The Book of ProVerb. Tebogo Thekisho
the stock footage …’ I was actually glad it worked out that way, because instead of a long, serious intro, it turned out to be quite funny and gave me the opportunity to show my humorous side with a cheeky line, which boosted my confidence.
After the intro, we shot footage of me interacting with the crowd. I got the contestants to put their hands up in the air and shout, ‘Welcome to Cape Town!’, then ran to high-five everybody, which was second nature to me as a seasoned hip-hop performer. I just referenced my stage experience to elicit the best crowd response.
My co-presenter, Liezel van der Westhuizen, had a lot more experience than me, having hosted Season 5. She was a complete star who welcomed me with open arms, not in any way threatened by a new presenter joining the show. She shared all the tricks of the trade and even told me where to hide my snacks, as the days could get very long! And to bring my headphones, for all the dead time and waiting involved. I really appreciated her advice; she made it a great experience for me.
Liezel and I were often required to do radio interviews and promos while the auditions went on. We built a solid friendship during that time, chilling out afterwards and having a good laugh. Because Liezel was a lot more familiar with Idols SA than I was, she could answer more interview questions than I could. She also knew the names of all the winners from previous seasons. I picked her brain and learnt a lot from her.
Back on set, we had what we called ‘rant and rave rooms’, where contestants could vent their feelings after their audition. During my first set of auditions in Cape Town, a contestant fainted in one of those rooms, and paramedics were on the scene to assist them. ‘Did we get that on camera?’ one of the producers asked. That was the moment I realised that everything on Idols is in real time and, in fact, reality. Even though Idols is a reality show, I had assumed that some parts of it were manufactured. Boy, was I proven wrong!
This was the case even when we shot the background stories of the contestants at their homes. Or when we shot contestants who usually busked, say, near a paypoint at a mall to make some cash. And so it eventually dawned on me that the content was authentic.
When we started filming the regional auditions, it had not quite hit me yet that I was on a new career path. At the voting stage, we used to record the show on a Friday evening, to be flighted on a Sunday evening. The first time I had to do an actual live Idols show – as in, there was a live audience and we were live on TV – was when we were left with the top sixteen contestants. That’s when it finally dawned on me that I was now the official co-host of this incredible TV show. As we did more live studio shows, I began to feel that a momentous change was happening in my life.
My family, needless to say, was incredibly proud of me; even my parents began embracing the fact that being an entertainer was my career. Now that I was working at this level, they were realising that not only was this my career path, but I was thriving and building a genuine brand we could all be proud of. From then on, they became more supportive of my work. For my son (eleven) and my daughter (fourteen), I’ve been hosting Idols SA for as long as they can remember. It has almost been a lifetime for them.
It is hard to believe that my Idols career has lasted an entire decade, as my good friend and colleague Sis’ Unathi Nkayi recently noted. She started on Idols a season or two after me and has kept track of the passing years. For my tenth season, in 2019, I posted a timeline on social media to document how far I had come. I reflected on some of the changes I had undergone during the show’s lifetime, the experiences I’d enjoyed, the various interactions I’d had, the local and international performers I’d met, and how I had progressed from host to co-producer and co-owner of the production company.
I reflected on what it’s meant for me personally, and for the multiple lives I’ve seen changed by the show. Over the years I’ve met numerous aspiring singers who turned into household names and recognisable brands. I am humbled to have been a part of this legacy. I could never have envisioned achieving this.
I never gave much thought to what impact presenting Idols SA would have on my life. The scale or the magnitude of the show wasn’t really apparent to me. Mostly, I focused on executing the task at hand to the best of my ability, and it was only later that I realised how the show had affected my life and career. It’s similar to making music, which is all about going into the studio, writing the best possible song and delivering it as professionally as possible. Perhaps ten years later, someone might send me a message saying, ‘Man, that song changed my life. What a classic!’ I would not have recorded it with that kind of impact in mind – I was simply trying to be the best rapper I could be at that moment.
That’s how I am as a person, and it shows in everything I do. I put my head down and get to work. I don’t think about how the job I do will influence the rest of my life. When you are in the middle of a project, it is hard to step aside and assess how everything is going. You concentrate on doing the day-to-day work, focusing on key performance areas, so it only hits you much later. Someone looking in from the outside might see everything differently.
I believe that life is lived one day at a time and not in sets of decades. When you document something in the present and put it in a presentable package, it looks like you’ve achieved amazing things all in one go, which isn’t true. The reality is that you achieved everything one day at a time. I’d get on stage and say one line. Then I’d say another, shake a contestant’s hand and give them a golden ticket. I was just trying to lay the bricks as best I could, not realising I was actually building a mansion.
That said, some people seem to achieve success overnight. I mentioned this in an interview with T-Bose on Kaya FM a few years ago. There are those whose lives just turn out that way. I know many people who left school, walked into a great opportunity and, a week later, they were a success story. But it does not work out that way for everybody. It may take you ten years and another person only two, and that’s okay. There is no prescribed timeline for achieving anything worthwhile.
It’s a bit like cooking (but bear in mind that I don’t know how to cook). With some meals, the packet tells you: ‘Pierce the cover and microwave for two minutes.’ By the time you have washed your hands and taken out a plate, your meal is ready. But then there’s another meal where you have to, say, put your oxtail in a slow-cooker for eight hours and check it every thirty minutes. You spend an entire day on this, and by the evening you have a fantastic meal. Both can be delicious. It’s just that one took two minutes to cook and the other took eight hours. I am the oxtail dish – all my goals take longer to reach.
Back in 2010, Liezel left Idols SA in the middle of Season 6 for a work opportunity in Cape Town. I stayed on. I took the job very seriously and tried to deliver to the best of my abilities. I was so sick during the shooting of one episode that our team doctor had to put me on a drip before the show so that I’d have enough energy to carry on. During the ad breaks I had to lie down and drink some water while the doctor checked on me. Then, as soon as it was showtime and I heard the countdown in my earpiece, I got up and delivered, regardless of how I felt.
I am richly rewarded by what I do; I love it and I enjoy it, although it comes with massive responsibilities. The production, the viewers and the contestants are all counting on me. I am the glue that holds the show together, and I cannot let any of those elements down, or the whole thing will fall apart.
It goes deeper than that. Even when I was facing personal challenges, I still did the live show. For example, I went through a very tough time when my marriage hit the rocks. People were reading about it in newspapers and magazines and on social media, but on Sundays, I put that behind me and focused on the job at hand. The article about my eventual divorce broke on a Sunday, and I had to do the show later that evening. All the emotional turmoil eventually drove me to an attempted suicide, but I still went on air the following Sunday. The show must go on.
I can’t afford to be selfish; it is not all about me. It’s not the ProVerb Show, or about how well I dress or speak. And once I accepted that, I became more aware of how great my responsibility was. I can never be unavailable on a Sunday. It’s not an option, at least not while I am the show’s host, and I have accepted that.
I want to mention something important here. When I first got the gig, I found myself on a flight sitting next to