One Saturday morning, I was due to have a Nollywood Star called BayRay McNwizu as my Artiste of the week. I had no idea who this was and I Google to check her out. She had quite a few stunning images online and I thought, phew, she is beautiful.
I went on to do my usual research on her bio and stuffs she has done, while also reading up on what the tabloids said about her positive and negative. It was interesting that there were scanty negative and they were not serious dirt, so she seems like a clean act, unusual as that may be.
BayRay McNwizu sauntered into the studio with a shy smile that lit up her face and dimmed her eyes a bit, but she just looked more like a really sweet and beautiful young lady in her body-hugging trouser dress, one-piece outfit and its yellow.
I had to compliment her outfit, her very nice figure and her beautiful smile then, she dropped the infinitely disarming bomb, "Hello Sir, I have always had a crush on you, but you have to promise me you will not say that on air"
Awwww... she got me there and guess there are few men that will hear that from a beautiful woman, and would not have their heart melted a wee-bit, guess I am not one of them.
The interview was like having a chat with a long lost friend that one loves a lot and know that the feeling is mutual. It was an interesting interview in getting to know BayRay McNwizu and her ambition. She was seemingly honest with her response, sometimes coy, mostly oozing with charm.
Let me digress a little by telling you this story, and I will link it all up at the end. A
few months ago, I was in Yenagoa for the AMAA Award ceremony and it was
the very first time ever that I will attend the event. I had watched
reports on the ceremony several times on Channels TV for a couple of
years now, but I had no business attending, especially as I was not even
invited anyway.
But
this year, I was invited by the Bayelsa State Government to come and
witness one of the events that they are delighted to showcase as a way
of encouraging the arts and investing in Nollywood. Channels TV was
official broadcaster for this event as it was live on the station.
There
were Starlets (Kokolets in D'Banj speak), Stars, Super Stars and
Mega-Stars present at the event. Since I was a guest of the State
Government, I had nothing to do with the event itself other than to come
in and watch, while my Outside Broadcast Crew "do the needful" in
putting it on air live.
I
had an eyeful of absolutely stunning outfits like the one put on by my
very good friend of many years, South African Radio Star, Kgopedi Namane, there were also amazingly gorgeous ladies and some truly
charming guys, presenting and receiving awards. I had my little toy,
the Canon 600D camera with lens as long as my arm (just kidding, its not
that long), but it allows me to take very clean and crystal clear shots
from over 100m away.
I
love having my little toy on auto, so that it just clicks away and the
sound makes me feel like a proper papparazo. As I fiddled with the focus
and checking out the people on stage, a lady in orange one piece dress
with a pantalon bottom that is free-flowing stepped on stage. I did
not hear her name, actually it did not matter as she waltzed in
elegantly to announce the category and eventual winner.
I still did not
hear anything she said, I just kept clicking away, trying to get
excellent close up shots and different angles. This is made more
difficult considering I am seating in the crowd and not anywhere near
the stage. I had to get ingenious with camera angles and virtually
contorting my neck and body in weird ways to get clean shots without
having folks around me shouting at me to sit down and stop blocking
their views.
I never got to meet this lady in the picture and did not even know who she was, but she caught my eye.
This is one interview I will not forget for a long time, because at the end of it, I realized that this lady, I had seen on stage once and actually met and was introduced to her on the second occasion before she was on my show.
I
pride myself in not forgetting faces easily but on this occasion
someone did something to my memory, such that the person on the AMAA Awards stage that was introduced to me by Seun Oloketuyi on a set
shooting at a hospital in Opebi and finally live in the flesh in the
studio, I still did not link all the images together, that I must say is
by my standard unprecedented.
But its all good and unusually interesting as BayRay McNwizu has, in her very unassuming, sweet smiling way has melted into oblivion where she came from. I have not heard from her since and can only hope to see her again in a major Nollywood film in the coming months and years.
She did put a smile that will come on my face fleetingly each time I remember the coy and nice way she said "I have always had a crush on you, but you can not say this on television... "
Well now, I did not say it on TV :-)
Well now, I did not say it on TV :-)
