Encomium
Talented comedienne, Bose Ogunboye, popularly known as Lepacious Bose is a happier woman now. Her weight loss journey which started three years ago has yielded so much result to earn her a roaring applause from fans. She took ENCOMIUM Weekly on her weight loss process and also answered questions on sundry issues in this interview…
How has it been for Lepacious Bose this far?
Everybody wants a better year. Things can be better than this. The country is a bit tough now. It is when you have money that you can stage a party and invite a comedian to perform.
The first quarter has ended, will you say you have been able to meet your target?
Definitely, I have not met my target for the first quarter. We are still working on it.
What are the qualities that can make a comedienne successful and relevant in the industry?
I think the most important quality is humility. I think that when you are humble, people will always want to identify with you. It doesn’t really matter whether you are the best at the job. If you have an event and your master of ceremonies is not stressful, if the person arrives on time and is properly behaved, and didn’t embarrass you in front of your guests and does not insult your guests, you will feel happy to invite the person for the second time. But when the person is a nuisance, you called for a corporate event and the person is in jeans, talking anyhow, getting high, you will not want such a person to come back. I think the most important quality is humility. The capacity to recreate yourself is also important.
When you go for events, you were there last week, the following week you were elsewhere and you didn’t repeat the same jokes, it shows your capacity to understand different events and what they stand for. The way you perform in a church is different from the way you will perform at a club. It is different from the way you would perform at a party and at a wedding. All occasions have their own zones, the capacity to know your audience and deliver, know what your audience require at a particular point is also very important.
It seems ladies are shying away from the industry; why do you think this is so?
I think it is because of fear. As a musician, no matter how bad the song is, some people will still enjoy it. No matter how bad your acting skill is, people will still watch your movie. But as a standup comedian, if you are saying a joke and people do not laugh, the embarrassment is instant. Your shame is to the whole world at that moment. It is difficult for women to cope with that. It is more painful for women, the men can handle it somehow. Women would rather not venture into it because they are afraid of failure. They are also afraid of the embarrassment that comes with it. It is a job for someone with a thick skin. You need an inner stubbornness. That is why many females shy away from it.
It is also a crazy world. You get back from an event around 2 or 3am and it is not as if you were well paid for the job. Many young ladies are still staying with their parents and they will not allow that. Some are married and their husbands do not want to understand. Some are not yet even mobile.
For a guy, at 2am he is still on the road and he is fine. He is still hustling. It really takes a lot of inner strength and thick skin for a lady to succeed in this industry.
How do you source for your jokes?
A lot of my jokes are from personal experience. Something that happened or something that could have happened or may be chatting with friends and whatever they said, I turn into jokes. I also come up with jokes a lot when I hang out with my friend, Owen G. We might just be chatting and someone will say something that is funny. You have to make friends with creative people. It will help you to develop your creative mind.
Do you write down your joke and rehearse before going on stage?
I write them down. I found out that most of the time, if I don’t write down my new jokes, I forget them. When I get home I try to remember how funny the jokes were and I may not remember again. When I hang out with someone like Owen G, even in two weeks, he will remember and he will remind me.
Have you ever gotten to a crossroad where jokes were just not flowing?
Yes, it has happened so many times. It happens to the best of comedians. It happens to everybody. Nobody is perfect. When you are on stage and you see one or two familiar faces, you might be like, I don’t want to say something about this person. The jokes might just disappear from your mind. But your ability as a comedian not to be intimidated by the situation is what makes you a successful comedian.
You just want to find a way out of the situation. That is what keeps you relevant in the job.
Do you see Lepacious Bose practicing Law?
I practice Law. Practicing Law does not require you going to court every day. In Nigeria, you graduate as a solicitor and advocate, so, you can practice law as anything you want to. You can buy property for people, work on contract for people, that is law.
About going into the law court, I see myself doing that one day too. Though, I am not in a hurry. What I have passion for is what I am doing right now. I have passion for arts and entertainment. I have respect for Law. They are two different things.
We noticed you have shed more weight again, what inspired the desire?
If you have gone through my Instagram page, you would have seen where I wrote a story of how my nephew said to me that I was breathing funny. I asked him how and he said, I was breathing like somebody that was going to die. When it said it, it was scary. He looked at me and said, Please Aunty Bose, don’t die. I took a check and decided to ask myself some questions, Is this all there is to life? I took an inventory of my life and asked myself if I was truly happy and the answer was no! I wrote a list of things that made me happy. I couldn’t find much to write. I tried to write a list of things that made me unhappy and I had many things to write.
The first 10 things were tied to being fat. So, I decided it was time to make a change. I decided to take the bull by the horn and do something about it.
Does your change in size give you more confidence?
There is no way you will lose weight and not feel more confident. You will definitely feel happier and healthier. You will feel sexier, people will commend you, saying nice things about you. You will definitely feel more confident. All that work together. It is not rocket science, once the weight starts going down you will see reactions from people. The fact that you can work into a shop and see your size there is amazing. You don’t have to buy what you see but what you like, all that come together to build up your confidence. The more confident you feel, the more love you feel towards yourself.
You actually look more beautiful and sexier, how does that feel?
It feels good, that is the truth. People asked me how I have been able to keep at it and I didn’t give up along the way. It is very simple. I just pick a picture of myself and how I used to look and tell myself. I am not going back there. When I posted past pictures and after, people thought I was showing off, no. Why I posted pictures of my before and after was because I was at the point where I wanted to give up, maybe I was frustrated and tired of the journey. Then, I look at the picture of my before and compared it to where I am right now. I tell myself, hell no, I am not going back there. It feels good when people tell you, you look good and you respond Thank you. You also looked at the mirror before you left the house and know that you will actually looked good. It is a good feeling.
How were you able to perform the magic?
When people call it magic, I laugh because there’s nothing magical about weight loss. There is nothing miraculous about it. The problem with people is that, I was losing weight right under their roses and they just did not know. I started the weight loss journey three years ago. I have been losing weight for three years and some months now. I am still going on, I have not stopped. To stay away from eba for three years, you think it is something I like? I missed good food. In three years, I have eaten pounded yam like three times, you think it is something I like? It is simply hard work, discipline and commitment. A lot of people started sending me mail. You must occupy your soul, spirit with it. When I wake up in the morning, it is what I think about. When I am going to sleep at night, it is what I am thinking about. All I think about is, I have to lose this weight. When I want to go out, I am already thinking of what I am going to eat. If I am stuck in traffic, I am thinking of what I can snack on. I try to avoid junks, soft drinks on the road. Those are the things that make you pack up fat. I have to think ahead. I am at a party and I am already thinking, what can work for me and what cannot work for me. There are parties I attend and I don’t eat anything. I just take my eyes off the food.
What was your size before and what is it now?
I was a size 32 and now I am a size 14.
Are you still continuing or you are okay with how you are now?
Of course, I will still continue.
What is your target size?
My target is size10 but my family wants me to stay at size 12. When I get to size 12, I will decide. If I feel good with it, I will stop. If not, I will continue. Everybody feels it is perfect like this.
What do you do and don’t in other to maintain your weight?
If you are size 14, once you put on a bit of weight, you will go to 16. If you were a size 12 before, if you increase a bit, you will become a size 14. The lesser the better.
So that when you get out of the way and add weight, it wouldn’t be too bad. My do nowadays are very simple. I eat only when I am hungry. I used to eat because I am depressed, broke, annoyed. I ate because somebody broke my heart, I am in a bad relationship. All that have changed now. If I am not hungry, I don’t eat. I also eat what I like. Sometimes when I am hungry and I don’t get what I like, I endure till I get it. If not I wouldn’t get another alternative because I will still want to eat what I have programmed in my mind to eat. My head will not accept that I have eaten.
When your mind is playing the game, your body is also playing the game with you. When you are hungry and your mind wants same thing, go out of your way and get that thing. You will be satisfied because it is a mind thing.
How do you sustain your weight forever?
Like I said, I don’t want to go back to where I am coming from. I have the tendency to be fatter than I was before. If I allow myself to let go, that is for sure. But if someone is determined not to go back, you wouldn’t add weight. Too many people are looking up to me, they are inspired by my story, it would be bad to go back. I need to stay strong and healthy, so they can be encouraged to stay strong.
What is your daily routine like? Do you exercise, do you have products you take to enhance your weight loss?
Yes, I have a product that I take but, I didn’t start taking the product over a year and a half when I started the weight loss journey. When I started my journey, I didn’t really know what to use so, I tried everything. There is no weight loss product that I have not used. A lot of people go on Facebook to say Lepacious Bose used their product and I laughed because I have used everything. There is nothing that I did not use. Once, they say that product is good, I will try it, from slimming coffee, to slimming concussion. It is not so. For each product that it used, I have my reasons for stopping some of them.
There were products that I was using that had rules and regulations, you have to use some at 9, 11pm, but because of the work I do, I cannot be taking them all around. I am not a rules and regulations person. I have one I must use before I am hungry. When will I know that I will be hungry. I had my reasons for stopping a lot of the products. Some started giving me medical issues I never had before. I didn’t have any particular process, I was just desperate to shed weight. I collected everything they offered me. In my house, I have like a pharmacy store where I have different slimming products.
I found out that more than the capacity to lose weight, you have to be disciplined. You must have the capacity to live a routine life, it is not so much as the weight loss products. The products will just make it easy for you.
Sometimes, what works for me may not work for you. A lot of people keep asking me what I used. But that is not the issue, they should look out for what works for them. I cannot recommend for anybody. I started using a product called Easy Slim. They came to Nigeria as a new company. They came to me and said they wanted a fat celebrity they can use as their weight loss challenge. They wanted to sign me as an ambassador, they wanted to launch officially, sign me and people will observe as the weight is going down. Unfortunately, they had some challenges but they used me as their guinea pig. When I say guinea pig, I mean they brought doctors from abroad to conduct a lot of tests. Doctors came in from Dubai also to do some tests. The people who manufactured the drug came to teach me what the drug contained. I had different trainings and lectures. It was like a school. They gave me their own scale, for each time I climb my own scale and observed that I have lost weight, I will climb their own and it wouldn’t reflect my weight loss. I have to start trying all over again. They have this amazing guy that will always harass me on WhatsApp to know what I eat and everything. They were so determined to see result. I will not lie, they pushed me. They really pushed me. They pushed more than I would push myself if I were still doing it my way. With them, it became easier and faster. I got more information too. They forced me to read, they recommended books, sent some for me to read and all that. I am a more informed person.
I think the most important tool for any weight loss more than any food or product is information. What is killing most people on their weight loss journey is lack of information. I can remember those days that I was on a diet, I wouldn’t eat from morning till night but when I get home I will eat cat fish. Catfish is the most fattening thing in the world. I wasn’t informed. I was starving myself and the weight was not going down. I got a lot of mails like that. Most people are not properly informed.
Easy Slim will educate you and they will tell you that if you are not disciplined, you are just wasting money. You must be ready to walk the talk. I have not eaten bread more than three times in the last couple of years. I have not eaten pounded yam more than three times in the last three years. When I started, I didn’t touch rice for three months. I became emotionally and psychologically sick. I will wake up in the middle of the night and start crying. I wouldn’t eat spaghetti and rice. I was psychologically disturbed. I had to form the habit of sleeping early. I took sleeping pills so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat. At times when I wake up at night or stay late to watch movies, I will cook two noodles, tow eggs and a soft drink. That was before my weight loss journey started.
I can’t recall how many times I would call Owen G at night just to cry on his shoulders. He would encourage me to continue. That is the kind of friend one should keep.
I must say, we are all a product of the things that enter our mouth. I can remember opening an eating dairy to write down the things I eat everyday including the time. One day, I saw all the things that entered my mouth and I noticed I was dying. Weight loss is a self motivating process. You need to cut off people who will discourage you. Make positive people as friend.
My former weight had been in my head for too long. I carried that weight for more than 24 years. I have not been as slim as I am before. I was size 14 in secondary school. I used to be the fattest in my class. Now I don’t go shopping alone, I have to take someone with me so as to buy the right size.
- SHADE WESLEY-METIBOGUN
