Nigerian comedian Julius Agwu broke down in tears while recalling how friends he once trusted stopped talking to him after his brain surgery and the long health crisis that followed.
He made the remarks on the Beer Parlour Talk Show episode titled “Julius Agwu — Back From The Brink,” which surfaced online this week. The conversation began with his place in Nigerian comedy. Agwu said he stayed long enough to coin the term musicomedy, a blend of music and stand-up that became part of his stage identity.
“Of that alleged comedy, I stayed and formed that coinage. That music-com, yes I was the one that formed it. To tell you how my brain thinks to make everything,” he said.
The memory overwhelmed him. He removed his glasses, apologised more than once, and thanked the people who stood by him through the illness. He then turned to those who did not.
“My friends deserted me. This bishop that’s talking now, he was managing me. Collect my money, do everything, then they stop talking to me, many of them, but God doesn’t leave,” Agwu said.
The hosts tried to steady him. They reminded him of the mark he has already left on the industry and told him that legacy would remain even if he never returned to the stage.
Agwu’s health trouble is not new. In 2015 he underwent brain tumour surgery in the United States after seizures in Nigeria, one of which he has said left doctors treating him as if he had died. He has spoken in earlier interviews about learning who stayed and who went quiet once the crisis hit. The Beer Parlour exchange is the latest time he has returned to that wound in public.