A young man who lives very close to us is always acting funny and always wants to make fun of people around him.
His father died when he was three years old, and his mother has been the person taking care of him.
His uncle, who is his father's older brother, does not want him to amount to anything, so he always tries to make sure that makes him look mediocre.
His name is Uwem, and he is the village clown.
One day Uwem came to our house to pack our refuses so as to dump them for us, since he does not have any other work other than to pack people's refuses so that he can earn a living.
Very early in the morning, we heard a knock on our gate, so my mom called me to check who was there.
"Waky, check who is at the gate."
When I went out to the gate, I saw Uwem in just his pants.
"what"
I shouted with so much laughter in my throat.
"Give me everything you have inside there."
Uwem exclaimed
While I was still laughing, I went inside our compound to carry the refuse.
My sisters saw me laughing, so they came out to know why I was laughing, pretending as if they wanted to help me pack the refuse.
As we were walking very close to the gate, with a low voice, my younger sister asked me
"What did Uwem do this time?"
When I tried telling her how I went outside to see Uwem with just his pants, Uwem overheard us laughing at him, so because of that, he took off his pants and said to us
"Come and see it here."
We could not help but laugh so hard that everyone in the house came out to see what was happening outside the gate.
When mom came out to see what happened, she asked Uwem
"Uwem, what has come over you?"
He said that is the way he wants to invite people to his comedy show.
He told my mom that he wants to organize a comedy show at the village square, so that is the way he wants to tell people about it.
The next day, when we went to buy some food stuff, we saw Uwem doing the same thing in another house. I was so embarrassed this time around that I did not laugh; I was feeling bad for him.
"This guy will definitely make a name out of this."
My sister said it sarcastically.
"Uwem is a clown and not a comedian."
My other sister said, and they all laughed.
So as they noticed that I was not laughing with them, they asked why, and I told them that I was feeling bad for Uwem.
Sarcastically, they also said "a woman with a good heart."
Our village was very noisy because of Uwem, so the youths of the village decided that they wouldn't let Uwem do this again.
The uncle, knowing that Uwem was going to really become popular through this, was trying to stop him, but Uwem still did what was on his mind.
So when the day for the comedy show came, Uwem paid people to set up the village square for him. He told them he wanted the place to be filled with people, and he also paid for sound and a sound engineer.
That day, no one wanted to stay away from Uwem's show.
At some point, I wanted him to succeed.
"Do you think that this would work?"
I asked my mom.
"I'm just feeling bad for him."
My mom replied.
When it was evening, everyone gathered at the village square to watch Uwem perform.
Before he performed, there were other activities, like a masquerade performance.
So when it was Uwem's time to perform, his uncle came up to the stage and said,
"I thank everyone for turning up for my boy. I thank the village head and the village council members. What I have to say to everyone here is that everyone should go home."
There was a murmur everywhere because everyone expected Uwem to come on stage for his performance,but no, it was not what we expected.
So, because I do not really like being embarrassed, I started going.
Sice the backstage was very close to the route to our house, I saw that some guys were holding Uwem, not letting him come out to the stage, so when I went closer to ask why, they said that he wanted to come out naked, so his uncle told them to stop him.
His uncle came to the back stage and said to the guys that they should bundle to the house, but Uwem was struggling with them.
The one who wanted to make us laugh was laughed at.
That made me understand what my sister said—that there was a difference between being a clown and being a comedian.
Clowns are sarcastic, but comedians have a good sense of humor.
