Mpho Popps on creative freedom and comedic licence he’ll get from hosting Comics’ Choice Awards

Mpho “Popps” Modikoane is the host of this year’s Savanna Comics’ Choice Comedy Awards and the lanky comic whose hosted a handful of award ceremonies says the comedy award give him creative freedom, comedic licence.

Mpho, who has hosted the South African Music Awards (Samas) and the South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas), said he always pushes boundaries when on those platforms, albeit being met with some resistance to his ideas.  

“But I think with hosting a Comics’ Choice awards, it’s free reign. It’s about how crazy can you get,” Mpho Popps told The Citizen.

“If there’s a place where we have proper creative freedom, comedic licence to go wherever we want to go, it’s these awards.”

This year’s Comics’ Choice Comedy Awards will take place on 13 April at The Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City, Johannesburg.

“I’ve been in the Comics’ Choice Awards show before as a contributor but I’ve never hosted. The reason I look forward to hosting is because this is a gig where we can push boundaries,” he said.

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Newcomers showcase their talent

Mpho Popps spoke to The Citizen at Sandton’s Theatre on the Square, where the Savanna Newcomer Showcase was hosted on Sunday.  

Twenty talented newcomers performed five minutes of their best material to a receptive audience.

Judges, who are industry players, cast their votes and the top five comedians from the 20 will be named the finalists at the Savanna Comics’ Choice Comedy Awards nominee announcement event in February.

“A few years ago, I was at the Savanna showcase in Soweto where 18 of the 20 comics bombed. Ah tonight, everyone killed,” said Mpho Popps.

Of the night’s talent that had time on stage, Mpho Popps was impressed by a handful of acts one of them being Aghmad Ismail, who happens to be blind. “I said to him ‘thank you for crossing the line’ he said ‘I can’t see it.’”

Cape Town’s comedic fitness

Other standout performers on the night included Callum Hitchcock, Nolwazi Nkwandla, Mzonke Maloney and Zachary Esau.

A large portion of the night’s best acts were from Cape Town. They showed great timing and handled the audience like seasoned performers.  

“It’s a sign of the growth of SA comedy but it’s also a sign that comics are actually putting in the time. From an infrastructure point of view, a lot of the guys that did well are from Cape Town, so Cape Town has a lot of places to do comedy,” averred Mpho Popps.

“Unfortunately, Joburg we’re still kind of recovering after Covid in terms of establishing places. But Cape Town, when we want to work material we fly to Cape Town, because there are so many gigs available. You can see that these kids are giging. Comedy is like a muscle, you have to train it. The more you train, the better you are.”

“That was comedic fitness on stage.”

The show was hosted by 2023 Comedian of the Year winner, Robby Collins and last year’s Newcomer Award winner, Wazi M Kunene, opened the show.

“Tonight was shockingly dope. I feel like a lot of comedians were wondering what’s going to happen. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Kunene told The Citizen.

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