It's official! Tumi Morake is Roast Master at Minnie Dlamini's roast

• Minnie Dlamini urged Tumi Morake to be at the helm of her roast.
• Tumi was surprised to hear that Minnie will be in the hot seat because her career is quite young.
• Should she ever be roasted, Tumi would want to see the likes of Skhumba Hlophe, Mpho Popps and Kagiso Mokgadi as the panelists.

There’s no other best suited to lead the heckling of actress and media personality Minnie Dlamini than headline comedian and The Honeymoon co-star Tumi Morake.

Tumi will be joined by Jason Goliath as the Roast Masters, who both will make sure that the jabs hit nowhere else but below the belt at The Showmax Roast of Minnie Dlamini  - recorded live on Friday, 5 April 2024, in Johannesburg and airing on Showmax from 26 April.

The roast panel will see personalities like Penny Lebyane, Celeste Ntuli, Lasizwe, eNCA anchor Shahan Ramkissoon, Trevor Gumbi, Da L.E.S, Siv Ngesi and Robert Marawa lined up at the helm of Minnie’s roast.

Kicking off day one of the three-day Laugh Africa Comedy Festival, Tumi got the call. She reveals to TRUELOVE just how she got the opportunity to be one of the Roast Masters.

“I got a call, I answered the call, I was asked if I’d be down then I said ‘Sure’. Then Minnie called and said ‘You better have said yes’, and then I knew I might be in trouble. Hopefully I bring some sweet chilli kind of spice where you don’t have to breathe through the wound and we can all have a good time. After all a roast is not about bitterness, it’s a gwarra gwarra that went to private school.”

It’s sure to be an interesting watch with heavy-hitting comedians like Tumi, Trevor Gumbi and more coming for anything between Minnie's jokes about soccer star and former partner Itumeleng Khune and her publicised divorce from Quinton Jones.

READ MORE | Sunday Sexy Love host Tumi Morake on navigating marriage - 'Your relationship has its own blueprint'

But Tumi was taken aback to hear Minnie would be the next celebrity gracing the roast hot seat.

“Honestly, I was surprised because she is the youngest person I’ve ever heard of in the hot seat,” she says.

“Also, her career is quite young, so we are really going to have to do our homework with that. Her public life will take the biggest jabs, I reckon, but she is used to those jabs online, so we’ll just be removing the sting and laughing with her.”

Taking the plunge to endure cutthroat jokes and comments where no part of one’s life safe can get the best of some, even if they’ve been prepared – cue controversial musician Azealia Banks upset on the set of U.S. comedy sketch show Wild ‘n Out.

Tumi says, “It’s a roast, we are all being paid to be there and if you were that kid who cried during gwarra gwarra then you mustn’t come play it on an adult level.”

READ MORE | Minnie Dlamini on her evolving fashion - 'I’m all about expressing myself'

A no nonsense comedian who sees no shame in laughing at herself, Tumi wouldn’t mind seeing the likes of Celeste Ntuli, Mpho Popps, John Vlismas, Angel Campey, Kagiso Mokgadi and Skhumba Hlophe as the esteemed panelists ready to take shots at her should she be roasted.

But with gigs like hosting Mzansi Magic’s Sunday Sexy Love and live stand-ups around the country and globally, there’s much in-store for Tumi that she teases us with.

“I’ll get to grace our screens again with a new series. I am currently involved in a couple of writing projects and preparing to do more comedy this year,” she shares.