Chigurl‘s meteoric rise in Nigerian popular entertainment might appear to have happened overnight, until I saw the four-part Netflix series Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy, wherein she spoke about how she started doing comedy in a male-dominated space and of course, her ability to mimic accents. From having her time slot in comedy shows, starring in music videos and movies, and currently hosting Airtel’s reality dating game show Dating game Nigeria, Chigurl is showing no signs of slowing down.
In a recent interview with Pulse, Chigurl spoke candidly about always wanting to be an actress. Surprisingly, at least for me, she revealed that she would have acquired skills to be on Broadway if not for the tragic September 11 attacks that happened in America. ”Before returning to Nigerian I was supposed to go to New York to do Broadway but after September 11, I just said, let’s leave New York and focus on other things, then my dad called and asked me to come home.”
”I couldn’t use my mouth to tell my father I want to do theatre arts, how would I have put it to an air force officer? He would have probably said, you come back to Nigeria and act here, not abroad, where we are spending foreign currency. I won’t have even had the nerve to ask him so I just said, let me just get this degree and find a way of going about my flair of acting.”
Broadway is such a big deal, and it’s been the springboard for many Hollywood actors like Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Kristen Bell, to name a few. Maybe I’m biased, but I’m one of those who cackles at Chigurl’s jokes and I thought her scenes in Chief Daddy were great. That said, I don’t think she should give up on her dreams to be on Broadway. Chigurl, if you are reading this, go for it!
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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