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South African comedian Tumi Morake joins the impressive line-up of Comedians of the World, coming to Netflix on 1 January 2019.
The show, which was filmed in Montreal, brings together 47 comedians from 13 regions in 8 languages, for the “first of its kind” stand-up comedy series.
About performing on the American continent for the very first time, Tumi says: “It was exciting, frighting, eye-opening, and growing experience.”
Especially since it’s furthest she has ever been away from her family.
“Netflix gave us the power to edit our own specials so I’m really curious to see the two Loyiso’s and Riaad’s episode, because I watched them live and I watched it going: ‘This is perfect from start to finish and I wouldn’t change anything’,” the Safta-winning actress said.
About the exciting line-up, the 37-year-old comedian says: “There are some comedians from the Middle East I would love to watch because when I watch comedy I enjoy hearing voices that are not from my immediate environment and I want to see how the comedy translates language-wise.”
Elaborating on the subject, she adds: “I would like to see how jokes translate from Arabic to English. What am I going to miss, and what am I not? When I started out, I did comedy in vernac and in English in Pretoria and I know what changes in terms of nuances and flavor.”
It’s hard the believe that even though Tumi has an outgoing personality, she had reservations when she was first selected to be part of the cast.
She explains: “It’s overwhelming and I’m only human. The first thing that scared me was: ‘Am I really the best? Isn’t there someone better who could have done this?”
But she then firmly told herself: “Tumi you’ve been working outside the country, Paris, US, Australia, why are so afraid of this?”
About being selected as the only female artist to represent the African continent, she says: “It has a been huge affirmation that the work I’m doing has spoken for itself, and that people can trust me with something of this magnitude.”
“It’s one thing to be the first but it’s even more special to be counted among the best. And being the only female comedian from the continent makes it even more special. For the industry to grow, the artists need to grow, and diversify. To look like I have staying power means everything to me,” she adds.
“Sometimes we sell ourselves short.”
