 We're glad to know you're still there and watching The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We did say that we're going to bring you something on the future of the Nigerian theater and the power of telling our own stories. A lot of times we see America in the light that they want us to see it because of the kind of movies that we watch. We do not know about the crime rate, the poverty and everything that goes on in America. We only know what Hollywood or Hollywood rather shows us. But what does our own theater, what do our own movies talk about? Do we tell our stories through that? So we have an investment banker with us today who is also the CEO of Duke of Smolu Productions, the person of Mr. Edgar Joseph. Welcome to the program. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. When movies or home videos came up, a lot of people thought that theater will die. You, as an investment banker, delve into it. What is it looking like? Let's begin from that. Oh, okay. It's very exciting. Do you understand? So when I hear people make that statement, I just laugh because there's not what to be invested around. We call it Chinese Wall, but not as strong as the Chinese Wall. But the markets are kind of different. Market between movies and theater is kind of different. Do you understand? So you can also, even for that delineated, even by age, demographics, and then income status and things like that. So for example, the kinds of people who watch football and the kinds of people who follow polo. Do you understand? That's how it is too. So those who watch movies are a little bit different from those who come to theater. Even though I begin to see a slight mix of both markets. But it seemed like there was a time that it seemed very low and there's a revival now. Don't you think so? Yes. I also don't want to agree with that notion that there was a time when it was very new. I hear that a lot. But the fact that there was no real publicity with the way it is going now didn't mean that very strong theater adherents are not doing their jobs. It didn't mean that people were not going to see plays, people like Chuck Mike, I don't even say that life was doing shows on the regular. Places like Museum Kitchen were doing shows on the regular, National Theater were doing shows in some sort of places, do you understand? All over the country. So I don't say it was low. It was low at the same time where a lot of things were low in this country during the military era. Okay, so now let us have an insight into what you feel the power, what the feel theater can do in telling our stories. Because we can only be seen the way we tell people about who we are. How much power does theater have to put us out there in the light that we want people to see us? Theater is very powerful too, if not more powerful than movies. The only advantage a movie has over theater in my own estimation that could be wrong is rich. Do you understand? But theater is much more powerful because of the intimacy during it with the audience. So we are just coming from a kitchen now where we did the playing for a G.E. Do you understand? And I kid you not, that whole set a thousand people, seven of them were crying, seven of them were in tears. Seven of them, it was just a mass hysteria of tears because of the intimacy, the immediacy, the power of that engagement. Do you understand? But you know what I'm watching a movie on screen, so there's a little bit of detachment. I guess we know. So theater is a very powerful tool for telling our stories. Very powerful too. I should know because we've done this for seven years and we're seeing the reactions from the people. It may not be as much as we would expect from movies but it's much more what we're putting out, intimate. Okay, well you're talking about intimate, it makes me remember some of the plays that you have done that some are very controversial, some are very thought provoking and so much more. I remember you did something like Threesome, you did something like Anonymous in April. And then you did A Husband Has Gone Mad, The Duke Has Gone Mad. But what interests me mostly is why you chose to select some figures in Nigeria to tell their story. What do you intend to achieve? I'm a very passionate Nigerian. I'm a very, very passionate Nigerian. I believe in the sanctity of this country, geographically or otherwise. So I want to use this platform to push that story of unity. So in doing that, I have to push stories of leaders in our recent past who in their activities do get pushed for that unity. They understand. So I don't know if you may not agree with me but with some of the people I've decided to showcase. But in my own estimation, I think those people had laid the building blocks for where we are today. Nigeria is a very strong country. Most countries cannot go through where we are going to and see the main country. So the foundations of this country, that's why I don't agree with you about who said Nigeria has a geographical inspiration. Nigeria has a very strong foundation. That's why what everybody is going on today now, we are still in the country. Are you getting me now? Are you guys going to the country? Go and try these things in another place and see what's going to happen. If you just back an eyes and thought to what happened and not even which was happening here, are you getting me now? So we need to keep telling these stories so that upcoming, there are more stories for my generation. I'm telling stories for the younger people. Do you understand? So they can see that we have leaders. We don't have leaders anymore. What we have now is the pirates. We have leaders. People who kill their lives. People who took decisions. There are affected millions with our personal gain. People. Just 20, 30 years down the line. I don't talk about 100, but I'm talking about people. 20, 30 years. People like Jack only. Do you get it? So today, what kind of leaders are we trying out out there? And theater acts must continue to be a weapon to fight social injustice. Do you think Nolly Wood is using that way for it? I don't know about that. I don't talk about them. I don't watch their movies. I don't talk about them. What do you have seen? It's very difficult for Nolly Wood to do that because it's a profit-driven enterprise. And what drives them is market. What does market want? So what is the fuel of Nolly Wood youth? What drives youth sex fashion? Are you getting me now? Soft stories. Gossip. So Nolly Wood has to do that line. That's why I've shot a documentary now on Nigerian theater. Nigerian theater. And this is it. Nobody's carrying it. All these live streaming, they say they don't do documentary. It's not a fault because there's no market. Are you getting me now? So I don't rely on market to do my productions. I get my funding. So I can tell the market to shift. Okay, let's have some of the names that you have done in your plays. And the stories that you wanted people to learn from each of the stories that you got. I remember that you have Awu and did something on Awu. And I know that you are doing something on Fadouin now. Let's keep that for later. A list of people that you have worked on and why you did that. So for Awu, I wanted to bring out the power of the woman. I think the Nigerian woman is not serious. They were kidding me, but it was the truth. So do we have those kind of women leaders in the country today? Do you know that Awu's wife was the first person to ever hold a broom in the political campaign? The Apes gang up on that. Because she was sleeping in her shop when they called her that Zeke is around. So she didn't know where she ran with the broom to go for that meeting. Do you also know that Awu's wife was the first woman to campaign to contest for election to be prime minister of the president of the country? Do you also know that Awu's wife was the one, the government went to go and meet to say, Tell your husband to beg and we'll release him. And she told him to get out. So we told that story from the worst angle. So a lot of people came for the play, thinking they would say, Awu, they saw each other. And then on the play. So that was the record court of women. There's a scene in that play where she was on the floor when they told her that her son had just died. Her first son, on his way to Lagos to defend his father, died. She came at the woman, her husband was a prison son, died. He was just on the floor. And her husband sang, sang, sang, sang. She sang, sang, sang. She sang, sang, sang. She sang, sang, sang. And then she stood up. That's what made that story. Are you seeing now? Which one again? You did something on Aremu? Yes. So Aremu's own race, you both. Aremu's own spirituality of it all. Do you get it? There's something called manifest destiny leadership. There are people, they're born to be leaders. What we have today are charlatans in power. That's why they cannot rise up. There's something in it about leadership. They're very spiritual. So what we have today now, 90% of the general leaders today, those of you who book up in Monseca want to be leaders. For primary reasons. That's why I can see that decision-making and see the kind of policies that are throwing. What's your most spiritual image? It's a spiritual leader. There's a spirituality about it. A lot of people will not agree with you anyway. No, no, no. They will not agree with me. They will not agree with me. I'm eccentric. I'm different. I don't give a damn about what people think about me. When somebody was born right from the womb, he has been fighting conquests from the womb. His mother kept dreaming that they want to eat him. And all of his life, three women, all of his life, they're playing a role. He sees those women until tomorrow morning. Are you getting me now? And then he escapes death at every little point in time. At the point when he's about to die, he will escape. And then he had a dream. When he was in Abacha's cell, his mother came to him in the dream. And his mother said, Did we die before you? And the next morning he woke up and said, Abacha has died. So the spirituality, if all that play, you will see too many stories of Oba Sejo's political movements or the spirituality of it all. We brought those three women. We brought the confusion between his parents, Christian religion and traditional religion. His name is Matthew. His name is Aaron. It's a scene where he was facing death, Abacha's death. And the mother came and said, Mother Ruth from the womb said, It's time for us to do what we need to do. And he said, No. But you gave me Matthew. He said, Live now for now. Are you getting me now? So there is spirituality of it all. So if you look at all these leaders that we have showcased, you see spirituality of it all. How will you see spirituality of it all? Just as the spirituality of it all. Do you get me now? So these are people and that's why they were able to achieve immortality. Do you get it? So I sat down in the kitty last weekend and I said, What did I will do that Tilum is not doing today? What did I will do? I was a politician. Tilum was a politician. I was partisan. Tilum was partisan. I was basically school. Tilum was basically school. But Tilum achieved that level of immortality. Okay. So we have just like two minutes now. Let me just ask you this. You're exporting Fadri and all that to the UK? No. So what is your target audience there? The people who are not Nigerian or the Nigerian community? You have to be selfish about this conversation. You have to be selfish about this conversation. So where are we going to UK? We are going to UK initially because of pressure. There is no Nigerian diaspora saying, Oh you need to bring these things over. You have to bring these things over. You have to bring these things over. You have to bring these things over. That was our initial consideration. But in the last 2-3-4 months we have been doing dollar analysis. My thinking now is that we need to start earning dollars. We need to start earning forex as a nation. We can't just be chopping, chopping, chopping. We need to start bringing it in. And so my thinking is that there are two types of industries that can do this. Those that can do the short-term, those that can do the mid-to-long-term. So short-term industries are people like us who are in the media entertainment. We can take the show there, end the loss and bring it back home. While the man who is in our Greek we take him 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 months to get his tomatoes ready. While the man who is buying drinkers we take him wherever he gets him now with all of the challenges that comes with all of that. So I can only cost more money. You get it, budget. You get it. See, it's covered up now in our models. You get it. I was going to give us 200 people on stage. Any good money. I was good, most likely sell about 100,000 pounds in tickets. Any given now. So if you're lucky that comes back into the system. You get it. So I imagine we now have so all I see here now is that we're having music being exported. But government has not really found out how to put structure around it that influence due to taxation and all of that. So you can imagine if we have 10, 15, 20 production assets of our 30, 40 big concerts that these guys have been buying Nigerian promoters, not American promoters because what we see here now is that international promoters are taking our big stars out and you're paying them their fee. So what Nigerians most likely getting is that small part of that is the fee that is sending back home to go buy something for the lucky. But the made, 90% of the humongous revenues are being made by so we need Nigerian promoters to go out there, promote Nigerian concerts. Do you hear me now? Or bring back those Nigerian jazz in here to make those big concerts so that people can be coming in and you see me now. So that's just like too many reasons why we take it out to the UK. Okay, we will be talking with Joseph Edgar. He is the what do I call you CEO? What do I call you? I'm a spiritual leader. He runs Duke of Svalu Productions and we're glad to have had you on the program. Good luck with your 5UE. When are you staging it? 5th of November. So what we'll be talking about here is the power of telling our own stories and he has been telling stories and we're encouraging you whatever you do to be the ambassador of Nigeria and tell our stories the way they should be told. We'll just take a short break and when we return we talk tech a little bit. Stay with us.