Skhumba Hlophe tells us about his new series Trippin With Skhumba

This idea came from the show that I do. There’s a feature that I do called Blom Blom, where I call on prominent people. And we don’t talk about their careers; we go deeper. We talk about their regular lives, and even their lowest moments in life. You know, even when you’re famous, there are days when things are not just going well now. Some go into drugs, some have other issues, and some don’t want to do this [comedy] anymore. But there are still those who are successful in the industry, so we talk about that.

So I decided, how about we do comedians, popular comedians. Comedians that will fill up any venue in the country!

I’m talking about Celeste, who is one of the funniest – I don’t want to say female comedians, I want to say comedians, because she’s not a female comedian, she’s just a comedian. She’s big on stage, so when you come up in this industry you must think twice, because she’s one of the strongest comedians we have in the country.

Mashabela, who can easily fill up any venue. Mashabela has a show called Comedy Under The Sun, where you’ll have five thousand people come to watch him.

We have Siya, who is the youngest and the newest. But he’s being doing comedy for twelve years. And in the twelve years, ten of those years were bad years where he’d sleep in a garage, then hitchhike to go to a show and get two hundred rand, until he moved to Joburg. And I tried to make things happen for him, for him to find a place to stay, refresh and go, try the next hustle, not knowing where your next paycheque is coming from.

Being one of the funniest people we have in the country, he deserves this chance. People need to know his story, for them to be inspired, for them to know. When you have talent, sometimes patience is really important. Because now Siyasa is one of the comedians that headlined Blacks Only: twelve thousand people. That’s huge, man. Twelve thousand people at the Dome; that is massive for him to come that far.

Salesman, who has been accused of stealing material, beaten on stage, proving that that is not his last point of comedy. He turned it around and showed us he’s really funny. I don’t care who you are, when Salesman is on stage, he needs to be the last one, because after him, the show is over.

This is the first time we’ve seen a big brand like Showmax say: “Hey, let’s try and see what you can do for us, as much as we can do for you.” We’re getting somewhere; we’re breaking down barriers. With this line-up, you could easily fill up whole stadiums.

And we have Tumi Morake. Tumi is a giant on her own. Right now Tumi’s got a TV show, Tumi’s got a book, Tumi’s on the radio. Tumi’s got so many belts under her, you can’t deny that she’s one of the best in the country. We need to know her story. Even though there is a book, we need the details Tumi’s not telling us on Trippin With Skhumba, those days when Tumi was alone, when Tumi was struggling.

I know Tumi has a problem with nerves. There was a show in Makufe, it was four or five years ago, Tumi was nervous in the morning. The show was at eight p.m, and when we fetched her at nine a.m, the whole day she was crazy, and she went on stage and destroyed. But you can tell how seriously she takes her craft. But to me, out of every comedian in the country, Tumi is the humblest one. She stills finds time to be her and to be crazy. With nine children. I think she’s got nine or fifteen children. She has kids, hey. Tumi was pregnant while she was pregnant. I think she was two months and nine months pregnant at the same time.

Schalk is white, but Schalk is loved by black people. Lately, white people come to my shows, I don’t know why. It’s something I need to talk to my ancestors about. But Schalk is loved by black people and he has crossed over in a very strong way. And he has worked with so many comedians. The comedy industry in South Africa, it’s not black and white, but there are some unsaid words or lines that have been set somewhere and some of our comedians are crossing that line to do white comedy and some white comedians want to come to the black side of things, because we have the numbers.

This side has numbers, not sponsors. No one wants to invest even one H1 or vehicle for these guys to travel. But these guys have numbers. I just did a show at Carnival City right now: 3800 people times two. That is 7600 people in one weekend. Not with anyone else, just me, by myself. I’ve booked out Gold Reef City four times in a row.

This is the first time we’ve seen a big brand like Showmax say: “Hey, let’s try and see what you can do for us, as much as we can do for you.” We’re getting somewhere; we’re breaking down barriers. With this line-up, you could easily fill up whole stadiums.

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