Comedian and TV entertainer, Mongezi ‘Tol A$$ Mo’ Mahlangu is getting ready to make South Africans laugh in his upcoming stand-up comedy show ‘Tsek Sun, It’s Personal’. We spent 5 minutes with him talking about what his fans can expect.
By Ayanda Sitole
I can’t give away the material I’ll be covering in the show. What I can tell you is that the show is about me and my personal experiences. I talk about things that my parents thought I didn’t see when I was younger, as well as being a father and husband while working in the spotlight. I don’t enjoy mass market shows, and prefer to keep mine intimate and exclusive. By doing so, I feel like I can be more open about my feelings. People like to be entertained by someone who is authentic and relatable.
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I am not a vernac comedian. My material is always in English so that my audience can be broad and inclusive of other races. I talk about things that most of us can identify with – from growing up in the township of Tembisa during apartheid, to moving to an Afrikaans speaking suburb, and then post-apartheid and the new millennial phase that has kicked in.
My career as a comedian began when I was 16 and in matric. I was asked to give a speech at our matric dance because I was always making jokes. When I said my speech, I spoke about the things that were happening in school, my peers and my teachers, and it was funny. One of my teachers told me that what I was doing is called stand-up comedy. Unfortunately, my parents could not afford to take me to art school, so I had to start working. I worked at McDonald’s, the airport and at a call centre to make money. But I realised that my stand-up comedy was paying me more, so I pursued it full time.
Many people don’t know that I am an Emmy nominated comedian. This was a very important opportunity in my life because it opened international doors for me. I’ve performed in the USA and in Europe. The skit I got nominated for is called ‘I can’t believe this is real – South African student interview’. You can find it on the World Star Hip Hop website and on YouTube, it has over 9 million views.
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I don’t have a creative process that I follow when prepping for a show. I just live and that’s how I get my material. I don’t have to write anything down because I speak about my experiences. I am a producer, director, actor, copy writer and musician. But I will never retire from doing stand-up comedy.
My mom was a DJ at my dad’s club called Choose One and Choose Two. She is supportive of my career. I get my sense of humour from my dad who is a very chilled guy, and he’s taller than me.
Currently I’m hosting a radio show with DJ Sbu’s every morning 6-9am on Massive Metro. We have a deal with over 1 000 taxis that play our show. You can download the app and listen online. We also broadcast on Pedi FM in Phalaborwa. I have a show called You Got Got on MTV which airs locally and internationally. And, I’m working on bringing back my reality show.
‘Tsek Sun, It’s Personal’ is made possible by Protea Hotel: Fire and Ice, and will be taking place from 24 August – 01 September in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.
