Simply put, Celeste Ntuli is having the time of her life and she credits it to turning 40.
“If you are not 40, believe you me, it’s amazing,” she says.
She spent some of her time in 2020 on self-improvement, paying closer attention to her health and lately she has been focusing on introspection.
The comedian and actress has skin in the game as a performer. She kept South Africans entertained on Isibaya, she has travelled the world performing her stand-up shows and if you have not caught her episode on Netflix’s Only Jokes Allowed, you’re missing out.
After the shock of the 2020 pandemic, which hit the comedy industry hard and seeing restrictions being gradually relaxed over the past two years, 2023 is the year Celeste will focus on her career and personal goals for nobody but herself.
She kicks off the year by hosting Metropolitan’s We Start 2023 Stronger Together campaign, which is accompanied by a four-part TV series that aims to educate people about money matters in a relatable way.
She says this new gig came at the perfect time, where she is focused on self-improvement.
“It found me in a very beautiful moment where I'm really learning myself and feeling myself and also becoming the better version of myself in terms of the [boundaries],” she shares.
Celeste said she got a chance to flex her skills. "I felt like a bit of a Bonang [laughs] but it was too nice. It was a lovely show. I think people are going to enjoy it - and also it’s airing on Sunday. So, it's got a very nice family-orientated homely feel about it."
Celeste tells us more about how she is finding 2023, how she is enjoying her 40’s and her plans for the year.
READ MORE | The Wife's Stella Dlangalala on her blooming acting career: ‘It just keeps getting better’
How has it been shooting the episodes of the show and how did the collaboration come about?
It's been great. To do a show that was just solely on a humanitarian level, not just shock value, drama, controversy – it was lovely to see.
After Covid-19, I think people love having positive content and also talking about financial literacy. Knowing where we come from with Covid, it’s much more important and much more needed. I thank Metropolitan on that one. So, everyone else is so eager to talk about problems that mostly maybe before Covid it wouldn’t have been, you know, easier to talk about like saving money for our child to [making] sure that this and that [are sorted] because you need to live.
So, it gave me such a lovely platform obviously as an artist to present the show and add it to my presenting gigs.
Did you have a specific approach in how you would handle addressing financial topics or was it just easy to do because of the format?
Because of the format, I just become an artist, an MC and a host and the comedian that I am. I didn't have to pretend to be financially savvy and know the jargon because we had people – there’s a financial expert on the table. It also made me check myself, really. It was one of one of those shows that are two in one, you do a show but you're also learning and you're also part of exactly what they're talking about, how to move around in finances the way that’s going to guarantee you the life that you want.
I found myself in the last one also, you know, joining in on the manifestation because also the spiritual and the whole psychological understanding of the place of trade and life. The conversations were more on what is it exactly that makes you spend more?
What is it that makes you lack boundaries? All those things are so attached to what's happening in the family and in the personal relationships but what such a good, wholesome show.
I had a bit of an Oprah moment here and there, which were nice, and also had funny moments and it was real. Literally, we had a dinner and we spoke over dinner so it made a conversation real. We didn't really have to have a stage type of a conversation.
READ MORE | 5 minutes with The River's Matshepo Sekgopi - 'I only concern myself with putting out exceptional work'
I think it was on Only Jokes Allowed where you said being in your 40s is like the best age. Was there a moment where you realised, okay, I'm going to start living my best life now? Was there like a specific turning point?
When I turned 40, definitely, because people make a big deal of it, but also I think last year (2022) was the exact pivotal moment. I was by myself, it was my birthday and had done so much and I’m a birthday person but I really wanted to spend it alone. My friends didn't understand, like I had to cancel a couple of dinners and I didn't want to celebrate my birthday in [how I] normally celebrate it. I just wanted to go back and have a much more deeper introspection of who I am, what do I want to do, what do I move? How do I move from this year and stuff like that. So, I really had a moment like a sort of physical silence by myself figuring out.
I'm no longer at a point where I have to prove whether I'm funny or to prove whether I can act or do the things that hunger sometimes wants to make sure? I feel like when you are 40 you've proven yourself so many levels in life, you start questioning whether whatever you achieve or whatever that you've been living, is it worth? Does it speak to the authentic self because sometimes you have, we have a drive but you don't know where that drive comes from.
Do you have any other exciting projects that are coming up you'd like to let your fans know about?
Oh yeah, I have my show, I’m finishing my show Money and Men, but on my birthday this year, on the 25th of August for the first time I'm doing my line up, which is where I'm hosting. Last year, I did a lot of shows in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and some comedians [do it] differently. I've been wanting to do it because I do the television thing and I do comedy, it has taken me a long time. The last time I hosted the show was in Durban 2010.
Now I want to do my own show where it's going to be headline comedians only. I just want to host a show where everyone on the line up have their own show and their headliners by themselves.
Don't miss our top stories, sign up to the TRUELOVE newsletters now!
