Samuel Perry’s big moment in Nollywood arrived in 2022, after he clinched the African Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) for Best Actor in a Comedy for his lead role in the Kayode Kasum and Dare Olaitan directorial flick, Dwindle. After building a wide fanbase on social media with his comedy skits, his performance in Dwindle rubber-stamped his prowess as a screen actor, meriting the award by a wide stretch.

When you watch Hollywood comedy flicks like Rush Hour, Bad Boys, and Everybody Hates Chris, one would understand the depth of intentionality that trails comedic acting. From script improvisations to standard blockings, the interpretation of a comedic lead character floats on the currents of an actor’s proficiency, else the plot is missed. In Dwindle, Perry, professionally known as Broda Shaggi, elevates the entire production with his consistent, exaggerated-but-apt expressions and plot devotion.

Across his comedy skits and other pockets of stand-up appearances Broda Shaggi had previously done before Dwindle, his ingenious idiosyncrasies have always stood out as the star of his performances. In Dwindle, he immerses himself into character as ‘BUTA’, a street tout and best friend to the main lead character CHINEDU, interpreting the role with a mix of expected mannerisms and his own signature mannerisms.

The play follows the story of two innocent bystanders caught in the middle of an abduction attempt of the state’s governor. Throughout the 2-hour screenplay, Broda Shaggi as ‘BUTA’ never struggles to distinguish between personas; he merges his character deeply with BUTA to create a hybrid that’s best fit for the story. It’s exactly like what Jackie Chan does in Rush Hour, where his innate humour shines through several waning moments, turning improvisation moments into comedic gold.

Broda Shaggi’s exaggerated expressions also reflect his background in stage acting, which he explored during his Creative Arts studies in the University of Lagos. While risking each attempt as a slapstick comic effort, he succeeds with inflecting his dialogues with onomatopoeic gestures and hilarious energy.

In one of the opening scenes for Dwindle, when the landlord hires another street tout to throw out his belongings in a forced evacuation, he slices through the tension with his unmistakable performance. He arrives at the building, recognizes the tout as a neighbourhood friend and instantly switches to camaraderie. His signature performance motif — his hands and legs shaped in a monkey pose, with loud hissing and chants of ‘Hello!’ with a guttural Yoruba accent — charges his delivery with instant comic relief.

When it comes to plot devotion or narrative responsibility, Broda Shaggi’s screen acting in Dwindle unlocks a stamina expected from experienced professionals. In the screenplay, he’s a truant, jobless, street tout but also a loyal and devoted friend to CHINEDU. He tailors his litany of jokes to reflect this personality, while fitting it to the mood of the scene.

For instance, in the beginning of the scene he hijacks CHINEDU’s privacy a lot, which offends CHINEDU’s girlfriend TODUN played by Tope Olowoniyan, but he seems to appease his intrusion with carefree humour. “Wahala for who dem no dey show titanic love!” he teases CHINEDU before proceeding to banter him: “So na kiss dem dey kiss you wey you dey do like mosquito?”.

Again, during CHINEDU’s lowest moment, after just losing his job, he taps into the sombre mood, while still bringing a light comedic touch. For instance, CHINEDU meets him in their house eating a local cereal called Garri, with a packet of cigarettes by his side and an avalanche of lamentations on everything else from the economy to the cost of food, everything else apart from the governor’s kidnap case being broadcasted on the TV screen in front of him. When he comforts CHINEDU, he is solutions-first, humour-second, piloting his erratic tendencies towards their shared common goals.

The entire plot swells with several suspense-laden moments, being an action thriller; but BUTA’s character continues to punctuate the tensions with the most spontaneously funny jokes. When CHINEDU confronts BUTA about returning the car BUTA had stolen from a friend to use for some quick cabbie runs, which later led to them unsuspectingly picking up the kidnappers, he retorts with even more jokes: “Which car? Cardigan or Khadijah?” He then proceeds to ask whether CHINEDU farted, diluting dramatic tensions with apt comic relief. His tenacity at understanding his role as the anchor of each tensed moment, diluting it with his comedic acting, forklifts the entire screenplay as a classic cinema delight.

If there’s any other thing worth celebrating in Broda Shaggi’s screen acting in Dwindle, it’s his eclectic vocabulary. Code-switching English and Street pidgin, he delivers dialogue that borrows from the most random of contemporary concepts, while fusing them with local contexts.

For instance, during his conversation with his friend whose car he later steals, he replies with: “Birds of a feather they flock together no be for every bird o. That one no be for Flamingo o!”. His obvious dim wits become the butt of the joke, channelling scene improvisation to deliver silly-yet-classic jokes.

It’s no gainsaying that Broda Shaggi, as BUTA, in Dwindle merited the AMVCA win, for his acting prowess and exceptional delivery. His roles in earlier released Nollywood flicks such as 2020’s Fate of Alakada: The Party Planner, and Namaste Wahala, although as a supporting cast, equally show similarities in his screen acting expressions.

He effortlessly flows with the story, amplifying his performance with clever screen blockings, erratic gestures, signature comedic mannerisms, plot devotion and synergy with the entire cast. With the likes of Mr Ibu, Francis Odega, Charles Inojie, among others, paving the way for comedic acting to be the spotlight of the movie industry, Broda Shaggi is brilliantly carrying the torch of a generational art expression that helped build a multi-billion dollar film industry in Nigeria.

His cultural impact beyond Dwindle, with his signature motifs becoming part of popular culture expressions, proves his mettle as an award-winning professional, and a symbol of cinema excellence.