Where All The Jokes Began

Comedian and TV entertainer Shampoonaiza explains how it all started

- Reabetswe Rabaji

FROM GaRankuwa, north of Pretoria, to New York and Ireland, that’s the story of SA’s top rated comedian who managed to take his talent across the globe. The SABC1 reality competition talent search, So You Think You’re Funny, was the show that put him on the map. It was a competition even comedy legends thought he should have won.

NATURAL TALENT

Thapelo ‘Tips’ Seemise, who is better known by his stage name Shampoonaiza, says all the jokes began in his hometown of GaRankuwa. He says most comedians are born with the ability to make people around them laugh.

“It’s a natural talent because they don’t have to try to be funny, that’s just who they are,” he says. “I’m a private but a funny person, meaning that I’m funny around the people who are close to me.”

THE GIGS