feed so naturally they will migrate to radio and film and television because theatre cannot guarantee their earnings. You tie an actor down for three months, rehearsing one piece and he ended up performing only for one night. For one Kabiyesi, Governor and the President who probably do not even understand what the story is saying. What is the use as a dramatist? There are jobs that have been playing for generations and they are still active. On Broadway, Westend, everywhere. If you get a project that plays for one month, it’s exceptional. How do you feed the people, the stage manager, the actors, the set man, the technical people and the director? How do you feed them when you have only one show in a month? After that one he doesn’t know what happen because you cannot keep them in the job. Theatre is dead and I think theatre kill itself.
Nigeria’s film industry is rated the 3rd largest in the world. What is your take on this considering it side by side with Hollywood and Bollywood?
That is an embarrassment. I have always found that statement as a major amusement. Is it the proliferation of crap that they are using to define the size of the industry or what? We may be growing horizontally but are we growing vertically? Are we growing in intellect? Are we growing in capability? Are we building capacity in that industry? How are we travelling? Are we able to enter places where true film makers enter with our projects? For me that is what will define our status. Bollywood is not saying they are the second largest because they produce the greatest number of films but because after Hollywood they are probably the best producers of films. And it will be fair for them to label themselves as such. China is there. China is producing. Hong Kong is there producing. Is it because we don’t hear there numbers? Who is giving us those titles now? That is how we go about the world parting ourselves on the back with these awards and that award. Awards that Nigerians are giving to Nigerians and we call them International awards. What have we won on the true global film stage? What have we won with our films? Tutsi has won. Cool Running from Jamaica has won. What has Nigeria won in Quagadogou? Nothing now! In FESPACO, what have we won? Not things won by Nigerians in Europe but those won by Nigerians here who are producing films.
Your last word
It is well.
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