Julius Agwu
In June 2013, during the celebration of his 40th birthday in Lagos, Nigerian comedian, Julius Agwu unveiled his biography, a book titled ‘Jokes Apart: How Did I Get Here’.
The book is a detailed chronicle of his life, upbringing, and path to success as a Comedian and entrepreneur.
In the book, Julius Agwu writes, ‘My mother, Mary Welebor Agwu,
gave birth to me on a quiet, rain drenched evening on Saturday April 7,
1973 at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching hospital and I was
raised in a village called Choba. Choba is famous because it was the
host community for Willbros, the oil services company
that was very prominent in the James Ibori saga. She was glad to have me
pop out having been in labour for hours, long hours during which she
thought she would bleed to death; an experience she had never gone
through despite having given birth to four children before me.’
Jokes Apart – Julius Agwu
‘I grew up as the son of a man who was a part-time bricklayer,
part-time hunter, part-time okada rider and sometimes, part-time father.
Now don’t get me wrong, my father, Augustine Wamadi Agwu,
was not a bad father, he was just a very busy man. When you are a
part-time bricklayer, you don’t wait for jobs to come to you; no way.
You wake up every morning and look far into the horizon; where ever you
see or smell work, you chase it down. And my father did that, chasing
jobs as far away as Patani in what is now Delta state; he was also part
of the crew that built Okrika grammar School. If you look inside the
Michael West dictionary and check under the entry for hustler, you will
see my father’s picture!’