Laugh to your heart’s content
September is turning into a great month for comedians Tsitsi Chiumya and Phil de Lange. Not only did Tsitsi win Best Newcomer and Phil the Next Level prize at this weekend’s Comic Choice Awards, but both comedians are featured in Trevor Noah presents NationWild, a 13-part comedy showcase coming to Showmax this Heritage Day on September 24.
Trevor handpicked all 13 comedians featured. Each episode features a short introductory set by Trevor as the host, an interview with the featured comedian about their ladder to success, followed by that comedian’s set.
“In each episode, we’re going to meet some of the brightest emerging comedians in Mzansi,” Trevor said.
This year’s Comic Choice Awards back up that claim: to win Best Newcomer, Tsitsi beat out three other comedians featured on Trevor Noah presents Nationwild: Bongani Dube, Gilli Apter and Lindy Johnson, while one of Phil’s challenges for the Next Level award came from Eric Jansen, who is also featured on the show.
This is the second major award this year for Tsitsi. He also won a South African Film and Television Award (Safta) for Scriptwriting – TV Comedy as part of the Puppet Nation team.
The comedian hails from Lebowakgomo, a small township in Limpopo. He only “officially” learned English in 2006 when he came to Johannesburg.
“I went to the only English school in Lebowakgomo. We spoke really bad English there,” says Tsitsi. “I thought I knew what English was before I came to Johannesburg, which was really embarrassing, because I had so much confidence. I’m a pretty awkward guy so it was really weird for me to start learning English, especially when you come to the big city and you always thought that you would fit in, and then you can’t speak the language that people are using to communicate. From not being able to speak English, to the point that I’m performing with one of the biggest comics in the world, in English, it confirms to me that I’ve conquered this language.”
Phil was born and bred in Bloemfontein but now lives in Cape Town, where he co-hosts The Smile 90.4FM Comedy Hour between 9pm and 10pm on Saturday evenings with Angel Campey. His dry, self-deprecating comedy set blends stand-up and ukulele.
“My first comedy set I ever did was at the Armchair Theatre in Cape Town,” says Phil.
“I was the first person I think in Cape Town to ever perform comedy with a ukulele. People laughed at me, not at my jokes, because my mic kept falling out of the mic stand and I broke my ukulele on stage. I was quite terrible to be honest.”
Trevor is in line for awards himself this month: on September 17 he could become the first black host to ever win an Emmy for Best Variety Talk Series for The Daily Show.
Binge all 13 episodes of Trevor Noah presents NationWild only on Showmax from Heritage Day, September 24.