Carla: How did you get into the comedy and film industry?
Tumi: When I was in grade 11, I knew I wanted to be in entertainment. I knew I wanted to write and perform. At the time, I had an idea of standup comedy but I had never really seen it in a South African context. In my Matric year, I only applied to do fine arts or dramatic arts at Wits University. I was like, whoever takes me, I’m going! I got accepted into both and so off I went to study. One day I discovered this comedy lunchtime thing.
And at these lunchtime comedy sessions, the likes of David Kau and Riad Mousa were there performing. I remember the one day I walked up to David afterwards and told him: “I want to do what you do”, I found him a bit dismissive because he just said, “Well yeah, then do it!” I mean I was a fan, but I was also a fan of what he was doing. But I wasn’t gonna do it. It would be only years later when I met him again and I said to him that I wanted to do his Blacks Only show.
I had been to his shows and I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. But I thought to myself, damn there’s hardly any women in there, this was a gap! In drama school, I had been doing a lot of Shakespearean comedies, and I had been told I have great comic timing. And I always say to people, I knew I was funny because if people could laugh at me speaking in iambic pentameter, I can be funny all the time. So that was it for me, I started doing open spots and then one day I was introduced to Joe Parker, who was running gigs at Carnival City in Brakpan.
My first gig there, oh, my friend, I can tell you now it was a tough audience. But I was more shocked that the very next day Joe Parker called me to ask if I would like to make some money. It was then that he offered me my first paid gig and I never looked back. From there on, I did the comedy underground and that for me was church. It lit my soul on fire!
C: Were you just the funniest person in your group of friends?
T: I was the butt of the jokes and the funny one and I think people love that. I can take a joke, but then I could fight it right back.
C: When did you realize that you were on the right path?
T: I was a big fan of John Vlismas, I feared him even. But I think I feared him a little bit less after this one time I was driving home after a workshop because I was hustling in Joburg (as one does). I was listening to 5FM and they were interviewing John Vlismas about the show he was going to do and they asked him which comedians people should be looking out for. In that interview, I was the only person he mentioned. He called me fearless. He called me funny. I was like this guy knows my name! That was such an iconic moment for me.
C: How do you write material?
T: It happens a lot for me in conversations and it also happens just when I’m consuming things in media, and then I go, oh snap, that hit me. And if it hit me, I want to talk about it. I feel like I’m going to talk about something if it’s not coming from the heart. Because you know, an audience is like, you know how a dog can smell fear? An audience can tell when you’re BS’ing them. So I feel like if I don’t care about it, I’m not going to talk about it. It changes all the time because it’s already dependent on what’s happening and what’s relevant in your life. I’ve been spending so much time doing a lot of self-discovery and I go, self-discovery is not funny. And then I think but wait, I’ve done a lot of laughing during the self-discovery. I’ve become a mother that I don’t believe we’ve seen what mothers can be. I’ve become the kind of woman that I’m not sure society says you’re allowed to be when you are “my age”. So I thought, let me talk about that. It circles back to one of the themes of my latest film The Honeymoon, which is being true to yourself. It’s your life, you need to take charge of it, and you can’t always have the excuse of circumstance or the excuse of the people around you, you literally just have to take the bull by the horns, and I love that.
C: Speaking of The Honeymoon, it's just so incredible to see a powerful female cast and crew. Talk to me a bit about the film and your role as Nox in the film.
T: The role was written for me. I did 3 Days To Go a few years ago with Bianca Isaac. After we filmed she was like, “Yo chica, I’ve been trying to work with you since University, so I’m going to be working on another film and we have to do it together.” A while later I got a call from her to say that the film was on like donkey kong. And I was going to be playing alongside Kajal Bangwandeen and Minnie Dlamini. Through so many crazy unforeseen events: co-stars getting pregnant, a pandemic, my gallbladder having to be removed, the rioting in Durban, all of it, it felt like everything was just conspiring against us. But somehow the universe made it all happen!
C: What was it like working with Bianca Isaacs again?
T: Bianca wrote this film so perfectly. I think Bianca wrote as if she knows us like she knows our essence so well. What I like about what she did for me with my character Nox, is that she painted a picture that also reminds me of what people think of me that I’m not, because you know, there is who we are, then who we try and be in the world, and then who people perceive us to be. And they’re all three very different things.
C: What was your favourite part of working on this film with these incredible women?
T: We had the time of our lives! We had Kajal who was a new mom on set, Minnie who had a little toddler, and me who was in recovery after my gallbladder surgery. It was acrazy time, but it was the best time ever. We were carrying each other, you know? Everybody had their hard days, but we had each other’s backs from day one.
C: You're based in the US right?
T: My husband Mpho Osei Tutu, our kids and I are currently based in Atlanta, aka. Black Hollywood. Our family is back in South Africa, so it’s kind of like we’re half in, half out. I feel like we live here and in Johannesburg. But my family is thriving here, and we just love it!
C: What’s next on the cards?
T: I would love to do more films. I’m doing a lot of auditioning for stuff and it’s also been great to audition again because that in itself is a skill. And auditioning is like going to work because you get to prepare, you get to do character work, and then you get to jump in front of a camera and perform. My husband is an incredibly trained actor, writer and producer. We’re both in such a great position here being able to jumpstart our careers here in the US. Everything we do is always very conscious, when you are with your ride or die, that’s what you do, you support each other’s dreams.