Ex-Big Brother Housemate,  Nigerian born, Lebanese by blood, Joe Alfred Abdallah is a Creative Artist who is a Sarcastic sapiosexual who suffers no fools. This was highly apparent when he joined the Big Brother housemates in the most recent  PepperDem season 4 where he was a major Antagonist.

Best known for his Perfectly groomed and curled Mustache, he became the Herbert Macaulay Moustache guy who never failed to create entertaining moments when he was on screen. Speaking With FAB.NG, Joe Abdallah spoke about his experience in the BBN house, the projects he is working on and the future of the creative industry.

About 4 months ago, Joe was just a regular creative artiste trying to find his feet in the arts and entertainment industry but now you can’t walk into a place and won’t be identified as Ex-BBNaija housemate, would you say BBN opened doors for you?

4 to 5 months ago before Big brother, I wasn’t regular. I was a creative artiste and mostly my reach was in Abuja and yes after BBN things definitely changed and the gap is a lot. There is a major difference, I don’t have followers anymore, I have fans and it is drastic, it growing everyday so yes it is a drastic change.

According to Joe awareness prompted him to audition for BBNaija “Pepper Dem” edition

I wanted awareness, I wanted to stretch out more to places, I wanted to be able to change something. When you a just a regular person, you need to do a lot more than what you do as a person to attract the people that you need. The other opportunities that was going to be gotten from the BBNaija so I said why not. I might have not prepared for the extreme amount of fan base, but it is good enough.

Speaking on what he has been up to since leaving the BBN house, he said;

One of the few things I wanted to make sure I do was to create workshops in schools to teach children and adults actually. The first thing I did was to go to Jos and see how we could create some sort of park where we could bring a lot of people together and in there we would build workshop for recycled objects and Eco friendly structures because I also work with building places, props and deco, so I want to do that and see if the kids we have are ready. They are the ones that will take over, we are doing all this for them and not for ourselves. We want to teach them how to build Eco friendly materials and focus on plant, nature and some of the things they are not really exposed to anymore, because right now Its just Instagram, and parties.

With a degree in sociology from the University of Ibadan, how did the journey to becoming a Creative Artiste and also a trained Masseur begin we asked;

Since I was a kid, I have always been an artiste, I was always creating this, building that, sketching on that book or the other but you know in schools, it is not always your choice, it is always your parents that wants you to be a doctor, my parents weren’t really keen on what I wanted to be, whatever they say, when I go to school, I do what I want to do. After realising that I was creative naturally, I didn’t need to learn it, I just kept doing it. The encouragement wasn’t as much as I would have expected, but I encouraged myself. At the end of the day we are the ones that have to encourage and push oursleves. Then sociology came about, In A-Levels before I got into the University, I did psychology and human anatomy on the side, that was my own personal study then fine and applied arts myself. Sociology is the only B.sc i have.

For a multi-talented Joe with over a decade of experience in commercial arts practice, how would you describe the Nigerian creative art industry?

The Nigerian creative industry isn’t embracing the culture well enough, we are slacking. We don’t understand that out culture is way more interesting than any other culture in Africa specifically. It is discouraging enough because of what’s happening in the society, everyone is now going into the kind of creative things people want to buy immediately. Some artistes are creating what they aren’t good at or what they aren’t happy doing because it brings money. So if I do a painting of a man in tears and I do a painting of Wole Soyinka, I am more likely to sell the Soyinka painting faster than selling the random guy’s painting. The man in tears painting is expressive but instead you would go for a portrait of a celebrity. But what we need to learn is to express ourselves, most artiste don’t do that. An artiste should be able to express himself however he feels like, not the way the society want.

Asked if he intends to go into the entertainment industry fully, Joe said;

Yes actually, but not as an actor. Maybe later in future, but I prefer to be behind the scenes basically set designs. I will build stages and create props for movies. Script writing or let me say script saying, I do that and I also build props for movies. I build props that are Eco friendly, promotes safety and recycling. Those are the part I already involve myself now in the entertainment industry. I make story boards as well, but later in the future, I might act a film or two maybe.

For Joe, one experience the Big Brother house taught him was

I understood people more, I didn’t go to BBNaija to win the money, the fact that I was there was what I needed. My personal interest was to go in there, because it is an experiment on humans, I went there to experiment on the people been experimented. I wanted to know more about people and the best way to know people is not by meeting them casually, when you are dropped in a pit with random people, that’s a different kind of meet. That particular experience I can’t get It anywhere else. I now understand people very well and what makes them thick, why they would do some things and why they would do others.

Speaking about major projects he is working on presently, Joe said

I am a masseur and a massage therapist and I have been working with Spas around Lagos and Abuja. I have also been going around schools doing graffiti and wall designs for them. I am also working with people that have had experiences with drugs – drug abuse victims, trying to advice on what to do and what not to do.

I do body arts and tattoos, temporal ad permanent tattoos. I am also working on a Neon exhibition this year and also festival of arts, sustainability and technology (FAST Abuja)

When asked to give an advice to anyone going into the next BBN House he said

Don’t confuse a reality show with a movie, for a movie, you need o act and for a reality show you need to be yourself. If you want to follow the tactics that most Nigerians will do, that is trying to be feisty, loud and everywhere, tactics that Tacha, Omashola and Efe used and that is what Nigerians like. Going into the house you need to be prepared to be yourself.