Skhumba to host the first Showmax Original travel series

Photo credit: Justin Dingwall

Filming is underway on Showmax’s first travel show Trippin’ With Skhumba. In each 30-minute episode, the Comic’s Choice Comic of the Year 2017 will get down and dirty with a fellow South African comedian in their hometown, exploring places that won’t make any tourism brochures and stories that would be edited out of any authorised biographies.

“As much as we love South African comedians, we are only exposed to what they do on stage as opposed to their backgrounds,” says Skhumba. “So on Trippin’ With Skhumba, I wanted to dig deeper into their lives and where they come from - far more than what I could ever get out of them by doing a normal interview, like on my radio show on Kaya FM.”

The first season’s guests are Celeste Ntuli (Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal), who was the most nominated comedian with Skhumba going into the 2018 Comic’s Choice Awards; the last three Native Tongue winners, Siya Seya (Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth), Salesman (Pretoria) and Mashabela Galane (Moletjie, Limpopo); 2016 Comic of the Year winner Tumi Morake (Bloemfontein); and 2015 Intermediate winner Schalk Bezuidenhout (Kempton Park, Gauteng).

“Trippin With Skhumba is flipping funny,” says director Vincent Moloi, who helmed the 2018 Best Drama SAFTA winner Tjovitjo and also took home Best Documentary Director last year for Skulls of My People. “It’s real. It represents, to me, the ultimate exploration of South Africa’s humour in a very honest and truthful way. It has an uncompromisingly authentic texture. Be ready to laugh at our misfortunes and our greatness.”

The first season will end with an hour-long stand-up special, featuring Skhumba and his guests, as well as one new comedian from each hometown visited.

Trippin’ With Skhumba will be the third Showmax Original, building on the success of Tali’s Wedding Diary (2017) and The Girl From St Agnes (2019), which both set the record for the most first-day unique views of any show on the platform.

“Showmax is rapidly becoming the home of South African comedy, with the roasts of AKA (coming soon), Somizi and Kenny Kunene; Trevor Noah Presents NationWild; and stand-up specials from the likes of Barry Hilton and David Kau,” says Candice Fangueiro, head of content at Showmax. “You loved Tali and we’re going to do everything we can to keep you bingeing the local talent out there, like Skhumba.”

Trippin’ With Skhumba is being produced for Showmax by Diprente, which is co-owned by 2018 Comic’ Pen winner Kagiso Lediga and is also producing Netflix’s first original African series Queen Sono.

Trippin’ With Skhumba will be coming first and only to Showmax from 28 February 2019, with new episodes every Thursday.

For more information, visit https://blog.showmax.com/trippinwithskhumba/.

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About Skhumba

Skhumbuzo "Skhumba" Hlophe is a Tembisa-born comic who first graced the comedy scene over 10 years ago, thrilling audiences and critics alike with his larger-than-life comedy, which has his crowd in stitches every time he appears on stage.

Skhumba’s career has soared over the past five years, but his feet are still firmly on the ground. 2018 proved to be his best year yet, with 22 out of 24 shows sold out around the country.

He’s currently touring his fourth one-man special in four years, #IMeanBizniss.

About Diprente

Founded in 2009, Diprente is an independent production house making original narrative content for the world from Johannesburg, South Africa. It has garnered awards and audience acclaim across the full range of its productions, including television, film, short form, animated and kids content.

Past projects include the feature films Blitz Patrollie, Catching Feelings and Matwetwe, as well as the two-time Emmy-nominated satirical news series, The Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola, and the first African Netflix Original series, Queen Sono.