Upwardly mobile stand-up comedian, Nev Harrison has revealed that he introduced ventriloquism art of comedy to the Nigerian scene in order to immortalise his late younger brother, Ejiro who initially had the plans of becoming a ventriloquist.
Nev delivers his comedy through the art of ventriloquism with the aid of his sidekick ‘Kporkior the Puppet.’ Kporkior is a 38inch tall professional ventriloquist puppet (a handmade wooden puppet and first of its kind in Nigeria).
Nev’s comedy style is largely determined by the audience. If it’s a performance in front of children, the puppet is made to appear unintelligent while Nev acts as the wise one. However, when performing before an adult audience, Nev plays the foolish one while the puppet plays the wise and crafty one.
Ventriloquism is an art of comedy that is very popular abroad, and Nev believes it was a risk worth taking when he introduced it to Nigeria.
According to Nev, “my journey into ventriloquism was triggered by the death of my younger brother Ejiro, who initially had plans of becoming a ventriloquist. While Ejiro was getting ready to start a career in ventriloquism, he never lived to see that dream come through; this was because he lost his life at a teaching hospital in Lagos days after an early evening armed robbery attack in October, 2012. It was in a bid to keep the memory of my late brother alive that I learned the art over a one year period, without the aid of a tutor or ventriloquism school.”
Nev has some comedy television dramas to his credit as creator and writer. Among them are ‘Half A Dozen Plus’ featuring Chika Okpala (Zebrudaya), and ‘Living Together,’ a production of Kisil Entertainment Network.
Nev has also written for television stations like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Wazobia Television, and Royal Roots communications network, owners of Royal Roots TV.
As a comedy actor, the graduate of Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, plays a major role in a soon to be released situational comedy titled ‘Living Together.’ Meanwhile, a notable none comedy drama that features Nev Harrison is a drama by the NTA titled HILLS AND VALLEY (where he played the role of a gangster known as Murphy).
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