Mista Pierre's Fortified 45s Show
Mista Pierre's Fortified 45s Show - Season 3 Ep1 with Cyril Nri
Send us a text with your support, comments or feedback.
As the new year unfolds, I invite you to wrap yourself in the comfort of shared stories and profound insights with our guest, the profoundly talented Cyril Nri. His journey through stage, screen, and voice acting reveals the textured layers of an artist's life, embedded with the echoes of an Igbo heritage and the resilience of a culture.
Cyril's voice has breathed life into characters in ways that defy the norm, and his tales extend beyond performance, touching the Biafran war song of his youth and an enlightening narrative that traverses from personal to universal truths.
Venture with us through the pulsating heart of the Black diaspora, where tales of education, ambition, and struggle intertwine with the intricate dance of post-colonization and self-reclamation. The pioneers' journey, including my parents' own path, reveals the courage it takes to break new ground, with music like Nina Simone's anthems guiding the way towards freedom. Delicate threads of mentorship weave through our conversation, highlighting the transformative impact of progressive institutions and the mentors shaping tomorrow's artists and activists.
Join us as we reaffirm the vitality of laughter, the necessity of mental well-being, and the boundless potential of embracing one's passion.
Cyril's Chosen Songs
Nina Simone - I wish I knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Aswad - African Children
Reference Material
C L R James
George Lamming
Sam Selvon
Pan African Congress
Hosts: Mista Pierre
Producer: Mista Pierre
Mista Pierre's Fortified 45s Website
Mista Pierre's Instagram
Send us a text with your support, comments or feedback.
As the new year unfolds, I invite you to wrap yourself in the comfort of shared stories and profound insights with our guest, the profoundly talented Cyril Nri. His journey through stage, screen, and voice acting reveals the textured layers of an artist's life, embedded with the echoes of an Igbo heritage and the resilience of a culture.
Cyril's voice has breathed life into characters in ways that defy the norm, and his tales extend beyond performance, touching the Biafran war song of his youth and an enlightening narrative that traverses from personal to universal truths.
Venture with us through the pulsating heart of the Black diaspora, where tales of education, ambition, and struggle intertwine with the intricate dance of post-colonization and self-reclamation. The pioneers' journey, including my parents' own path, reveals the courage it takes to break new ground, with music like Nina Simone's anthems guiding the way towards freedom. Delicate threads of mentorship weave through our conversation, highlighting the transformative impact of progressive institutions and the mentors shaping tomorrow's artists and activists.
Join us as we reaffirm the vitality of laughter, the necessity of mental well-being, and the boundless potential of embracing one's passion.
Cyril's Chosen Songs
Nina Simone - I wish I knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Aswad - African Children
Reference Material
C L R James
George Lamming
Sam Selvon
Pan African Congress
Hosts: Mista Pierre
Producer: Mista Pierre
Mista Pierre's Fortified 45s Website
Mista Pierre's Instagram
You.
Speaker 3:Now that song is called Dujuro, but Abulayé Dear Bhatti. This amazing contemporary African musician is from Mali and was born into a griot family. Griots usually have the responsibility of keeping the stories of families and tribes alive in oral tradition. Now, where are my mellows? Please forgive me, my name is Mr Pierre. Welcome to 4545s, my first of 2024. Now some of you may be saying to yourselves P what's wrong with you? Why are you so mellow? Well, I'm trying to first ease myself into 2024. And secondly, in terms of my guest that I'm going to introduce to you shortly, this guy's a mellow cat. He brings calm, wisdom, jokes On the flip. He brings good vibes and positivity. This Beijing BF friend's been on stage and on the screen, from Star Wars to Queen Charlotte, juju Caesar to the Barber, shrock Chronicles with the National Theatre, and groundbreaking roles in the bill and this life. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the actor extraordinaire. Please welcome to 4545s, mr Cyril Inry. Hi Cyril, welcome to 4545s. How are you?
Speaker 4:doing brother. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thanks, pierre. Thanks for inviting me along.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, man, you've been busy. How are you having fun? How's your acting life? What's going on?
Speaker 4:The actor's life is really interesting. At the moment I've been doing a lot of voiceover, mainly because we had the SAG strike and we had the writer's strike and everything fell off like a cliff, and that's cool, though, because I got a new voiceover agent. I think about two years ago and during pandemic, or was it just before, I can't remember, but it worked out well.
Speaker 3:So yeah, you've got that booming voice, bass, erudite, ruler, lens, garage sort of rock.
Speaker 4:I'm not doing any, being chased around by George Galloway type Big brother house stuff.
Speaker 3:The voiceovers were good because, as you know, my cousin Sean who also suggested that I interview him or have a conversation rather he's done a lot of voiceover work as well. So you got the voice to do that and I'm going to do a little bit of research on you. Sir, you've done some voiceover for, like, is it games, video games or stuff like that as well?
Speaker 4:I've done quite a few, and it's weird because I've never played a video game in my life, because I'm a bit addictive, so way back when we used to still have sort of table tennis on the screen and Tetris. Of course those sorts of games. What I would find is that I would spend hours and hours of wasted time and then, you go. How did I get into this? It's like four hours of my day gone Just putting boxes into shapes Tessellation I think the word's called yeah and yeah. So yeah, I can't go there.
Speaker 3:So I don't do any video games myself, but the voiceover is that a new industry or burgeoning voiceover with video games? Is there like syndication involved? Or is it just a gig like you would do for anything else?
Speaker 4:It's a gig like you would do for anything else. Yeah, I mean, sadly they make a lot of money games and yet they don't quite have the payout.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking like if you're a song and you're performing a singer on that song, you would get usage.
Speaker 4:And you'd get the number of plays, but you don't get that.
Speaker 3:Generally it's a buyout.
Speaker 4:I think, unless you know, you're mega famous. I think they need to invent a new alphabet. Yeah, yeah, to put me past the Z list, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, that is an alphabet. Before I get that wrong, because I've already had an uppercut from is it Henry or Henry? Well, I've renounced it Henry. Right. And that's Igbo's surname, apparently, oh yeah, that's Igbo and that's is that the heart of the Igbo tribal region.
Speaker 4:It is actually the heart of the Igbo tribe. Yeah, the first Henry, I believe, came down the river, which is now called Henry, in 870 AD, something like that. Yeah, there's a little museum actually in the village, yeah, so, yeah, you can go and research it.
Speaker 3:So was that come with having that as your surname? Is that popular in your region? Or is it because of the, the, the, the sort of well it's.
Speaker 4:I mean it's from the family. So yeah, I suppose it's big. I suppose it's big. I don't know, you just you just live the stuff.
Speaker 3:But does it come with any sort of? I don't know.
Speaker 4:You can take. You can take those own titles and stuff. I haven't. I've chosen not to. You know I live here. It's very different. You know, I spent my first seven years in Nigeria and unfortunately quite a lot of that time was the Nigerian Biafran War, so the civil war. So one of the songs which didn't make it to this list because I couldn't quite work it out, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4:we had about 200 songs to filter through, but we got the carry on this, but there was a song which, as a kid you know, used to go something like, and that was a. That was a Biafran song and I couldn't. I used to have a 45 of it, but it disappeared somewhere between my mum passing and yeah. So I need to get that.
Speaker 3:now, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm what we call a crate digger. We like to find.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I couldn't tell you what it's called. I couldn't tell you what the words mean. It was part of my youth, yeah and yeah, and so that that's part of you know where I, but I live here now. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:I live a lot of places, yeah, but that's because, again, you're a global citizen. You're on the show as well. I want to touch on that. I want to talk about your early years. What's your early recollections of living in Nigeria, fanny?
Speaker 4:Well, I mean, you know, this was the 60s, right, I was born in 61. And yeah I, I mean I had an ideal life really, because my, my mum was Bajan, my mum's Bajan, or was Bajan, you know, and my mum and dad had met here in the 50s.
Speaker 3:Oh right.
Speaker 4:And then dad, like a lot of the contemporaries of the time you know, who had made it to uni generally through scholarship and stuff, they came here, they studied, they went back and ran major industries, you know, and my dad went back and essentially ran NITEL, the Nigerian Telephone Service Impressive. And then, yeah, as my uncle did with Reddy Kilowatt in Barbados, as my other uncle, Morris, did in Dominica, so you had, you had these pioneers.
Speaker 4:I mean this was the time of, you know, wallachianca and George Lamming and Sam Selvon and others. You know these are giants in their field and they, you know, in engineering, in science, in whatever, and they're not really recognised.
Speaker 3:But I think it's a great point. I think you know there's another parallel, several. Everybody's got a unique story, but what I'd like to impress is that like, for example, it wasn't just a Win-Worst story people there's several other people from the Black diaspora that had had a plan, had plans, ideas. So, for example, my dad he went to university. My granddad came from, came from a merchant, navy background, etc. Etc. All my uncles and uncles are highly educated or decently educated. My dad went to university, etc. And he came over here to what should have happened as part of colonisation etc. You should have had balanced education in terms of so when they came here they could just crack on, but obviously they had to re-study with a British certificate, you know to do that. And my dad went on to work in Q8 and then Middle East etc. So he had a plan and what he wanted to do. I think it's really important to know that. You know there's a lot of engineers that came over. I hope for additional qualification or practising etc.
Speaker 4:etc.
Speaker 3:And it's really interesting to hear that your family did that.
Speaker 4:I mean, there were loads of you know, we tend to skip over things, like you know the Pan-African Congress in. Manchester. And you know, these were giants, these people, and they came over, they, you know, and the reason that my mum met my dad was because my uncle, claude, who was also studying, in there was.
Speaker 4:You know he was in uni with my dad, Excellent and you know he had decided that the two other black guys on the course, you know, needed a decent meal and my mum and my aunt were here also studying Right and so he invited them round for Sunday lunch and you know, both those men married my mum and my aunt, and they all went back to their respective countries and, you know, built their countries. You know, and it was a time of, it was a different time you know we had you know this was a time of assassinations going on of leaders.
Speaker 4:You know, you know Kennedy and later Martin Luther King.
Speaker 3:I was fellow Cootie having his, his, his, his.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fellow fellow was younger by a long way. So you know that was sort of after but, you know I mean the, the whole sort of thing of getting back to a burgeoning country, especially with a, with a wife who was not from there. You know, I like to say well, you know my parents were of the same tribe because a lot of the ebos, you know, ended up in Barbados and you know there's a lot of Europe ended up in.
Speaker 4:Jamaica and you know others. But the fact is I'd like to say well, you know, they were there, they were of the same tribe, just 400 years apart, and they met each other again. And then mum going back to Nigeria and starting all sorts of wonderful things you know magazine being involved with airlines being.
Speaker 3:You know, I mean she was, she was you know out there going and getting it yeah, yeah, yeah, you might have thought funky back in the day, she was, she was you know, just full on you know, full on, and you know these were people who, they were pioneers.
Speaker 4:I mean, they really were. We're talking young people. And when I look back and I think, could I have gone across the world? You know, probably the first in well, not in mum's case, but you know the first in your family to be in this big educational system and take all that natural brain power and use it in this way. You know, it's sort of you look at CLR, james or any of those guys and you go, yeah, sam Sullivan and others documented these people, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna let you to tell yourself. Because why have you on the show? Because you're like a pioneer to me and we'll talk about your early well, my early singing on TV and we'll talk about that. There'll be a thank you coming in later, so be prepared for that. So I'll talk about before we get to that. Because I was a pioneer, I was told I was a pioneer coming out of the hood, peckham, growing up in Peckham in the 80s Fatcher Times, where going to university I was going for, you know, wasn't was frowned upon because A, I know it's survival mode, but also there's a class adherence and not what you could achieve is what you should do. I suppose to that. So, apart from me doing what I should do, going on beyond that, there was a dissatisfaction, let's say, in me going to university and it was actually quite difficult to do that. So what comes with being pioneering is some people not being 100% your back as well. So you know there's risks that you take with that in terms of your sense of self.
Speaker 4:You gotta step out of your comfort zone you know, and you know there's nothing you can't do. One of the great things about, you know, having parents like mine was that their example, even though you know there was a lot of them that when I decided I needed to go into drama was against that, because by then we had the mold of you know doctor, lawyer you know, and that's what you, that's what you have to follow.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know Drama, what are you doing?
Speaker 4:drama, drama. What are you doing? Is that really what you want to do? Look at you wasting your brain. You know these people are gypsies and vagabonds. Uh-uh, bushman, you know. So, all that stuff, you know, vagrant, vagrant. Look at this, this boy. We spend all this time putting all this education into this boy and look at what he wants to do. He wants to go and hide and have to be prostitutes and vagabonds. Uh-uh, you will never work. You will never have a job. What's wrong with you?
Speaker 3:You know so it's all that stuff, you know.
Speaker 4:But luckily for me by that time they were divorced. Um, you know so what one said, the other would go against, even if they didn't want you.
Speaker 3:You know, they were careful about you going down that path, but you said something about being at your comfort zone. Can you talk to me about being thrown out of your comfort zone in terms of because you mentioned to me when we talked prior to this? Yeah, you got one of the last or one of the very few planes out before you went to Portugal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what's in there. Well, you know the it's interesting because at the time we're talking now, you know we have what's going on in Gaza. Yeah, and you know, and people like to justify killing, you know, and it's so wrong. What you had there was you had too many people being, you know, put in a siege, where you know, and starved, and it was difficult because dad was actually going around setting up radio stations at the time, Right, and because of his engineering qualifications.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And he was personally wanted and all that sort of stuff, and then mum's running around the country trying to avoid. You know what was going on. I mean, I remember we were.
Speaker 3:With you.
Speaker 4:I happened to be with her on, you know, one of the last moments in Lagos when soldiers came looking for dad, you know, and she had packed up most of the house in a truck and the soldiers came around the corner and they were shooting and stuff and the driver ran off and you know and didn't want to, and mum basically jumped in the cab, with me on the seat, and you know drove. You know drove her belongings and you know all her life out of that you know and got away.
Speaker 4:So this is a woman, you know, thrown into this situation. You know these were difficult situations. Yeah. We went around the country. We ended up in Port Harcourt. There was a bombing raid. You know that was pretty traumatic in the end. You know, and the stuff that I saw there it happened to be on my sister's birthday, this particular bombing raid.
Speaker 4:And you know, there was trying to keep a sense of normality and there was a birthday party going on in our house and all these kids and this bombing raid happened. There was shrapnel and other things and I ran out the door, you know, and unfortunately for me, there was a policeman running down the centre of the road and a piece of shrapnel came and took his neck, basically his head, clean off and you know, and his head bobbed on the tarmac dirt whilst his body carried on for a few paces. You know that was. It was difficult stuff to deal with.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Anyhow, we were lucky I suppose it was a range for us to get out on one of those rescue planes, which was one of the last. It was September 68 at the time and we got out to Portugal. The Portuguese were at that point, one of the few Western countries that was siding with the Afro in terms of cessation.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And so we got out to there.
Speaker 3:So you're lucky in a way. You're lucky to be alive. You know, and I know, what that's like. Do you think that affected your, your other view going forward?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. Let's say, oh yeah, I did Suddenly. You're a refugee. You know, I hear all this stuff about refugees and you know, unfortunately, we have people who I would describe as I would describe as with no humanity.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know who care only about the dollar. Yeah, you know spouting a lot of rubbish about why people you know escape, right exactly, and then they put them in more torturous situations and blame them for their life circumstances and it's very unfortunate. But yeah, it did affect me. It affected me for a long time. There were lots of things that I didn't deal with for a long, long time way into my adulthood.
Speaker 4:Of course we had to park it. Yeah, you had to park it and get on with life and, you know, ended up in England.
Speaker 3:Were you? Were you fluent in Portuguese? Were you there long enough to speak? No, no, no, I'm not fluent in Portuguese. No, I don't really speak.
Speaker 4:Portuguese. You know, there's a tiny little bit of stuff. It's always good to know, you know it's always good to know enough to be able to eat. I like to get your ass trouble. What?
Speaker 3:do you?
Speaker 4:trouble. And to run you know to run, it's yeah it was a really interesting time, and you know, as a kid. And then coming back to London, my uncle Claude flying in settling us, my aunt, that's nice. You know my aunt Quinn, who I mean Shepherd's Bush, who took us in for a little while and then you know eventually getting a place and mum working and you know all the rest of it and dad still being in Nigeria setting up and you know, trying to save his country really.
Speaker 4:So it was, yeah, it was a really difficult time. And you landed, and this was 68, you know. And you landed in Shepherd's Bush and Was it cold? It was freezing. It was freezing I'd never. And it wasn't like I expected, because I had a child's vision of what life was going to be.
Speaker 4:So you heard certain things in Nigeria and even being highly educated, all the rest of it and you only knew of certain things. So I was expecting this sort of cartoon island, which was like an upside down ice cream coat with a castle on top I was going to meet the king and queen, and Elvis and the Beatles were going to be there, not to Queen Charlotte, all right.
Speaker 4:No, not Queen Charlotte, there's still Elizabeth this time, and I had this kid's eye vision of what it was going to be and actually the reality of it turned out to be Shepherd's Bush Green With old days, shepherd's Bush Green.
Speaker 4:There was no Westfield then and yeah, it was gray, overcast. It was gray, it was overcast. We came in at night. My aunt wanted to get back to watch Gina Sharples in Coronation Street. It was her little peccadillo. She was more interested in that than getting back on time, than us four kids who have come from the war zone, and that was, yeah, it was great, it was beautiful, it was wonderful, it was unwelcoming, it was welcoming. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, let's hear your first tune, let's get to your first days in London and your schooling as well.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I'm going to start off with I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. Nina Simone, yeah, let's do that no.
Speaker 5:Okay, yeah, I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all the chains holding me. I wish I could say all the things that I should say. Say I'm loud, who's saying, clear for the whole round world to hear. I wish I could share all the love that's in my heart, Remove all the bars that keep us apart. I wish you could know what it means to be me. Then you'd see and agree that every man should be free.
Speaker 5:I wish I could give all I'm longin' to give. I wish I could live like I'm longing to live. I wish I could do all the things that I can do, Though I'm way overdue. I'd be stunned and anew. Well, I wish I could be like a bird in the sky. How sweet it would be if I'd my heart. I could fly. I'd soar to the sun and look down at the scene. Then I'd sing cause I know yeah, and I'd sing cause I know yeah. Then I'd sing cause I know. I know how it feels. I know how it feels to be free. Yeah, yeah, I know how it feels. I know how it feels, how it feels to be free.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can't. I said tear jerker.
Speaker 3:Anyway, you know it gets you down there right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, before we talk about that, people, you might realise that Melody, that's also a read done by Billy Taylor Trio for the film 90, whatever soundtrack for the BBC. If you wonder where Melody came from, talk to me about that tune.
Speaker 4:Yeah well, it was also used by Barry Norman. That's what I meant yeah. Barry Norman used it on film yeah, well, the year used to change every year.
Speaker 4:but yeah, Billy Taylor Trio, that's what I meant, yeah, and that's what's so fantastic about this, because when I was growing up, you know being a, you know I love film, you know you would watch Barry Norman, you know, and find out what the latest films were, you know, all through the 70s, yeah, yep, and yeah, it was 70s, 80s, 90s, you know. I mean, he carried on for a long while. He was the big, big film.
Speaker 3:And then Jonathan Ross took over, didn't he? Jonathan Ross took over later on, never to the same.
Speaker 4:you know degree of skill yeah, and passion, yeah and passion, but that was the tune. You know they used the soundtrack of that. But what, nina, you know, if you come from struggle and you know, as I say, I talk about arriving here in 68, you know all this was going on in civil rights and this was a woman who you know, even at that young age, you would just sort of know about, generally through my older sisters you know, through my sister, maneek and Mary. You know, and also through Mum you know, because she had a mum, most of Mum's records. You know now my records.
Speaker 3:Oh, really yeah yeah. They need a home. You know what I mean. No, no, no, they're fine. They're fine where they are.
Speaker 4:And I don't know, you know anyhow, you know, I'm sure that's why you know, you have these shelves and shelves of LPs and stuff. Oh yeah, and it's just fantastic. But, nina, I remember, you know, way back there was a song of hers called Turning Point, which is about, you know, that moment where a child is introduced to racism, you know, and it's such a little sort of nursery rhyme tune, but it's so powerful. You know, this was all with not only classical and jazz chops that were just, you know, far beyond. You know what a pure voice. Listen to that voice in this. You know, I wish I knew how it would feel to be just so pure. And it gets right to the heart of everything that she's singing about. And then you have songs like Mississippi, goddamn, and you know, and you go. This is the struggle, this is exactly what it is, and she's holding no punches.
Speaker 3:You think about Turning Point. I was thinking about that when I think somebody else was telling me about this. I can't remember what I was having this conversation with, what I think I didn't understand. Or, lastly, when you're a child, you experience racism because you don't know what the definition is, you haven't read it, you just experience. You explain to somebody. It's like why is that person, what does that word mean? Why does it hurt me? But I don't understand what the word is. Yeah, I wasn't rude to him, honestly, man, why did he be horrible? It's all that sort of be polite to people have manners. Grown up to lovely people have manners for them to be revered and my mum comes from a pro-colonial. She's very rude. So if a white person tells you anything, it's got to be right, it's got to be true and you've got to have this extra heightened behaviour around them. So I don't understand where the? I think that's called survival it is.
Speaker 4:It's called survival. Yeah, it's just like okay, I've got to grow in this system and I need to protect my own, so I teach them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely right, but I can't understand where the the next thing, because I don't want racism. At that time I don't understand what it was and I didn't do anything to them. So why is something unprovoked? Do you know what I mean? I can't work it out. So that turning point, I think for me was there.
Speaker 4:Well, that's exactly you know when I first arrived here and. I was introduced to class, as I say, I came in September 68, and so term had just started and everybody knew about Biafra on the news. It was one of the first, along with Vietnam that was actually there on your TVs in black and white, with the question cross stomachs and all the rest of it, and I was taken into this class by the headmistress and she said this is Cyril, he's from Biafra, that's in Africa. Now go and sit down. And that was it.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I should laugh at this.
Speaker 4:And then the next thing I knew was being at the break and we had been doing a painting exercise and we were all told to take our stuff and wash them in the cloakroom and whatever. And this kid came up to me, you know first day, and said where's the bone from your nose? And it started from there. And what Nina did was she cut through all that stuff, she went okay with this song Turning Point. I wish I knew how it would feel to be free with you know the Beatles song on.
Speaker 4:Blackbird with you know she hit right in the nub of it.
Speaker 3:And what was good about her was that she was, on the project, a woman, but she had to have her own escape plan as well from what was suspected. She had to do jazz and she had to escape and flee and to get her career going as well, so she had like a paralleled escape. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4:A two-pronged escape, I should say, you know, when I first heard Nina Simone, you know, mainly because she came at it. Well, when I heard Turning Point, you know, and it just spoke to me and I thought, oh yeah, of course it's some parent telling the child don't do this, don't mix with them. The child doesn't feel that naturally.
Speaker 3:Children.
Speaker 4:Just you know, they play you know, because that's what they're interested in doing. And then all that stuff comes on it and then with I wish I knew how it would feel to be free, and I think at every point in my life this song applies you know, and she gets to. It's such a joyous song at the same time. You know as calling for, you know, and you know I'd SORE TO THE SUN.
Speaker 3:The second half of the chord progression is quite optimistic.
Speaker 4:It's really really nice, it's just brilliant. And so, yeah, at all points in my life, you know, with dealing with whatever came out, you know I can come back to this song and she releases me, you know.
Speaker 3:I think you should say that. I mean, I'm just listening to what you say there and, being free, does that always change what free looks like or feels like based on what you've survived or what it could have been? Um?
Speaker 4:so I was a bit deep in my mind. I think we as human beings always want more, you know. But if you are in a position where you're constantly having to justify fight for your existence, no matter how high up the ladder you get, you know there's plenty of examples of this. You know you can be the president of the United States and still don't throw shoes at you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know if you have to be able to certain hue.
Speaker 4:You know and you know, so you still need to be going and dealing with this and to be to be truly free.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know we have to. You know, as Bob Molly said, emancipate our minds. You know that's what we have to do. You know we have to take that bit and go. Yeah, I have to free myself in here because you all aren't going to do it for me, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And in the manifestation of that yeah, I mean for me I want to talk about creativity. If I didn't have that, I don't think I would be able to exercise that free mind enough. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, you know you talk about DJing and talk about you know getting to that place where you, you know you went and you grabbed what you needed yeah. And no matter where the tying down is coming from, even if it's coming from a place of love, yes, even if it's coming from you know. You know where parents get on with. Oh well, you can't be, you know. Yeah, you know. I understand that you want to go that way with your sexuality.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know no no, no no, no, because you would be in trouble in your life and yeah, all that sort of stuff, and you go, yeah, okay, well, I need to be free, I need to be able to live my life you know we enjoy it and happiness and striving to just, you know, do the things I can do and I have a right to do that.
Speaker 3:It's scary though, and what that feels like, because for me it was quite oppressive. That needs to be free. That needs to express its decree. There was just nothing else that was as paramount in my mind or myself than to do that. Yeah, I'm not saying that others who don't do the same are wrong, but I was just so pervasive for me. It's oppressive it comes in on it, yeah. And you know it closes you in.
Speaker 4:I'm doing a. I just did a thing for a charity, hugh Men, which is a charity which helps men who because the statistics are huge men, you know, men who commit suicide, and you know and the premise of this ad, you know he's big, you know live billboards that are just by Tottenham Court Road Tube Station and is that? You know the guy is standing there and you know he looks at this thing and he realizes that the world is coming in on him and then his face is pressed against the glass and he's trapped and he doesn't understand, and you know, and he pushes it away and slowly, and he's looking at this thing and you know, and it's about that closing in, and it's about being able to breathe, it's about being able to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's all right to be me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm. Ironically, I'm working on launching a charity with a friend of mine, patrick Munger, and I'm a Nigerian as well. Thank you to Igbo. Yeah, he, um, and he's on working with doing that and that's part of working with marginalized communities who are suffering from conversion therapy. Right, and unfortunately, the conversion therapy or the protection around the legality around it, is quite Eurocentric. Let's say it's in the case of all the different aspects of how it might affect it. We're trying to widen the communication and the information that's available so we can apply some more prescriptive remediation activities to look into that.
Speaker 4:And that's really important to take on that stuff. I remember way back in the day we had Black Liners, which was a charity which dealt with HIV and AIDS For Black men, women in this country, and it was slowly sort of subsumed and taken over by GMFA gay men fighting AIDS and others and what happens is that that's not catered for anymore and then you go. But actually when you look at it, of the world population that actually suffered from HIV, actually the majority is not white Euro men, although that's important, it's great that it's, you know. But we've got to look at that and deal with this stuff. You know, on the ground.
Speaker 4:Look at the women that are suffering from this and look at you, know. So it's really important to have that freedom, to be able to say, oh yeah, I count too.
Speaker 3:I'm here. I have a wider, more strategic approach to it all, rather than just where the money is primarily.
Speaker 4:And I remember when they approached me all those years back because at the time I think I was on the bill at the time may have been even before, that may have been when I was doing this life or something like that but yeah, and I was more than pleased to go, yeah, okay, well, I'll stand up and be a voice for that, because that's needed.
Speaker 3:Oh, well done. I mean no from well done at that time to that as well. Do you think being free, or maybe an identifier of being free, is when you're in a position to do charity work?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean that doesn't, you know, that doesn't preclude you from suffering or sort of closing in, you know, because there are still. You know there are always things to push back against. And there were others, you know, mel B and others that you know were patrons of. Black.
Speaker 4:Liners at the time. Yeah, you know, and that was, yeah, it's fantastic to look at that and go, yeah, actually we all need to stand up. We need to do something about this and we need to get over the stigma of whatever is being put on it. Yeah, there is a freedom in being able to say yeah, I can stand up because I have a little public profile. It makes it more difficult although in the day and age that we are now, what happens is is that people like you know, yusuehela's and whatever go.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, well you know they're an actor. How dare they you?
Speaker 4:know they're a celebrity. They're at this. How dare they comment on life? Because, because you're yeah, you're a celebrity, you're a celebrity, you're a job that you do, I'm allowed to comment and, you know, blight people's lives because I'm a politician but I'm not allowing you to say what actually affects your life or others like you, you know yeah exactly, and yeah, and so we get all that bullshit, but it does allow you to. It does allow you to, people will come and ask because you have a little profile.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a nice thought. You're rich for a freedom. Yeah, yeah, I think. One question I want to ask at the start of the show actually is a big question. One of me is big is who is zero? How would you describe yourself in your own words?
Speaker 4:I got no idea who he is.
Speaker 3:No, just who would you say? What do you feel? I don't know If I, okay, I'll say, if I say who I am, I'll try to be fair, I'll try to have values, I'll try to be open, I'll try to just show love and compassion, but that's what I am now. I hope to have always been there. But who would you say? How would you describe yourself in a very true words perhaps?
Speaker 4:Try to do no harm, yeah, and illuminate the human condition.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's beautiful man.
Speaker 4:That's beautiful. I've been lucky enough to have people guide me towards stuff in my life which, when it's been difficult, they've gently said oh, try this, try that. Oh, when that happened for me, this was what I did. What do you think? They haven't forced me to do anything. They haven't, you know, but they've allowed me a way of going yeah okay, you can explore that. You know one of my first teachers. Well, one of the most influential teachers you know, tony Fagan, who's a drama teacher at Harlem Park, and you know when.
Speaker 4:I was having quite a lot of trouble. I remember I was crying one morning, yeah, early before the school had started. There were lots of things going on, my parents, all this other stuff going on.
Speaker 4:You know, being a, you know a few years on but still a refugee child, still running, still scared, still. You know, yeah, dealing with. You know the questions of sexuality, whatever else dealing with, whether I was a Nigerian kid, a Bayesian kid, a Shepherds Bush kid, a Labrador Grove kid, whatever, you know how does this work. You know all these big questions how do I? Fit in. How do I fit in? Who am I?
Speaker 4:Who am I? Why don't I have friends on that side? Why do I? You know, and you know anyhow, he came up and I was, you know, trying to hide the tears and whatever. He asked me what's wrong and blah, blah, blah, and he gently guided me towards this book, you know, which happened to be the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and he said you'll find all the answers in there. He's dealt with everything there. Have a read. It may be difficult. Come and see me.
Speaker 3:So wow, that's always something in your life I believe that comes across. Hopefully that gives you that. And I've had a luckily ever. Quite a few times I've been in Tripids and I've spoken to people. I've been up to Uncle George, who's obviously annoyingly could see what I was going to become and what could be before I renew it, sexuality, everything before then, and he gave me lots of advice which I took as a growing up to give me advice. I always had respect for him but I was thinking he gave me advice little bits along the way which came in at the right time. So talk to me about Holland Park. Anyway, I mean, that's a school, what I was describing. Let me look at my notes here. The Socialist Eaton, will you say it was like that, because I'm at a great arts department, holland.
Speaker 4:Park was one of the best schools ever.
Speaker 3:Look at that smile on your face. For me, it was one of the best schools.
Speaker 4:Lots of people thought it failed. It produced people who I still know are all over the world now. Like one of my choices, we had Angus okay, from Ordronby Zeb, as you may know him from Aswad. And. Yaz, the only way is up. Yeah, I used to follow her around the school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, me and Johnny Marcus, she was older, she was older. Very tall, with a big afro. All those people. Tom Dixon, who went on to be chief designer at Habitat Hills, funcapolitan he used to play in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Laura Ashley's kids. Laura Ashley's kids were there. Laura Ashley came to life drawing classes in the art department. You had Arnold Martin who ran the art department.
Speaker 3:After you were in, my mother would have you know that.
Speaker 4:After school you had these life drawing classes, holland Park, you had nude models come in and sit there for kids and shit, and you would draw them. This was you could call it progressive. I'm sure there would be a lot of people going, oh how did they? And then you go yeah, well, shall we go back and look at some of these pictures that you're looking at in the National Portrait Gallery or whatever, or the Tate Britain or whatever, and tell me what were those artists painting? Yeah, okay, cool, so we can get over ourselves, you know, and we can actually teach some kids and get them to love stuff.
Speaker 3:So you were given the six-bit book. What happened to the result of that? You read it and you took it in.
Speaker 4:I took in parts of that. I was also part of the youth theatre they're after school which you know I remember we did regarding the label Displaced Person, which was a show based on Brex, the Children's Crusade, and we had a writer, pretty famous writer, who created Frank Ross's Out and other series of the time the 70s series that were seminal, you know big stuff, and anyhow he had to go off during this process of improvisation around this poem and then him writing it up and stuff, and he simply turned around and said you're the eldest, yeah, you can finish the play.
Speaker 4:And I went what how?
Speaker 3:old, are you roughly?
Speaker 4:I'm 16, 15, 16. And yeah, so I use my experience of Biafra, you know, of being a refugee, to write the end of this thing it's your personal truth. And yeah, you know, and I knew no better and I'd been told to write it, and so somebody had the faith that I could do this, you know. And so you know, through the improvisations that we did and whatever, and I you know, I remember the speech started a little while ago.
Speaker 3:war ended you know, and this.
Speaker 4:Anyhow, we ended up taking this play to Edinburgh and doing really, really well, then bringing it back and taking it because we won schools on the South Bank and doing it in what was then the Cotslo is now the Dorthman Theatre, you know, and you know this was the sort of opportunity that Holland Park gave, you know. So whilst you looked at it and you go, yeah, okay, it's Bohemia and it's got all these, you know.
Speaker 4:It's got Mandy Moon, keith Moon's daughter and various others and people are smoking a lot of stuff. You know Stephen Moore's children and various you know smoking or they're doing. And the Stones not Rolling Stones, although they were around, you know, in Kensington, but Barbara and David Stone who ran the gate cinemas. You know people like that, who were just open and and loved you for who you were and let you be who you were, and so I ended up meeting people like Nick Nollty.
Speaker 3:And it's like pause, rewind, right. So we need to have a conversation about this yeah, yeah. Mvs, point of the podcast number one. You met Nick Nollty right. Yeah, you know in the 70s like man. There's peak there. What's going on, I think?
Speaker 4:I don't want to ask you about that we're in Edinburgh and Jordan's parents who's Jordan? Jordan is Jordan Stone, who's a wonderful director now lives in Italy and his parents, david and Barbara, turn up in Edinburgh because once the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on, also the Edinburgh Film Festival is on. Oh right, so we're in summertime, yeah, and in August. And they turn up in this limo with this guy in the back of the car and I go that's the guy from Rich Manball man.
Speaker 4:You know, and he has just done this film, which they've helped produce, and it's a hoax.
Speaker 3:A hoax, it's Nick Nollty.
Speaker 4:Wait, wait, wait so myself and Jordan go to this premiere.
Speaker 3:Wait, wait, stop, stop, stop, stop. The premiere is important. Yeah, You've just gone to a limo in the summer with Nick Nollty. Yeah, that's how I've seen that moment in Edinburgh.
Speaker 4:So, you've got all that going on, ok, and this is all due to being at Holland Park. This is all due to having open people around you.
Speaker 3:Wow, this is all due to having you know so just life experience, wise, you're learning, so so much. What was it like to be transported? And we'll get this into Edinburgh at 1718, however old you were, performing that co-writing it 15, 16,.
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, but yeah.
Speaker 3:What was that like in terms of? Did it give you confidence, wow. Or did you have no time to reflect? You just lived in the moment.
Speaker 4:You lived in the moment and you know there's the arrogance of youth, but equally, you know, I don't think I've ever felt. One of the reasons a lot of people become actors is because they feel like I'm not good enough. I'm not, you know.
Speaker 3:Imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4:Imposter syndrome, and when I'm doing this and it was one of the joys of being an actor is that when I'm doing this I'm not being me, so I don't have to think about it at all. So you know, coming back to Nina, you know I wish I knew how I would feel to be free and I got to escape this stuff. I got to escape me and what I feel about me, you know, because if I hang around here too long I'm going to have, you know.
Speaker 3:But even though, if you don't hang around that area, if it's still not you once you leave that area, you're still not free either, are you?
Speaker 4:No, but you know what it does, is it? If you're, it's not pretending to be someone else it's taking on another side of you, which just drowns out that part. So I don't have to think about the fact that I haven't dealt with. You know, at six years old, seeing a man's head rolled down the road, you know and I have to deal with that. I don't have to deal with the racism. You know where's the bone in your nose.
Speaker 4:I don't have to deal with the fact that, oh my goodness, I'm feeling like I'm attracted to this boy.
Speaker 2:I'm attracted to this girl as well but I'm also attracted to this boy.
Speaker 4:You know, I don't have to deal with any of that stuff. I, for these two hours, or whatever, I escape Turn table solid cycle.
Speaker 3:You know, I get that totally and it is a genuine place, it is a sanctuary. I believe everybody needs one, whether it be a hobby, a past sign, a passion. Having a place where you can do that, or knowing that there's a place where you can go is so cathartic.
Speaker 4:It's cathartic for a while. It's cathartic for a while, and then you, unfortunately you come down to earth and the problem is it gets so exciting that you want to stay in there. Oh, and then you know, once the show is over you use yeah, the cliff drops off after a couple of hours the natural high goes, and then you discover you know once I talk about.
Speaker 4:Holland Park and you discover, yeah, okay, a bit of marijuana here a bit of this there a bit of whatever you know, and it's because it's bohemian and a lot of rich kids go here as well, as well as the Shepherds Bush kids, as well as the kids from Greenford and that was one of the wonderful things about Holland Park. I mean you had like 38 different languages that were spoken there. You had from the top to the bottom. You know, as I say, you had Tony Benz kids, you had Lauren Ashley, you had Mandy Moon, you had kids from Shepherds Bush.
Speaker 4:Green you had you know. So all these mixtures of you know you could be anything or anyone you wanted to be.
Speaker 3:I just all those places you're referencing Greenford, labrador I when I was coming back from America for a while and I skint, came back and I was working in Lassimer Rose near.
Speaker 4:I know well, there's the youth club.
Speaker 3:down there there's a youth club and there's also the sports center where I was working with Noel Clark and when he was getting into acting and wanted to be an actor, I was like mentoring him and saying, look he goes. Why are you a DJ? How did you become? Do that? You know? Why did you go to America? Why are you coming back? What's his freedom coming from? He's still on his estate with his mum and I can see a mirroring situation from him. Kids is about five years younger than me and I just did it. I went through my passion and nobody can.
Speaker 3:If you've generally got a passion for something, the energy you exude with it and the I don't know, you just driven. I said just do it. Just do it right. He's always. We used to work on the pool side, next to each other. We're meant to be lifeguards, by the way. We're just talking, we're not watching anybody. And I said he's like performance on the side of the pool side. How do all these characters? I encourage him to do it all the time, because how does it feel? Did you like doing it? It made me feel good. I encourage him to go to college after that and to follow it. And I said to him I come back from America. Don't make me find you not doing that next stage. You know what I mean and I'm glad he went on to do it. But you've got to have that passion there for me.
Speaker 4:You've got to have a passion and also to pass it on. I mean, they got people like Ricky Beetle Blitz, exactly, who also helped.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah. You know, yeah, those are the people who you go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the unsung heroes.
Speaker 3:Only that area. For what? When I say my virgin proclivities, let's say away from my area in Peckham. This is the place. The West London was a place where I was not known. So I could reinvent myself In America, but also in West London, because I was not known there and I could be who I wanted to be, who I was, 100%. And that's just like I was out in London, because I knew what it was like to be an American, be myself, but also I wasn't American either. So West London was like, or that area was a good place yeah, you know, a hybrid place for Americans Like you know what I mean, just my friend Flourish, Exactly Flourish.
Speaker 3:Well, let's go to the next song I don't see what we're going to do?
Speaker 4:This is taking us right into, you know, West 8, in that Holland Park area, and this is Aswad and Aswad. This is just one of the songs from Live and Direct. You know I have such fond memories of this. I, you know, I play this in the car on tape. Yeah, you know, on cassette tape, you know, because it's the only place that I can play cassette tapes yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know where else have you got a cassette player in your car? In my car? Yeah, you know and a CD.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's a very old car I love it, I love it, but it's a very old car. But you know, that's why I won't get rid of it. Yeah, because I can play. I can play cassettes in there, excellent, it still works. But this track, well, all of the tracks, but I remember, you know, carnival.
Speaker 4:OK, Nothing Hill yes right and Turning Into Meanwhile Gardens. And you know, as we're playing, drum is Eb Excellent. This is a character from my school. You know, who once saved me from being beaten up, you know, by some six-formers, you know.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:Because he knew my sister Monique. And, yeah, I came into class and you know he was slightly older, you know, and just threw these kids off me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice, come deal with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah, you're not a touch-the-little man, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's nice, though I still love them, and he was yeah, total love.
Speaker 4:And then you know these Brinsley Ford who, equally, you know you'd see on the TV every so often doing the acting. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And you know him drumming others forming this band and then being at Carnival. I can't even remember the year, I'm not sure whether it was 76 or 78. Anyhow but this concert which was and I was there and they were so brilliant, so brilliant. They had a horn section that was just like huge Listen.
Speaker 3:that is called Warrior Charge, that same horn section. It's like heavy heavy.
Speaker 4:But this is African Children and it's just the whole album. Is I have to play the whole thing for you? I'm an album man so. I play the whole thing from bottom. The concept, the whole, yeah, but this track, african Children, it just takes me right back to being in the sunshine in mewell gardens watching this fantastic group with the energy. Of the only energy I can compare it with was when I saw Bob.
Speaker 3:Marley, I don't say Third World, but yeah, bob Marley.
Speaker 4:That's sort of Third World.
Speaker 3:Bob Marley.
Speaker 4:Live vibe, where they just take you.
Speaker 3:Let's go in there, let's drop it, go for it.
Speaker 5:PLAYING IFU MINרכal, stephen fractured. We're living in a concrete situation. Oh, we're one way. Oh, we're one way. African children we're living in a concrete situation. African children, we don't know where you're coming from. No, african children, right here in our meanwhile garden. African children All of the nations are keeping at least enemies Are crying and applying to the council for assistance. Their tribulation is so sad. Their environment is so bad High rise concrete, no backyard For the children to play. African children Are living in a concrete situation. African children, oh, we're one way. Oh, we're one way. They don't know where you're coming from. African children, oh, we're one and a one. African children, all the people are keeping at least enemies.
Speaker 5:Bring it down. A precast on wall concrete cubicle. Their rent's increasing every other day. Sharks and repairs and sests are never done. Lit out of action on the 27th floor and when the thing worked, don't you know it's smell now. African children, how many African children? They're lighter in the carnival. How many African children? They must know where we're coming from. Special request to the whole of the country. Special request to the party that's buzzing. Special request to the brick that's falling. Special request to the labor growth that's buzzing. African children In a concrete situation. African children. There is a message for you.
Speaker 3:There's reggae music for you, man. I know you appreciate reggae music.
Speaker 4:But equally we appreciate what it does. That beat Right. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3:If you can see how we're vibing in the studio, wacking up our waste, boogieing up, that's a vibe. That is a vibe you can't help but dance, you can't. We're just smiling, we're just seeing the world.
Speaker 4:The whole album is just for live album. This is just so right on the mark. So tight, so tight. And that's the thing. These were young, young men, Raw energy and the whole of carnival going and when they had groups playing. They were like the tip top group. I don't know whether you know Meanwhile Guns.
Speaker 3:Of course. I know.
Speaker 4:More Guns, like a sort of amphitheater bold. And it was just brilliant, that crowd and everybody, everybody, and it had that atmosphere of. I mean, I grew up around the area. So you had on a Saturday you would go down Porta Bilarode and it was just like anything and everything.
Speaker 3:Antiques, whatever it had.
Speaker 4:But everybody was one and it was just A different, different atmosphere there.
Speaker 3:I think like no carnival is such a success story In terms of integrating people, cultures, music. I met people from other sides of the country you know white and black people when I grew up and it was just so nice where a common place, People who were prepared to come to that Fear and cross all those barriers Of social injustice and all that division and we could just go there and just chill. That was my people.
Speaker 4:And it was a total chill. It wasn't like you know. I mean, I know it's always overblown, you know, Because we get nowadays, you know, oh, you're carnival trouble you know Blown knives and blah, blah, blah, Whatever else, and you go. Yeah, but Hang on a second. How many people on the street here?
Speaker 3:Thank you, Alright just nearly a million and a half people.
Speaker 4:And less arrests than Grastonbury when I was coming up Sneaking out at home and going to Shabine and stuff around. Oh the stuff.
Speaker 3:I thought you were trying. Good Charles, I'm a good Charles, I'm a good Charles.
Speaker 4:But you know equally, around that stage, you know, when you're just discovering yourself, of course, and you know, and you know stuff is Popping off Just out there, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know up blues and you know is out there, and you know little Shabine or House party and whatever. I used to go down Goldblown Road, and just off Goldblown Road there was like a basement place which I went to a few times, where they would have a dance. You know, and I'm young, not too young, 17, and you know, were you scared.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was a bit scared, but it wasn't a danger night, you know it wasn't a danger night today, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know you weren't going to be nice couple.
Speaker 3:No, I used to go to a grown up dance.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was a grown up dance, but it was also, you know, it was also pleasant. You know you have some middle aged. You know men, who you know.
Speaker 3:What I used to call them.
Speaker 4:Michael Jackson trousers. I mean they're in suit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they're in trousers, just to be sure. You know, what I say. It might not have been their suit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah but you know, and yeah, you had. It was just a time of you together. You enjoyed yourself. You were also here in tunes you wouldn't hear anywhere else, you know, Just being played freely. Yeah, and yeah because I generally snuck out.
Speaker 4:I would also sneak, you know, back Before it's too late. Yeah nice, you know, one of the pleasures of having a I say pleasure, One of the things of having a single mom Is that they have to work hard you know, and sometimes they're in two, three jobs, working on a shift In the company of the Chapters Busch, and you know and you all learn to cook, because that was you know for us, of course. Everybody had to take their turns and whatever.
Speaker 4:And you learn through your mistakes. Generally, everybody still has to eat it Because they have food to go around twice. So you are, yeah, exactly so you learn all that stuff. But you also learn you know when I can sneak out from then to then and I can be back before 12, 13.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know I've had a good night.
Speaker 3:I want to touch on something which may not be a parallel. You did that drama and you had to finish right in that play.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We needed jellyfish and you were playing that teacher. What was the role? Of a teacher Trying to inspire another pupil. Did you get reminiscent of how you felt as a pupil then?
Speaker 4:All based on Tony. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all based on Tony. As much as possible, because people like Tony, people like Anna Shea, who I also, you know, in my Just before I mean, the waiting list was so long for Anna Shea's and I was at four youth theatres at the time by this time, and so I used to go along. When I finally got in, when the waiting list, you know, and it was only like Nine months before I went off to drama school, but, yeah, it was so important those people, you know, they would spot stuff in you. They would say this is possible, they would open up the world to you. They would, you know, but they were also disciplined. They would also say, yeah, but you can't mess around. This is serious stuff. This is the life stuff. This is the stuff which will carry you through those moments. This is the stuff which will it will allow you to shed those tears but also to say, yeah, but I'm still going to carry on.
Speaker 4:I'm still going to. You know, Get on with life and do the stuff that I need to do.
Speaker 3:Sure, I was telling me that when you train as an actor You've got to get into the minds of the characters so you maybe get an early idea Into psychological conditions so you can recognise it in other people. But you also have to do it so you can experience it and replicate that on screen or on stage. That's quite an injection into People, conditions and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Is that advantageous? It can be. It can be if you, if you can stand outside it and not become it.
Speaker 4:Because Two pack and juice Is what I'll say in terms of that how you can end up being that character that you're comfortable with, and yeah, you know, you've got to realise that I'm dipping into somebody's life here and it could be a part of my life, because it always can be. It's always a section of you, it's always a twist of fate and I may have gone that way and it's about being true to that. But to become it, we're magpies. We take the shiny bits. Yes, yes great analogy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we take the shiny bits and you know You've got to have an understanding Of what's underneath those shiny bits, but if you get right into it you can drown in there, you know, and that's not the sea is beautiful and it reflects the sun. But if you go down for long enough, you will drown.
Speaker 3:Performative careers DJing, acting You've got to be careful of how you can get A character or lifestyle or something like that. You've got to really be careful, Not the hard way, but I saw a lot of people who either got successfully too quick or they just lost a soul In what they were doing and became a lifestyle.
Speaker 4:There's a reason why Therapist, psychologist counsellors, Always have to have a counsellor.
Speaker 3:This isn't you. You've got to take care of this stuff, because otherwise you'll get drawn in.
Speaker 4:It always looks shiny, exactly.
Speaker 3:So drama school so we talked about your voice already. Was that finishing school for you, or did you have quite a received pronunciation From the get go?
Speaker 4:I had quite a received pronunciation, because I had been basically to what was even at that very early stage, to what was essentially a British Colonial public school Right In Nigeria. Yeah, yeah, you know, and so, yeah, part of that was there. Yeah, and one of the things that Coming here early on and quickly realising that I could become a bit of a comedian, so, and that's protection. Yes, of course you know, because, especially when you're in an area where there are many, many different nationalities and personalities and you know and levels of living yeah, I went across them all, so I had friends in all structures.
Speaker 3:So I can't agree with you and I disagree with you. I see what I mean by that. People say that I'm a comedian because man can speak like he's from Rhodesdale. Yeah, one could be erudite and speak like this yeah, and of course, I could speak like that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I'm speaking to. Yeah, yeah, and that's not me being not just like I have free levels of cultural influences that I've absorbed, but it doesn't mean that I'm not. I haven't chosen one, I just thought I could be one of those three because it is part of my journey.
Speaker 4:They're all part of me. Exactly, they're all part of me. But you know you choose where you land the stuff and you choose it because you know. I need to feel safe you know you know, and I think, if you've come from a war situation, yeah. You often don't feel safe. I'll speak to them, no matter how far you get away from stuff.
Speaker 3:I'll speak to a friend like this and look at it. Conversely as well, went to public school, yeah, yeah, whitejack Went to public school and very well spoken, but he went into the. He chose the industry of going into, like fashion and design, which is not traditionally a role that a person's accent should come from, right, because that accent usually comes with automatic privilege or old money, et cetera, et cetera. So he found it hard to be a genuine person with that, but he can't share that accent. He's got no other accent to refer to. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So where he was, as I quote unquote, this advantage was it took longer to be convincing because he didn't have any chameleon aspects to adjust to to make sense, I think yeah, I totally agree with that, but I think the thing is that one of the things that you referred to earlier I don't know whether it was before we started taping or not but the fact that a lot of people recognize me by my voice is that, no matter which accent I'm in, the actual timbre of my voice yes, yes.
Speaker 4:Remains the same. Yes, so so you can. Generally it is me, but a different me. So I'm not trying to hide me, I'm just giving you a different part of me, exactly. So that's, yeah. I mean it sort of works out that you're just getting this part of me because I got used to going ah, okay, so we are here now. Yeah, yeah, exactly so we are in this role or we're in this role or we're in that role and actually we're in this role and that's lovely.
Speaker 3:I love the way he just describes me, you know.
Speaker 4:I used to have, I used to do an answer phone thing which went across various accents, you know so you'd start off in one and then you'd go to another, and you know so I'm afraid. Cyril Henry isn't here. If you'd like to leave a message, you know then well, he will get back to you as soon as you can, because you know and you just go across the board.
Speaker 3:I love that, I love that.
Speaker 4:So it's a form of protection. It is, it's a form of protection.
Speaker 3:However, though I think, conversely I mean, I was asking this in another question but do you believe that having that multiplicity of accents and cultural references that actually contributed to your sustained career and your diverse portfolio, would you think that opened you up to? Because not all actors can have that. They can be good actors but they don't have the wherewithal or, you know, the tool set to have that diverse. Well, I think.
Speaker 4:I think. I think the thing is that it's about having fun. Thank you. It's about having fun Exactly. And you know I don't want to let this out here because they may find out. I'm still having fun, you know, and so I keep getting away with it because actually, some of the best actors in the world and I've long maintained this are kids in the playground.
Speaker 4:So if you're playing, you know you know Cowboys and stuff bang bang you know, or police and thieves, or doctors and nurses, or whatever you know, at that moment of bang bang, you're dead. You watch a kid in a playground, you know a primary school kid fall and they believe every single second of it. Of course, the moment you hit the floor, then I'm up again and I'm playing again.
Speaker 4:You know, and I'm having fun and I'm getting up to the next one you know, and that is, you know, you watch the seriousness at which, even when you are playing doctors and nurses, you're really just finding out what's below that portion of the body, the seriousness Of course you know. It's like a forensic scientist, you know, so you can take that stuff oh yes, man.
Speaker 3:CIS. Yeah, because you're also quite shocked we don't even know what to find underneath. Of course, I'm going to talk about Queen Charlotte, right? I know you had fun doing that I know you had fun doing that, right Because.
Speaker 3:I know, it's just and that's why I think it came out your energy and your zest in that. I felt that, yeah, watching it recently in part of my homework, I could feel that energy in you. Doing that, either you're at peace with where you are in your life or in yourself, or you're having fun with the art now and you're in that space and that's what I picked up on, that energy in that character.
Speaker 4:Well, you've got to go. You know how can I get to that point, yes, which is just so much fun in exploring this character and keeping him just on the edge, a lot of people you know. Well, actually not a lot of people, a couple of people said oh, my God it was way over the top, and you know right.
Speaker 4:And then you go yeah, but how do you do that, whilst actually underneath this all, if you strip away the comedy, yeah, there's a man who's extremely hurt, you know, who doesn't ever feel that he's getting his position in life, but doesn't realize that at the same time, he's kicking those which he sees is below him, including his wife. And if you strip it down, you might just say, okay, ms Arjun is rapist, you know underneath it.
Speaker 4:But you've got to get to that point where he's lying in the bed and he says they'll never give me what I want you know what I deserve, you know, and it's about hitting those moments and yet being able to be totally blind to the fact that you've just dismissed a whole human being's life, or the fact that they're helping you. You know, and that's such a lovely position to be in to go, I'm gonna have fun with this character.
Speaker 3:Exactly. But I can see, yes, you're acting and I've always said that to you like well, but I know a creative person when they've got a good balance of having fun and acting and being professional. But I've got that extra like Zing is spiciness, that performance. I was like I know where you are, not where you are, but I've been there or I'm doing the gig, where I'm enjoying what I do and I'm just doing it.
Speaker 4:I've never played a character I didn't like, and some of them are horrendous people who I would not want to spend a moment with yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm afraid we have to leave it there. That's the end of part one of my conversation with Cyril Noury. Please hit the notification buttons, like and subscribe for the next episode, part two. I'm looking forward to sharing that with you. In the meantime, you've been listening to Mr Pierre on Foot545. Look after yourselves, peace.