Sketches, Songwriting, and the Silver Screen: Céline Tshika Pushes The Frontiers of Comedy as a Medium of Laughter
If laughter is indeed the best medicine, comedian Céline Tshika is the GP of giggles ready to prescribe endless doses of laughs through films, sketches, and songs. Born in the DR Congo and bred in South Africa, Tshika has been privileged to not only obtain a degree in Engineering from the University of Cape Town, but to jet off to study acting in California, USA. Exposed to different worldviews, Céline found herself equipped with eclectic knowledge and education which fed her creative endeavours, birthing international works of art received with acclaim and warm public reception.
There is a saying that goes: “Act the way you want to be, and soon you’ll be the way you act” – a driving force that unconsciously guided Tshika in her journey to making a living as a creative. A scholar at heart, Céline’s upbringing was shaped by the caste of parents who stressed the importance of education. As a result, she grew up convinced that her lot was within the four corners of a cubicle, updating data spreadsheets whilst confined to a 9-to-5.
However, all that changed the more she grew and determined her identity in high school, a decision that altered the course of her life.
“I feel like I’m still being surprised by myself that I’m a creative, and not, you know, working in an office with numbers on a spreadsheet. I grew up thinking that was the only thing for me because I had parents who worked really hard to get to where they were. Education was their ticket out. So for them, the most important thing was to be good in school. That was the be-all and end-all. And that influenced why for the longest time I didn’t expand my mind to being a creative for life. I was mostly academic.
“I knew I liked sport and doing drama, but I was quite shy and didn’t think I could be an actor. And so when I eventually started singing and dancing, they became the first two things I realised I could do, things that I liked. I started auditioning for a musical in high school, and that’s how the acting started,” Céline said.
Céline Tshika
The shy girl-turned-cheeky comedienne has made larger-than-life strides since embracing her calling as a creative. From handling her self-created comedy web series Jess Goes West and hosting the South African satire spoof news show Politically Aweh, to releasing a string of singles, Tshika has been pushing her creativity past its limit.
Her fourth satirical work – titled “no, YOU’RE AMAZING” – which she wrote and co-starred in alongside rising actress Kathleen Stephens made it to the Toronto Sketch Festival. Based on the risible scenario of two women having a war of compliments, Tshika spoke about the inspiration behind the the artistry.
“Weirdly enough, that was inspired by an actual conversation between me and the other actress [Kathleen]. We were introducing each other to a friend, and I was describing her like, “No, she’s a real actress.” And then she was like, “No, she’s a real actress!” The both of us were not expecting these compliments we were giving each other, and the bystander who was watching us thought that what we were doing was insane and that it could be turned into a sketch.
“I realised also that a lot of women do this. We refuse to accept a compliment. So we decided to take it to the extreme and wondered how it would turn out if we went all in and it turned into an actual fight with people involved just to make it ridiculous,” she said of the sketch.
Watch “no, YOU’RE AMAZING” below:
There’s a grain of truth hidden in every joke. This is a fact Céline is privy to. Because of this understanding, the funnywoman has been intentional in using comedy to not only make people laugh but to also think critically about issues society would otherwise turn away from and pretend don’t exist. The mission germinated into a love for satire.
She shared how her love for satire started.
“Being someone who wants to use comedy as a form of activism is how my love for satire came about. I remember the first time I fully understood a mockumentary through this one episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in Season 4. It was about this cult leader who had kidnapped these four women and was now making a fake documentary about it. I thought it was such a genius way to talk about such a heavy topic. Somehow making it comedic and the choice of who to center in the story was so good.
“From there, I knew this was all I wanted to do. So the first proper satire thing I did was “Stank Like a Man”, which was about how men’s body wash products are so unnecessarily gendered and masculine. Because I’m not someone who can go on a furious rant about this gender politics issue. I’m a clown. So I thought about how I could use that to my advantage by making a fake ad that would emphasise just how ridiculous the whole thing is. That was the point where I realised I loved satire,” she said.
Tshika spoke about the significance of teamwork as a society when it came down to addressing the ills plaguing the world. She cited the importance of knowing her place and trying her best to be effective in driving social change and awareness by using her penchant for reaching people’s funny bones.
“I’ve always believed that we all have a part to play in all forms of activism and social change. Academics play their parts by writing papers on these issues, and I’ve found my part where I am. It has to do with who you are and what you are best at. Even though I care a lot about things, I’m not a very confrontational person kind of person. I like to defuse attention. I’ve always believed people would be more receptive to me and what I had to say if I made them laugh about it. And in order to laugh about something, you first have to understand the joke,” she said.
Inspired by and impressed with the likes of Key and Peele, Donald Glover, Tim Robinson and Quinta Brunson, the comedian shared several weird facts about herself.
“When I go to bed in winter, my pants have to be tucked into my socks. They can’t roll up, otherwise I can’t fall asleep. I have to have long socks so that my pants can tuck into them. Another weird thing about me is that every now and again, I hear a high-pitched noise and I don’t think other around me hear it. Not too sure if maybe aliens are trying to communicate with me, so it’s very weird, and it happens at random times. The third weird thing about me is I love stationery shops. So when I’m stressed at the mall, I just go to the stationery shop and stay in the multi-coloured paper section and just look at all the different colours of cardboard,” she Céline said.
With her sights set on keeping her audience in stitches, her plans for the future, she revealed, involved fusing all her passions into one project.
“I recently started musical comedy. It feels like a long time coming, and I’ve already started making musical comedy videos. I’m working towards building a show. My aim is to put out a song every month that will drop as a mini teaser shot as a sketch leading up to a full live comedy show that incorporates music. It combines all the things I love doing: acting, stand-up comedy, singing, and filmmaking,” she said.