Comedians Tumi Morake and Ndumiso Lindi are taking their stand-up show, Married, But Not To Each Other, online.
The pair will be hosting a lockdown version of the successful show, which sees them opening up about their relationships and sharing advice with their audience.
Chatting to Channel24 , Tumi explained that the idea for the show first came about when she was in Istanbul with Ndumiso and someone who checked their passports as they were trying to get into the city asked if they were married. Ndumiso said “yes”, then quickly followed that up with: “but not to each other”. And just like that, their show was born.
The duo have been friends for many years, and would always turn to each other for relationship advice, Tumi reveals.
“Ndumiso and I have been friends since we were single. We were single and dating the people we’re married to now. And since then, like we always go backstage, talk about what’s happening in our relationships. And it can either be a point of comedy, or it can be a support group between me and him,” she laughs.
Married, But Not To Each Other has been well received by audiences around the world, Tumi says, adding that the audience usually determines how the show unfolds. “We toured it, and in every city, in every country we went to, it was a different show. The people determine what the show is.”
While in lockdown, Tumi and Ndumiso decided to take one element of their show to Instagram.
“We’ve been doing what’s called “ask a couple”. Ask a couple is the last part of our show — our show is in three parts. It’s a stand-up comedy show, but it’s curated for love, it’s about relationships. So it starts off with Ndumiso and I setting the scene, then you have straight stand-up comedy, and then you have us doing a Q&A at the end.”
The Instagram Live sessions have allowed the comedians to connect with their audience, but Tumi also tells us that they were able to help one fan get out of a toxic relationship.
“There’s a guy no who gave us feedback who’s actually separated from his wife. And when we started speaking to him, we were saying to him, this thing between him and his wife was just hectic,” she reveals.
The star says she was relieved when the man contacted her with the news. “Cause just listening to his issue, I was going, ‘this guy is going through hell, and waking up and going to bed to it every day’,” she adds.
For the lockdown version of the show, Tumi says it’s just about making people feel good.
“People need to feel good. People need to laugh. I think a lot of us are under pressure; I think a lot of relationships are under pressure. So it’s nice to just get together and have a lekker lag [nice laugh].”
The show will also address some of the issues couples may find themselves facing during lockdown.
– Channel24
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