Thirty is but a laugh
MPHO MODIKOANE: DOING COMEDY HIS WAY, BY HIS RULES Classroom geek turns from adolescent rebel to dedicated father and entrepreneur.
Popular MiWay Insurance brand ambassador and second runner-up of the So You
Think You’re Funny SABC 1 reality show, Mpho “Popps” Modikoane is a man filled with giggles and gags.
From the moment he sat down next to me until two hours and three coffees later, when he left, I had much to laugh about.
A Gemini, Modikoane embodies multiple personalities which he attunes to different phases of his life. He grew up with his siblings and mother south of Johannesburg.
Life for seven-year-old Modikoane was all peachy as he attended school at Greenside Primary, where he got his stage name “Popps” as the kids couldn’t pronounce Mpho.
“When I was a teenager, my mother, who is a teacher, finally qualified for a bond and we moved to Mondeor which was where I got to lose my innocence and nerdy ways, and the troublesome adolescent in me came out.”
His fondest memory of his time in Mondeor is when he and his mother had only two garden chairs and beds in the newly bought townhouse. They would walk to Southgate Mall to share a box of chicken chow mein while watching soapies on TVs on display in furniture store windows.
But he developed a mild form of depression.
“I went from being a clever A student to being the rowdiest in class,” he said. “Because of the situation at home, I started hustling which also led to my entrepreneurial skills. I was one of two CD-burning music compilers in the school.”
His business, KKD Productions, progressed to selling backdoor contact lenses and selling food and sweets at school.
Eventually, Modikoane was able to play a positive role in his family and finally help his mother with the household finances.
In matric, the young entrepreneur made the wise decision to put his business on hold and focus on doing well at school so he could enrol at the University of Johannesburg.
“I did drama for the first time in matric and I actually won the most promising actor award. It was on that stage that I fell in love with the art,” said the comedian.
Before pursuing a degree in logistics and management, paid for by the remaining earnings from KKD Productions, together with salary savings from his summer job as a sales manager at a local retail store, Modikoane’s relationship with his mother took “a slight dip” and he found himself living in a backroom at his grandmother’s house in Soweto. Coming to terms with pressures of being a young adult still in search of a cause, Modikoane found himself being auditioned for a SABC 1 reality show by one of the country’s pioneering comedians, David Kau. It was a decision encouraged by friends and family. “After having to travel over two hours from Soweto to Auckland Park by taxi, there came a day when it didn’t make sense any more,” he said. He started praying for change “and this particular day I prayed until it started raining. I kept a book where I wrote down all my thoughts and a day before my 21st birthday, my sister Tumi took me to my first comedy night show and helped me step into my talent.”
Fast forward seven years after making that courageous move and Modikoane is one of the top comedians in this country, making it big both locally and internationally.
This year, the father of two girls celebrates another milestone through doing what he knows best, making people laugh – whether at themselves or at someone else.
One thing is guaranteed: the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City Casino will come alive.
With guest appearances from Savanna, comedian of the year 2016 winner Tumi Morake, as well as other funny friends, the Mpho Popps 30th Birthday Comedy Special is one for the books.
When I was a teenager, my mother, who is a teacher, finally qualified for a bond and we moved to Mondeor, which was where I got to lose my innocence and nerdy ways, and the troublesome adolescent in me came out.” I did drama for the first time in matric and I actually won the most promising actor award.