Laughing Out Loud

A dominant figure in entertainment, CELESTE NTULI, 38, speaks about leaving Isibaya and her quest to be an internationally-recognised comedian.

- Phila Tyekana

“It’s great when things aren’t going well in your life, because whatever’s next is your best option. If you were doing something unfulfilling, you really have no fear to try something new,” says Celeste, as she recalls how she got into comedy back in 2009. She had been working in sales at Exclusive Books in Durban, and then got a job at a call centre. She took her chances by entering the SABC 1 comedian-search show So You Think You’re Funny, and came third.

“I worked dead-end jobs, and after So You Think You’re Funny, I thought I’d continue to sell books, but fellow comedian Eugene Khoza called me and convinced me to pursue a career in comedy. Funny enough, he called me just as I was about to walk in through the doors at work. He was right. After that conversation, I marched into my manager’s office and told him I quit.”

Thanks to that fateful decision, Celeste has now become a household name: she’s won the Mbokodo Award for Best Comedienne in 2015, and was a nominee for the SA Comics Choice Awards in 2015 and 2016. She was also nominated in the Favourite Comedian category in the 2016 YOU Spectacular Awards. She’s performed at countless comedy festivals, including on big stages such as the Comedy Central International Festival, the Johannesburg International Comedy Festival, the BET Experience Comedy Festival and the Comedy Central Roast of Jeff Ross.

Did you know that Celeste is also the first comedienne in South Africa to do a one-woman show? Seriously Celeste is a DVD collection of her shows, shot across Mzansi in 2010. That was followed by another one-woman show entitled Myself, then Home Affairs and Home Affairs 2.