Transcript 0:00 When we first landed in Canada, you know, we landed in Ottawa. I mean, I had friends there. One friend actually that I knew at that point in time. Shout out to Oka and his family for hosting us for two months. 0:12 Like, that was super helpful. And that was the community I had when I landed, and it was-- it made settling in so easy. Like, you know, you had someone you could ask questions. 0:24 You had someone you could talk about, you know, your worries or your fears because, yeah, when you move to a new place, like, you're, you're worried about a ton of stuff. 0:32 You're not sure of yourself again all of a sudden because you're literally starting afresh. 0:36 And I read somewhere where they said, when you mi-when you migrate, like, literally your brain kind of restarts again because you're trying to start life afresh, you know, in some way. 0:47 And Grand Commander talks about it here also in this episode with me because where he talks about how helpful the community was with allowing him to start up his comedy practice. 0:58 'Cause he moved, he was a-- he was already doing pretty well in Nigeria, and then he moves to Canada, and he has to start his comedy practice all over again. 1:07 And, like, he's been pretty successful, and that's-- all that is due to the power of the community. 1:11 But are there any other tips you have for any comedy act who's moving from Nigeria or any part of Africa down to Canada, like, for-- to help them settle in and get their acts on the road? 1:21 The only advice or the only tip that I would have would be identify with your community. That's the very first point of call that you would have to use for a safe landing. 1:32 You know, identify with your community, whether you're African, you're from Ghana, you're from Cameroon, wherever you're from, look for your people, connect with them, you know, and that will give you a safe landing. 1:43 So in this episode, we, we, we talk about, he tells-- [chuckles] Grand Commander is a really funny person. 1:48 We talk about, you know, where he was at a g-- where he was at this event with, uh, one of the chief of police, and he said cracking jokes about p-police stopping him. 1:57 He talks about starting the first Nigerian-Canadian comedy club and a lot more stuff. Enjoy his story. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Newcomers Podcast. 2:07 Um, today I have with me Grand Commander, who's been in Canada since twenty nineteen and, um, who started the first Nigerian comedy club here in Canada. I mean, so happy to have you here. [chuckles] Welcome, man. 2:17 Thank you so much. I appreciate. 2:18 When, when you say started the first comedy club in Canada, some people would think I'm some big man or something along that- You know, I think that I get that point, but I also feel like it's just about starting stuff, and I think, like, you're doing something amazing, you know, because... 2:31 And maybe I-- let's just jump into the questions straight away because I think the first question I have for you is, what are your thoughts on comedy, storytelling, and how it helps to basically just kind of dr-keep drive culture or literally just spread the culture of a people? 2:44 Because you're, you're literally, you're a Nigerian-Canadian stand-up comedy act who's performing in Canada, you know. What are your thoughts? Like, you've performed in Nigeria, now coming here, performing here. 2:54 How does that help? I'll start off by introducing myself. My name is, um- Sure. My name is Ofili Michael Chijindu. I'm from Delta State in Nigeria. 3:03 I've been doing stand-up comedy now for, um, a little over sixteen years. Yeah, just a little over sixteen years professionally, you know. 3:14 But officially moved to Canada four years ago, um, June of twenty nineteen, my wife and I, we moved here. To be honest, I will always say it any day, anytime, I love stand-up comedy. 3:25 Not just because of the joy that I see on people's faces, you know, when I'm at a show, when I'm performing, you know, and all of that, but because it gives me an opportunity to tell my story, which is basically what stand-up comedy is about. 3:40 Stand-up comedy is about storytelling. 3:43 Um, and that's why a lot of times I struggle to, to get people who don't understand how you can bring a comedian up on stage and expect him to crack up an audience in two or three minutes. Nah, it's never done. 3:58 It's not done because stand-up comedy involves storytelling. There's always a punchline at the end of it. You need to build up, you know. There's, there's always a climax. You have to get to that point. 4:07 So stand-up comedy, I love it because it allows me to tell my story. It also allows me, you know, to run social commentary, which is pretty much what stand-up comedy is. 4:17 You know, um, take everyday events that happen around you, things that are on the news, on social media, in entertainment, you know, things happening between people. 4:27 You're driving down the road, you see something funny that, that, that just comes to your mind. You know, you're able to talk and comment about all of that. So that's basically what stand-up comedy is about. 4:38 You know, storytelling, social commentary, and stand-up comedy cuts across every single aspect of life. Mathematics, geography, biology, you know, um, security, carpentry, plumbing. 4:54 Think of anything that happens, you know, in the life of a human being from morning to night. It definitely, definitely involves stand-up comedy. 5:03 I mean, we just literally look at everything that's happening around us as comedians, and we extract the humor from that situation. So something tragic can happen right now. 5:13 We choose to extract that two, three, four, five percent humor part of it. That's what we extract, and we make so much jokes out of it. 5:22 So a lot of times that's why people look at comedians and say, "Oh, comedians are unserious." Or like, "Why is he being so unserious in this kind of situation? And he's making that kind of funny." 5:31 And we're like, "No, no, no, that's just how our brain is wired." Yeah. There's just something serious happening. But it's the comical part of that serious thing that is happening that triggers us. 5:41 [chuckles] You know, so let me tell you, um, let me give you an example. I was at, um, a wedding that I went to emcee, and we had to observe a minute silence, you know, for the, you know, the late father of the bride. 5:52 And, you know, so after I had announced it, I'm like, "Well, ladies and gentlemen, let's observe a minute silence, you know, for the late father of the bride." 5:58 Announced his name, and everybody stood silent for about, you know, a minute, you know. 6:03 And whilst everybody was quiet and all of that, I just kept looking around the hall, and I'm looking at everything that's happening and-In my head I'm like, are people really observing a minute silence because they love this man or because they miss this man? 6:16 Or what exactly is going through their minds? 6:19 And in my mind, I'm just looking at some of them and I'm like, I know definitely some people in this audience are thinking of the amala and the ewedu and the small chops that they will eat after this thing. 6:28 [laughs] It's not like we're in a serious moment, but that's just my own, the brain of a comedian. How your brain works. [laughs] You know? 6:35 And so when we finished and I just said, "Okay, may the soul of the departed rest in perfect peace," and everybody said, "Amen." I said, "Okay, please sit up." 6:41 And then I just said a joke, and I'm like, I know that in this audience, there was definitely somebody that was busy thinking about small chops and kpakpo and amala and whatever- [laughs]... 6:51 in the audience when we were observing a minute silence. It's not proper. It's not right. Don't do that again. And the whole crowd just burst out in laughter and everybody was laughing, you know, and all that. 7:00 And some woman walks up to me and was like, "Oh, that's not funny. You shouldn't be saying that immediately after, you know, somebody, um," [laughs] "that we just finished observing one minute silence for. 7:09 Do you know what the man meant to us? Do you know what?" And in my mind, I'm like, "He's gone. He's gone. You know? I mean, do you want to go and join him?" 7:16 [laughs] You know, so every comedian, you know, serious things happen, but we choose to look at that funny side of the whole thing happening, and that's what we hold on to, and that's what, you know, that keeps us going. 7:27 So, I mean, I just love to talk about myself, talk about my own personal experiences, which form a greater part of my jokes, you know. 7:36 So a lot of times when I tell jokes on stage, people look at me and they come back and they're like, "Ah, that joke you told, I really like it." 7:41 And I'm like, "It's not just a joke, it's a true life experience, something that happened to me." And they're like, "Are you serious? Are you kidding me?" And I'm like, "Yeah, it happened to me." That's it for you. 7:49 I mean, stand-up comedy is interesting. The culture here is, is changing. 7:53 It's growing because being a Nigerian comedian who's doing stand-up comedy in Nigeria, then moving here to Canada, there's definitely the Nigerian audience to service in terms of putting up shows for them and all of that, which is what we did by starting out the, the first Nigerian comedy club here in Canada. 8:10 I did start that out with a friend of mine who's been doing shows here in Calgary. His name is Femi Bode George, Femi BG of, um, iCarousals. 8:19 So we, we started that together in October of twenty nineteen, and we did that for I think about two years, and then we stopped that, and then I started doing my own, um, comedy shows and all of that. That's interesting. 8:30 And, and I, I like the fact that you talk about these personal stories. 8:33 And just kind of double a bit down to the question I initially asked is, do you feel like you have to adjust your jokes a lot now that you're now talking to Nigerian Canadians? 8:41 Or like, are you just transposing the same Nigerian experience over here? You know, I don't know if that sent question makes sense. 8:47 Almost like saying, what kind of jokes do you tell and how much has it changed, you know? Because again, you're Nigerian, you've been Nigerian for a while, and then you've come here. So comedy is a universal language. 8:56 There is no religion, there is no race, there is no tribe, there is no language, there is no school of thought that is devoid or that cannot relate to comedy. Comedy is a universal language. 9:11 Even if you're an atheist, you will definitely need to laugh. Even if you're a Muslim, you wanna laugh. You're a Christian, you would laugh. 9:17 You're Roman Catholic, you're Pentecostal, you are Buddhist, you would definitely laugh. 9:22 Even if you're transgender, you are bisexual, you are gay, you are straight, whichever one you are, you are Al-Qaeda, you are CIA, you're FBI- [laughs]... you would definitely need to laugh. 9:33 And that, you know, that language of humor, that language of comedy cuts across the divide. And so the most important thing, which, which brings me back to what I said at first, is comedy is about storytelling. 9:48 And so once you're able to tell your story or tell your jokes, you know, to people and they can relate to it, you will definitely pass your message across. 9:58 Now, a lot of times, um, what helps me is because I do more of observational comedy and I do comparisons, you know, I'm able to still tell my Nigerian jokes because these are things that have happened to me. 10:10 And when I start to tell people about the things that have happened to me, the way I say it, they're able to relate to it because it's peculiar to me. Mm-hmm. 10:20 You know, and I'm able to, you know, paint that humorous picture to them. I haven't really had to adjust that much of my materials, so to say, because, I mean, I do observational comedy. 10:33 So I mean, I might be driving down the road or I might get pulled over by the police or the cops, you know, here and there, and then I can get to talk about it, you know, 'cause the way the police will pull me over here in Canada is different from how they pull me over in Nigeria. 10:45 [laughs] So I'm able to, you know, do that, that comparison. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, oh, okay. And every-- Of course, everybody can relate it. 10:53 I was at an event recently where we had the chief of police, the Calgary chief of police was in attendance, you know, and I just told a joke about how they pull you over here in Canada and, you know, and the police officers pull you over, and then it will take them maybe like twenty minutes before they come out from their police cruiser to come talk to me. 11:11 [laughs] And I'm like, "Do you know how much pressure I'm under within that twenty minutes that you're inside your car?" Yeah, you put on your lights, you pull me over. I'm sitting there and I'm like, "What's going on? 11:21 What... Come and talk to me. Don't just keep me sitting there and waiting." [laughs] "I'm, I'm tensed up," you know? And you come out and you tell me to wind down my window. 11:29 I pull the window down, and you're asking me, "Do you know why I stopped you?" Even if I know why you stopped me, I won't tell you. [laughs] You know, 'cause I don't want to get a ticket, you know, like, you know. 11:38 So these are things that happen every day. One- Yeah. It's happened to me. I mean, I've been pulled over by the police, you know, once, you know. And I was able to create a joke out of that tense situation, you know. 11:49 And the chief of police was there, and the man was laughing and all that, and I'm like, "Yeah, that's true," you know? 11:54 So it happensA lot of times, you know, and that's, that's the good-- that's the beauty about being, um, a standup comedian. You're able to tell your own experiences. 12:02 Some people think up these jokes, some comedians write, they think, you know, but some of us are kinda like spontaneous. It's things that happen to us that we get to talk about. And I mean- Wait, chill. 12:13 I want to ask a question. So you mean that every single joke you told at the Basketmouth show was spontaneous? Yeah, some were spontaneous, some were actually real-life experiences. 12:22 Yeah, but almost like literally you are just going with the vibe and just- Yeah, going with the vibe. Following the crowd. Exactly. I mean, I love to interact with the audience. That's one thing with me. Damn. 12:31 I love to interact. 'Cause I always assume that the comedians come with a-- like, they have a script they wanna run with. So a lot of times you have... 12:40 Say, for example, I might be at home and some joke just drops in my head. I pick up my phone, and I can type it out, save it in my notes. 12:48 You know, I may not develop it fully, but I could just type it out there and leave it there. 12:52 So a lot of times when we're going to shows, most comedians, I do that as well, going to a show, I can write out maybe two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine or ten of my jokes that I want to tell at that event. 13:04 And I can get to the event, and something spontaneous might happen in the audience. I might end up not even using those jokes- It's true. [laughing]...that I prepared for. 13:15 And it's stuff that are happening right there and then in the audience that we get to talk about. 13:20 You know, someone just says something in the audience, and it just triggers something creative in my brain, and I'm like, "Oh, okay, nice." And then we start to talk about it. 13:28 Or somebody else in the audience says something, I could pick that up as well and start to talk about it. 13:32 So, um, spontaneity for most comedians is also very, very important and very, very necessary because sometimes you can get into the-- get to shows and the jokes you planned to use are not just-- they're not just hitting it. 13:48 They're not landing. Just not landing at all. They're not landing with the audience. Yeah. What do you do? You have to improvise right there on, on your feet. 13:54 That's why I said that the j- the job of a comedian or, you know, being a comedian involves so much. So you're, you're reading the audience, you are dissecting their reactions. "Okay, I said this word. Did it get them? 14:06 How many-- how much laughter did I get? Okay, I got quite a little. Okay, let me try this, let me try this, let me try..." You know, so there's a lot of calculation going on there. 14:14 There's emotional intelligence going on there, you know, whilst you're doing all of that. Yeah. So looks, looks like we've spent like the first fifteen minutes talking or learning about stand-up comedy. 14:22 I wanna just kind of go back to ask a question. Like, so what did you think Canada was gonna be like before you moved, and then what was it really like for you? Especially seeing you've spent four years now doing comedy. 14:33 [chuckles] So to be honest, when my wife and I decided we wanted to leave Nigeria, I wanted to go to the US. Okay. 'Cause I knew that, well, stand-up comedy was big in the US, you know. 14:41 But she was like, "Let's do Canada." Of course, I've heard of Canada. She picks Canada. She picks Calgary, to be precise, you know. 14:47 And to be honest, when she said, "Let's do Calgary," the first question I asked her is, "What is Calgary?" [laughing] [chuckles] I'm, I'm honest with you. I'm like, "What is Calgary? Where is Calgary?" 14:59 You know, 'cause, I mean, I literally only knew about Montreal, Toronto and British Columbia, Vancouver. Those were the only cities I knew about, you know. And she said, "No, let's do Calgary." 15:09 And, um, I said, "Okay, yeah. Well, let's do it." You know, 'cause, I mean, my dad always told me, "If you want a happy, happy, happy life, you need to make your wife happy. Let her make some decisions. 15:19 Just let her have her way." So I said, "Okay, yeah, let's do it." Um, and so moving here to Canada, it's been interesting. 15:25 It's been amazing because I think the stand-up comedy culture in terms, in regards to the Nigerian staging shows for the Nigerian audience is still developing. It wasn't as developed as it is now. 15:39 It was not-- we, we didn't really have that many shows, Nigerian comedy shows here in Canada prior to when I arrived. 15:46 Between when I got here in twenty nineteen and now, I can say yes, there's been an up- upward turn, you know, in the number of shows being staged, the number of comedians showing interest to come here and stage their shows. 15:59 A lot of people have been coming out. They embrace it. They love it because they wanna come hear Nigerian stories, you know, and it's been amazing, you know. That's, that's amazing. It's growing. 16:08 Just, yeah, just curious. 16:09 So, like, in terms of your audience diversity, do we still-- do you still-- if you think about it over the past, um, you started the comedy, Naija Comedy Club October twenty nineteen, if I remember correctly. 16:17 If you think about it now, that's like three years plus. Has the audience changed from Nigerians to other Africans, or it's going just strictly Nigerians? Or it's Nigerians, other Africans, Caucasians? 16:27 Like, how diverse is the audience? The audience is getting very, very diverse. Oh, that's amazing. 16:32 I would, I would say when I started, when we started the comedy club in twenty nineteen, it was fifty percent Nigerians, um, thirty percent other Africans, and then we had like a twenty percent Caucasian, you know, attendance, um, audience, you know. 16:49 And over the years, it has, it has grown. It has increased, you know, because the numbers that we're record-- that I'm recording at the shows that I'm doing is also increasing. 16:58 I mean, when we started the comedy club in twenty nineteen, it was just thirty people. It was a very small cafe, just thirty people, you know. 17:05 And then the next edition we did, we had about fifty people, and then the next one was like sixty. And then in twenty twenty-one, when I did the Just Joking show, we had a hundred and fifty guests. 17:17 Um, when we did the show in Toronto, we had two hundred guests. When we did the following show that I did in Edmonton the following year, it was, I think, a hundred and seventy guests. 17:29 And then when I did the last show that I did, um, in October of last year, which was my comedy special recording, uh, Grand Commander: Handsome & Funny, we recorded, I think, uh, over three hundred and fifty guests, you know. 17:40 Amazing.It's expanding, it's growing. The diversity in, in the audience as well is growing. You know, I would love to-- for me to see it grow and get more and more and more Caucasian attendance at my shows as well, so. 17:55 Yeah. But- I think like-- 'cause I think that like, like we said earlier on about storytelling, I feel like that's like a really good way to understand the culture of a people. Mm-hmm. Because like when I listen to... 18:04 There's this stand-up comedy act I listen to, he's Indian. I forget his name. He's pretty funny. Is it Russell? What do you call him again? Is it Russell Peters? Yes, yes, Russell Peters. 18:13 Like you listen to him and you get a sense of how the Indians, like where he's from. Mm-hmm. 18:16 Listening to, um, Trevor Noah when he does his stand-up act, and you get a sense of the South African culture because literally that's all they do. They tell-- they take their culture- Yeah... and use that, you know? 18:25 And that's- Storytelling, yep... to me, for me, like I f- I find that really important. That's a really good way to learn about a people. 18:30 One curious question I was gonna ask you was that, what do you miss most about Nigeria? To be honest, what I miss the most about Nigeria is my friends. 18:37 You know, I, I just miss being able to just get up, pick up my phone- [laughs]... call my guys, and I'm like, "How far? Forever. You de house?" "Yeah, I'm at home." "A de come." 18:47 [laughs] I mean, here you can't do that 'cause you need- Yeah... to give prior notice, you know. You need to call and, and schedule and say, "Oh, um..." You have to even wait for them to invite you. 18:57 [laughs] "Oh, we would like to host you in our house in two weeks' time." And I'm like, "Ah, let me check my schedule. I, I'm not sure if it will work. Uh, can we do the upper Sunday?" [laughs] "Okay, no problem. 19:08 We'll do upper Sunday. Let me ask my wife if she's working that day." Then let's-- then you put it on the calendar and maybe stick it somewhere in s- in, in the kitchen or so. 19:16 You know, but in Naija, you, you, you literally don't even need to do that. I mean, you just call. Yeah. "Guy, how far? A de come your house. Are you there?" "I no there." "Where you there?" 19:24 "I thereee, um, in Mecca place." "Okay, no worry. I go come meet you now for there," you know. So that's one of the things that I, I think I really, really miss about Nigeria, you know. And then the Nigerian joint. 19:35 [laughs] We had our spots where we used to meet in Lagos, you know. Like we meet in Laposh in Ogudu, or we meet in Lapule in Ogudu. [laughs] We go to- You lived in Ogudu. You lived in Ogudjerri? I lived in Ogudu, yeah. 19:47 Are you serious? I'm serious. You lived in Ogudjerri. [laughs] I lived in, uh, I lived in HLS Estate. What the? Mm-hmm. Wait, wait. HLS is the one behind... 'Cause I used to live in Mustafa Abdul. I know Mustafa Abdul. 20:00 'Cause I think Mustafa Abdul is behind HLS or something like that. Yes. HLS is inside. Yeah. What the- HLS is inside, inside, inside. Yes. I lived there. Wait, wait. Do you know, do you know Mr. Emeka? 20:12 Who was-- used to be... Mr. Emeka, is it Oragwu or something? He used to be the vice president at some point. I think I know him. I know him, but I can't, I can't remember the face, but I know the name. What the hell? 20:24 Well, I moved into-- Well, you probably left there before, because I moved into Ogudu, like, twenty nineteen August, then I left- No, we had left already. 20:31 Oh, yeah, then I left- I lived in, I lived in Ogudu for, I think, about three years. Y- Was it three or two? I think it was three. Three years, yeah. Yeah. We used to- So, I mean, we used to hang out. 20:39 Those spots we used to hang out. There was also another spot we used to hang out in Bagada. I'm trying to remember his name. It was on Calabar. Okay, there was a spot we used to hang out in, in Bagadabas. 20:51 And in Basi we used to go there just because of the turkey pepper soup. [laughs] And then there's another place, I'm trying to remember the name. It's beside one Redeem Church. Ugh, I can't remember the name. 21:04 We used-- So we had-- That's the, that's the beauty about Nigeria, and that's what I miss about Nigeria, 'cause myself and my friends, we had different spots where we used to hang out, and each spot was unique because of what we would get in that spot. 21:19 So we always would go to Basi because we want the turkey pepper soup. We'll go to Laposh in Ogudu because we are going there for their, um, what's it called? Their grilled catfish. 21:32 [laughs] And, uh, what, what again did they used to have? And their potato fries. That's what we used to go to Laposh for. Lapule, we go to Lapule because- Amala... we want to eat amala. 21:43 [laughs] And they will do soft ponmo. That's why we go there. Yes, yeah. 21:48 I remember the- This other joint in Bagada that I'm trying to remember the name, we used to go to that place because of their nkwobi and their akara. Which... What, what part of Bagada was it? 21:57 Was it on the left or the right side? It's, it's on the right side. It's close to the general hospital. Um- Okay. I don't know, I don't know that place. [laughs] It's close to general hospital. It's on Christchurch. 22:07 I think it's on Christchurch Street. Mm. You know, and so that's the beauty of Nigeria. You know, you just have different places where you want to go to, and you know what you are going there for. 22:16 So you, so you discuss with your guys, they're like, "Oh, guys, I, I want more. I want those guys on Friday. Where we could go?" And they're like, "Ah, we go Laposh last week." "No, we no go Laposh. Make we go Bagada." 22:25 "Okay, no problem." "Wey ah now, no wala." And we all converge, and it's always an amazing time. Yeah. Okay, so I think I have two more questions for you. 22:32 I think the first question is, like, is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight coming down to Canada if you look at your journey from when you landed till now? 22:42 Um, I don't think there's anything I would have done differently per se, because, I mean, life is a learning process, and I think I was just really blessed, an opportunity to meet some, you know, really, really nice and accommodating and helpful persons in the city of Calgary when I first came here. 23:01 Uh, I met, um, a Nigerian lady who's here in the city of Calgary. She's also, um, an events promoter as well, um, Fena Brooks. You know, um, I met Ikaro Sounds, I met Larry Ajayi. 23:14 I met a couple of event planners and people here, and some very amazing people in the events industry as well. 23:21 And over the years, it's been four years now, and I can see what they have been doing, and they've really, really helped shape the entertainment culture here as well. 23:28 So I would say if I had known these persons better before coming here, would've helped me maybe a lot better to, you know, network properly, you know, curate events together and all of that. 23:40 But, I mean, we're not doing badly right now. Mm. We all know how we come out to support each other's events and all of that. 23:46 So in terms of entertainment, I don't think there's anything that I would say, "Okay, yeah, I would have done this differently," and all of that. 23:52 But in terms of maybe business or, you know, family and all the other things, yes, maybe I could say, yeah, there's a few things I probably would have done differently and all that. 24:02 But in general, I think everything's, is all worked out really good. You know, I've just been blessed to meet so many amazing people. I mean, there are so many of them. So, so many of them. 24:12 You wanna talk about the things you'd have done differently family-wise, or you don't wanna talk about it? That's okay if you don't talk about it. No. Done, done differently family-wise. 24:18 Uh, my family is okay right now, man.No, you know, you said, you said something about like, if you was like, you said business-wise, like entertainment-wise, you, you're cool, but like the other parts, like maybe settling with the family and stuff, you're doing good. 24:30 The settling in with the family, if we had come in, you know, when we came in, if we had known, we probably would have maybe bought a house a lot earlier- Mm-hmm. 24:37 -instead of having to wait till when the rates are now crazy- Rent out. -and all of that, you know, and all of that. But it's all worked out pretty good, so I mean, we can't complain. Yeah. Cool. 24:46 And I think the last question I have for you is like if you have any-- like, do you have any tips, and you've may-maybe talked a bit about it when you're talking about the meeting the folks, entertainment and networking better, but are there any other tips you have for any comedy act who's moving from Nigeria or any part of Africa down to Canada, like for, to help them settle in and get their acts on the road? 25:06 The only advice or the only tip that I would have would be identify with your community. That's the very first port of call that you would have to use for a safe landing. 25:17 You know, identify with your community, whether you're African, you're from Ghana, you're from Cameroon, wherever you're from, look for your people. 25:24 Connect with them, you know, and that will give you a safe landing, 'cause that's what helped me a whole lot when I got here. You know, the Nigerian community was so, so welcoming to me. 25:33 The Nigerian community professionals in the city, doctors, lawyers, you know, business people in Nigerian community were just ready to, you know, consume my entertainment content- Mm-hmm. -that I was putting out there. 25:46 The shows I was doing, they were ready to come. They were ready to buy tickets and come watch me, you know. And gradually, these guys formed a very, very, very, very solid part of my fan base here. 25:58 I don't like to call, use the word fan base. [chuckles] You know, they formed like a very, very large part of my support system, you know. And these are people who over the years when I do stuff, they still come out. 26:07 You know, they say, "Oh, this is-- this guy is one of us. We have to be at his shows." They literally help me do all of the marketing that I need to do. Once I put out a flyer- Yeah. 26:15 -these guys are ready, sending it everywhere and talking about it and telling their friends, "Oh, you must come. You have to come. Let's go to Ground Commander's show. Let's go. Let's do, go do this. Let's go watch this. 26:24 Let's go to this." And they are paying, and each time they come, they get value for their money. 26:28 So asides from just, you know, advising anyone who's coming here to say, okay, identify with your community, I would also say that you need to give them value for their money. 26:39 You know, anyone who's paying money to come to your shows, you need to deliver. You need to prepare well. You need to entertain them. 26:45 You need to give them value for their money, so when next you wanna do something, they will come out and, you know, package yourself properly. Put yourself together. You know, brand yourself well. 26:54 You know, don't just come here and say, "Oh, because we're all in Canada, we're far away from wherever. Let me just do something half-baked." No. You have to give them the very best. Cool. 27:04 Thank you so much, Ground Commander. Like, this is really good. Thank you for your time. Thank you for jumping in. I know we've moved this thing around a couple of times. Yeah. Thank you for being ever flexible. 27:14 Um, so thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I mean, I think for me, the biggest thing for me here was just you often hear immigrants say, "You know what? I'm just gonna move. 27:24 I, I just need to move, and I, I don't care where I go to." And of course, I'm not saying you can't survive or you can't find your way, you know, but 27:34 I will tell you for free, if you have, if you have someone or have somewhere where you can go to and you have people you know or people you trust, like it's extremely important. Because you know what? 27:47 Code switching is mentally exhausting. Like it's mentally exhausting to, you know, start trying to adjust to the new environment. 27:55 And so it's, it's, it's really good if you can have a place where every now and then you can go and just be yourself. Like you're not trying to adjust your accent. 28:05 You're not trying to, you know, adjust or try to understand the nuances. You're just trying to be yourself. 28:11 You know, that's pretty important, and I think that every immigrant should think about that when you're trying to move. But once again, thank you so much for listening. Please like, share, subscribe. We're on Substack. 28:22 Um, we're on Apple Podcasts. We're on Spotify. We do show up on a couple other podcast platforms. So please like, share this with people. You know, just put in a word for us. 28:31 Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoyed the episode.
