He discovered the app by accident. He had been looking for work on the internet when he saw a pop up of an app he wasn't familiar with.
He decided to download it and months later, Tiisetso Masike has become a Tik Tok star with over half a million followers on the app.
He's now an online entertainer, posting dozens of videos on the app to make people laugh. And South Africans have taken notice.
We chat the online sensation, who tells us all about his dreams.
When he discovered TikTok, it was month end and he had a lot of data so he decided to go ahead and download.
"I found myself spending a lot of time on the app because it was entertaining,” Tiisetso tells Drum.
He gets his humour from his family. The Rustenburg born Tiisetso had an upbringing that was filled with joy and laughter. “I was raised by my mother and grandmother who are both so funny.
“We laugh a lot when we’re together. My mother and I would observe certain behaviours that people have or things they do in public and laugh about it together. This forms a big part of where I draw inspiration for my videos,” he tells Drum.
When he was younger he moved between Rustenburg, Mahikeng and Witbank. He’s now an educator at a Rustenburg school and when he is not spending his time in class, he is making the rest of South Africa laugh.
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The come up
“I started off by making the generic videos that everyone makes and that didn’t get much attention. It’s easy to grow your following on Tik Tok so I had a good amount of followers," he says.
“I would sit and look at my neighbour and imitate how he would gossip over the phone.”
Then he made the video that led to his internet fame. “I made a video about public hospitals versus private hospitals and I blew up. Everything after that just got a great amount of publicity and people loved my content."
Becoming a Tik Tok(er)
Though he may enjoy making Tik Tok videos, Tiisetso is an entertainer at heart. His dream is to one day become an actor. “I put in so much effort into these videos not only because I want to produce quality content but also because I hope that these videos will land in the right hands and be the answer to my prayers,” he says.
“I’m hoping this could become a source of income and give me an opportunity to be on TV. I use these videos as an opportunity to showcase my skills and talents. Every time I go to an audition for a show and I don’t get it, I come back and something in me wants to create for Tik Tok content. It’s a driving force for me,” he shares.
Read more | 6 TikTok videos from local celebrities | Drum (news24.com)
Hollywood dreams
He says he always makes videos in seTswana because he wants to make seTswana fashionable.
"This is also what I hope and aspire to do when I get my big break on television. I feel like seTswana isn’t as popular on South African television as some other South African languages are, this is why I aim to make it fashionable.”
Tiisetso is ambitious. He wants to work with big production companies and is confident the skits he does on Tik Tok will open the right door for him. “I want to work with BOMB productions and the likes of Black Brain productions. I hope that one day Tyler Perry will come to South Africa and hand-pick me to work with him because of my talents."
Big goals indeed.
