Andre Blaze Interview
Andre Blaze is on the grind, you could catch him on your TV, hosting Nigeria's got talent, next minute he is anchoring another show. So here is a chance to pick his brain.
Nigerian youths
We tend to imagine creatively and the creative aspect of our imagination is starting to be the funkiest of reality. The Nigerians settle down and imagine some castle and start drawing it, somebody else picked it up and start working at it from the graphic angle and somebody picked it up and decided to animate it, before you know you have something on the television, on the newspaper, it’s all falling in place I guess.
What are you into for now?
I don’t know the best word to describe a person like me. I tell people I am a grind man, a grind man literally is someone who is willing to do whatever it takes within the confines of the law and his own conscience to attain the answer that he wishes he could get. I am a TV presenter, I am a radio presenter, I am a script writer, a producer, I am a director in training, I’m also learning how to edit, I’m a short story editor, I’m a blogger, there are a lot of things that I do, great lot of things that I do.
How did you build this brand, this Andre Blaze brand?
Basically common sense, I’ll say suffering the moment in the favour of a greater pleasure.
How do you manage your time?
You manage that’s what you do, you get very disciplined, you need to learn how to plan yourself and stick to your own plans, with all the things that I do, I cannot always have personal time to go do some of the things, I used to party, but that same three hours stretch that I would spend at night parting I can very likely go home, stay awake with a cup of coffee and blog it out, or write up a story or create a new program concept or review something that I have already and try to find out areas that are rough about it, so you have to sacrifice something to get there, and that is the discipline.
How do you cope with girls?
There are no girls. P Square and those dudes have girls but Andre is about the grind, that is all I have, no women thank you very much.
What is your regular day like, your 24 hours?
I wake up at 4:55 every morning, I spend 45minutes working out, then the next thing I do is write, the best time to get an idea on paper is when it’s fresh in your head, and you don’t have an idea of how much your subconscious retains when you wake up from sleep. So I write or I just put it down on the black berry or my laptop or whatever gets that done then I listen to some music. There is no better way to start a day than music.
Is there any Nigerian movie that might have caught your attention?
I would give kajola a pass mark, not as much because they achieve what they were looking for but because they were daring enough to go into a genre previously unexplored by Nigerians.
The entertainment industry in Nigeria
Right now it is a beautiful house of cards and that is only because there is no strong wind, if we don’t get some order into the entertainment business in Nigeria when the strong wind comes that house of cards will fall. Otherwise I think we are doing pretty well, we are turning out some great talents but we just need to get some order some legitimacy into the process.
Books
Right now, I’m reading three books simultaneously; I read one self-help book, one fiction book and some history.
Lagos
I love Lagos. Lagos is a hub of energy but I can’t say Lagos is a cool place to be at, after the clubs and some friends you’ve got... when you sit in the traffic for three hours it could get very grumpy.
Spots in Nigeria
Jos is my number one spot in Nigeria, I love the climate, I love the people, I love the food, I love the terrain...I’m not trying to brown nose those in Calabar. I also like Enugu, it’s quiet in a rustic kind of way, no disrespect to the dudes out there, yeah Markudi is nice, those are my locations.
A crush on any of the Nollywood divas
No, no disrespect to you Nollywood “divas’’ in quote, I don’t watch much Nigerian movies; I’m not saying it is not nice but I’m not just a really big fan.
Ideal girlfriend
My idea of a girlfriend, I have one of those by the way, most importantly you have to be intelligent, I can’t stand a dull woman, I can’t stand a dumb person period. I’m not really heavy on looks but I’m a skinny dude, I weight 70killograms and almost everything on my body is muscle, you have to bring the softer tissue with you. I’m a conversationist, I like to talk a lot, you have to be intellectual to some degree, you have to read and you have to be skilled in the kitchen, I’m not much on food but you can get me to eat if you have the right skill and you’ve got to keep an open mind.
Dish
I like fish, get me my Eba and my goddam Afanchi and just let me be.
Bad habit
Ladies I don’t pay attention, I’m sorry. If I have to pick between you and the hustle you will not like what I will pick. That is my work habit plus I’m a coffee addict, I literally go to work with a glass of coffee everyday those are my addictions.
Hours on the internet
I google every single day, matter of fact, i google roughly twenty items a day. I wanna know a lot, I’m a very curious person I have expected mind. I guess I would spend something around six hours off and on the internet; I’ll probably be googling or tweeting with the rest of my tweeter fans out there.