Good clean fun: After having shared a bath with Khanyi Mbau, Mpho Popps says he’s ‘comfortable to go places where no man should venture’ on ‘Comedy Central Roast’.
Over the past few years Mpho Popps has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of the lows. While his career continues to soar, last year the comedian, actor and all-round entertainer worked himself to the bone, pushing himself to the limits and agreeing to a slew of presenting, acting, comedy and other jobs in a bid to make the most of his moment. Inevitably, earlier in the year Popps crashed and burned, and he found himself so imbalanced that he decided to check himself into a mental health facility. When he explains this period to me he does so fondly, insisting that despite the obvious challenges that this came with, it turned out to be a great decision that he now recommends to anyone with medical aid or money to spare. “Given the opportunity, we do things for ourselves, we indulge in retail therapy, we go out and we party, we do weekends away,” he says. “But I would recommend taking the time to go and heal. To go and unplug from the world and be away from every single thing. No phone, no internet, nothing. Just you, therapy and healing. I went to an amazing facility where there were really wonderful people. I haven’t been the same since I got out. I’ve become a better version of myself and I’ll be forever be grateful for having the courage to say I need help, and for actually going through with it and handing myself over. Towards the end it was so great I didn’t wanna leave.”
Since returning home a few months ago, Popps has found balance and reinvented himself on a personal level. “2022 started out rough, but it’s been good to me because I’ve managed to change my life in so many ways. After deciding to take a different route and start being conscious about how I choose to spend my time and energy and what work I want to do, I’ve been receiving amazing opportunities.” Some of these opportunities have come in the form of new movies, TV shows and event hosting.
Most recently, Popps was announced as the Roastmaster for the upcoming Comedy Central Roast of Khanyi Mbau. Previously, he did the opening set for the Roast of Somizi [Mhlongo] and was widely lauded for his performance. This time around, Popps will be tasked with running the show, which will air next month on both Comedy Central Africa’s DStv Channel 122 and Showmax. When Popps got the call that he’d been enlisted as the Roastmaster, he recalls being taken aback at first. “It’s a huge feat to be a Roastmaster. It’s one thing to be a panellist, you’d expect to be a panellist. But to be offered the top job, the CEO of the roast, yho no ways guys, I was completely blown away.”
Apart from just the role of Roastmaster, Popps is chomping at the bit for an opportunity to roast Mbau, with whom he has on screen history (they were judges on Mzansi Magic’s Ultimate House Vibe). “The thing that makes it even much sweeter is knowing that it’s for Khanyi Mbau. It’s someone that I know, someone that I adore, so I’m not gonna hold back and I’m comfortable to go places where no man should venture. I mean we were both naked in a bathtub together and she had her foot in my mouth, and we had more than one take by the way, so that should just set the tone of what this roast is gonna be like.” With Mbau set to be the first black woman in the history of the roast franchise to be roasted, Popps is also excited to be making history. “So we’re making history by the sheer virtue of it being the first black woman to be roasted,” he says. “But I’m also expecting drama because I think the people that are gonna be a part of the panel are also people that have little tiffs and beefs with each other. So I love the fact that it’s a Khanyi Mbau roast because where there’s Khanyi there’s drama, there’s controversy, so I think there’s going to be a lot of tension and a lot of awkwardness. I’m expecting at least one person to cry, which will be brilliant.”
In terms of his comedy, Popps has previously cited Dave Chappelle (who’s got a new comedy special on Netflix called What’s In A Name) as an inspiration of his. “I know there are greats like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor and all those people, but Dave has gone to places that they have never ventured in their careers. Dave is the ultimate comedian because he says what’s on his mind. He doesn’t care about what people think, he’s not trying to protect people’s feelings.”
Despite the controversy around the transphobic jokes Chappelle made, Popps insists that it’s all been blown out of proportion. “Man, look, I think Dave speaks on behalf of everybody. I think we live in a society now where we’re forced to agree on the same things and tiptoe around people’s feelings. That’s not the real world, the real world is not built like that. We can’t tiptoe around people’s feelings. And also if you want to be accepted in society, at some point we’re going to have to agree on certain things and disagree on certain things. And also, if you’re a member of society you’re gonna get ridiculed, you’re gonna get made fun of. Skinny people get made fun of, fat people get made fun of, fat people get made fun of, black and white people get made fun of, gay people get made fun of. Why can’t trans people get made fun of?”
He goes on to add that it’s not comedians who are killing transgender people, it’s the people who have agendas against that community. “If someone is making fun of you it’s because they recognise you,” he says, before citing how Trevor Noah has a joke about a special needs audience member who asked him why he didn’t make jokes about them. After Noah said it’s because he didn’t want to offend him, the audience member said he wants to feel seen and heard too.
Despite the comedy industry only getting back to some semblance of normalcy very recently, Popps himself hasn’t really been feeling the pinch that many in his industry have felt. “I have what they call pandemic guilt because I’ve been fine, I’ve been gigging,” he says. “I’ve had too many gigs. I burnt out and I had to take some time off to recover because I had too much work. I don’t know how things have been for the industry post-pandemic, but things have been amazing for me and I thank my ancestors and the almighty.”
In general, the recent regulations now allowing for capacity audiences at comedy shows has already started to bear fruit for the industry, he says. “I think we’re back in business… only a couple of weeks ago were we allowed to start opening venues to capacity. I, fortunately, had a show on the 24th of June at Emperor’s Palace at the Centre Court. Two days before the announcement we had already sold out and when they made the announcement I was able to add more chairs and we were able to sell all of those chairs as well.”
What else can we expect from him this year? “You can expect a movie, I’ve got a movie coming out. I’ve got a TV show coming out, I’m going on tour again now that we’re back open again, so I will be on tour. I’ll be touring Mpho Popps and Friends and then afterwards I will be touring my new one man show. So big things are coming this year, and you can expect a lot more. But for now, expect me to roast the shit out of Khanyi Mbau.”
- The Comedy Central Roast of Khanyi Mbau will be recorded at Teatro at Montecasino, 21 July at 7pm and broadcast on Showmax.