SOMETIMES GOD WORKS THROUGH MY JOKES… Says Lepacious Bose, the Big, Bold, Busy and Beautiful Comedienne

Lepacious adj. from lepa, noun; Nigerianese for slim, shapely beauty esp. of a female; lepaciously adv.

SHE has “B” written all over her. She’s Bose and she’s big and bold, busy as a bee and beautiful. But you’ve got to agree that she’s got be an “A” to have harnessed all the “Bs” around her to the superlative success that she has become. Everybody who has even just a passing interest in entertainment knows Lepacious Bose. Everybody knows her as the Class A comedienne who has made fame and relative fortune from blithely bantering about her physical bulk on stage, television or wherever else she has the opportunity. Everybody knows the highly creative plus-sized lady who has made it big by being unfazed by body-image, and has successfully, consistently kept her teeming fans across socio-economic classes laughing out loud with amusement and sometimes amazement. Everyone who has eyes can see that Bose is big, some might say, very big, and therefore does not fit into the “dictionary” meaning of the word the adjective, “lepacious” above. But then that’s the stage name she chose and it speaks volumes about her attitude to things physical as distinct from the spiritual. “It’s a blessing being big; I’m blessed with a good figure’”, she once told an interviewer. Everybody agrees that Bose is bold. You’ve got to be to go into a male-dominated field like comedy, although she’s the first to say how very supportive some of her male colleagues have been.

Everyone agrees that she’s got some smarts or she wouldn’t have successfully studied first Theatre Arts and then follow it up with Law at the University of Ibadan as a result of which she was called to the Bar in 2001. It is a well-known fact that she was introduced to comedy at the university. She recalled her first experience in a recent media report this way: “There was this campus show called Laughamania…they needed an anchor, and I was called to do it. Prior to that, my brother was their compere. I told them I couldn't. They said my brother used to do it and since he is of the same blood with me, madness runs in our family! I thought I wouldn't be able to do it because there was no script, they urged me on. Funny enough, I got on stage and it turned out well. I didn't know where all that came from. The audience were wowed and they enjoyed themselves. After the event, I felt high!” Any body who knows anything about anything would doubt that it must be tough combining the practice of law, no matter how basic, with stand-up comedy. And that’s what she does making her, as most people agree, a very, very busy person indeed. Of her experience in this respect, Bose has famously revealed: “I still work with my certificate in a government parastatal because I'm in the legal department. I do get to go to court and when I have to go…even if all I have to do is sit down and say nothing, I'm always miserable in court. But that's part of me…I'm not making any money from the legal profession. I'm just fulfilling all righteousness. I feel like they sent me to school and I shouldn't just waste the money…”

What people don’t seem to agree about is her beauty! Big – yes. Bold – certainly. Busy – no arguments. But, beautiful? Many disagree. But what they miss is the beauty that flows from knowing the Lord Jesus and having a relationship with Him. And this is perhaps one of Bose’s least guarded, yet not widely known secrets. She told KINGDOMPeople about this little known but very important part of her life; that part from which her beauty flows: “I am born again and spirit filled. I gave my life to Christ on June 14 1988 in front of my TV set at home as I listened to Jimmy Swaggert choir sing "there is room at the cross for you”. Like anyone my Christian life has not always been perfect, I have fallen a couple times but to God’s glory I’m still standing and still in faith. God has been faithful even in MY faithfulness. All through my life as a Christian I had taken active roles in church. I was drama director in my campus fellowship and then became the choir director of CLASFON, which was the largest fellowship at the Nigerian Law School Abuja when I was there. “After my call to bar, I arrived in Lagos at a loss as to where and how to worship and serve God because spiritually Lagos and Ibadan where two different places. Ibadan environment had a deep spirituality to it and it was so easy to grow, but Lagos was just so.....everyone wanted to show off, preach and become a pastor; and worship was relegated to the background. Eventually I saw CCIC (Christ Chapel International Churches) and the depth of the worship gave the flavour I needed and I joined the church and choir (the Levites). “I do not sing at CCIC anymore as I now attend KICC (Kingsway International Christian Centre). I felt it was time to move on in my spiritual walk and to know new things and KICC offered that and I bless God for the life of the Pastor Femi Faseru because the depth of the word is amazing. I however do not sing in the choir because of my erratic schedule. However singing and worship is my passion and it finds expression at Covenant Singles and Married Ministry, a marriage ministry pastored by Pastor Chris Ojigbani. It’s an interdenominational ministry and it’s such a wonderful experience when people from different churches, backgrounds etc come together to worship God and no holds barred! So every second Saturday I am at the Muson Centre (in the Onikan area of Lagos Island) leading worship; and I love it. I have been privileged to travel with the ministry as a worship leader to Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and even to Ghana.

“My spiritual status has been like a two-edged sword. I perform in some places and I literally get people walk up to me with testimonies of what God did while they were laughing. At times like that I feel blessed and fulfilled. Then again I come up with some very funny jokes but I can't do them because of my status and even when I DARE it someone somewhere walks up to me and say but you are a Christian ke? And I realize that is God’s way of chastising me. And gradually I realise I am God’s ambassador and the things I do are a reflection of the kingdom. So, I learn daily. “I believe that we are the Bible the world reads, people are not ready to receive salvation message, but the way we lead our lives will determine if people come to Christ or not.” Bosede Olufunke Oseyemi Ogunkoye has been in professional comedy since December 2006. She recalls that following one very inconsequential church event she performed in, “something just led on to something” and she found herself on “Night of a Thousand Laughs 2006”. Basket Mouth's Laff & Jamz followed quickly and by 2007, she was already popular. Get the gist? In the beginning was church – and therefore Christ, the source and secret of her beauty.