All or Nothing

Houston — a city with a strong sense of pride; Texas-sized pride in fact. From the sights and sounds of downtown and all around the Bayou City, Houston is the place to be. From its unforgettable landmarks like The Astrodome, Houston was the first to break ground having the first domed stadium, being titled the 8th Wonder of the world to its contributions out of this world in space exploration being named Space city and even The Houston Rockets clinching back to back NBA titles in 1994 and 1995, fast-forwarding to being a World series city in 2017 courtesy of the Houston Astros. Houston has been in the history books numerous times and given so many names as it is the 3rd largest city in the world with a diverse population of citizens. Houston always has eyes on this city worldwide from celebrates who call this home like Beyoncé to Travis Scott, another celebrity to call Houston home is Comedian Chinedu Ogu — one of Houston’s most prominent names when it comes to stand-up comedy, headlining all across Houston, The great state of Texas and now nationwide, Houston sweeps the nation once more with Chinedu’s pride for the city.

Chinedu headlines another night at The Comedy Showcase — Joke Joint (now defunct) as he takes pictures with his fans apart of his meet and greets after his show (Left). As Chinedu Ogu headlines other venues his presence becomes more well-known as banners alike are spotted around the vicinity (Middle). Chinedu warms up the loving Houston crowd (Right).

Chinedu Ogu came to fame in 2012 with his signature video “I’m from Houston” on social media where he lists comedic relatable topics about the city like the congesting Houston traffic to ever-changing weather, whatever the Houston topic, Chinedu has a joke for it.

Chinedu attended Cesar E. Chavez High school in Houston where he was introduced to his passion for comedy at the young age of 16 watching the likes of The Kings of Comedy to Dave Chappelle, Chinedu’s passion to be on stage was starting to grow. Ogu decided to attend the school’s talent show as he wanted to perform a comedy set for the students attending the show, although he wanted his own timeslot, The coordinators were in need of a host so he decided to be the host and get the opportunity to perform his comedy set in between acts, this was a win-win for the aspiring comedian. As Chinedu reached his high school graduation he was ready to follow his dreams and put college on hold as he was set to tour the road and explore his avenues being a stand-up comedian, Ogu came across the social media site, MySpace at the time and knew he could reach so many people over the internet. His plans came to an immediate halt as his father was strongly against not going to college. Ogu’s plan came to a detour and that rerouted him back in the classroom.

Huge crowds line up outside after the show to take a picture with the comedian himself — Chinedu (Left). Ogu rehearses for one final time before he takes the stage (Middle). A satisfied crowd laughing in unison with each other to Chinedu’s onstage jokes (Right).

As Chinedu’s road to a degree was getting closer he never forgot his true passion of being a standup comedian, he finally wanted to pursue what had been on hold for many years in November of 2012. 5 years later working for the school district, things started to turn around for the aspiring comedian as a door was soon to open. April 4, 2017 Chinedu’s signature video “I’m from Houston” went viral but in the mix of his local stardom he was late to his former job and his bosses were upset with him for making the video. It was all worth getting home to seeing 180,000 views on his video. 24 hours later his “I’m from Houston” video hit 1 million views. Older videos were getting the views he waited years on and his 500 subscribers turned into 8,000 and beyond.