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We get candid in a quickie with Khanyi Mbau


Cape Town – Khanyi Mbau is out of the hot seat and into the host chair in the second season of her highly successful talk show, Katch it with Khanyi.

Her second season is bigger and better and this time Khanyi has branched out to interviewing guests that push the boundaries.

Khanyi wants to establish herself in the talk show world and has her eyes set on 25 seasons just like Oprah!

We chatted to Khanyi about her show, the memorable moments and that one person she’d love to get candid with.

A Channel24 quickie is a brief or spontaneous episode consisting of frisky questions in which celebs and Channel24 have a brief frolic leaving all parties involved feeling satisfied and craving a cigarette.

Channel24:
How is the second season of your show different from the first one?

Khanyi:
Firstly the location, we moved from a smaller space in Soweto to Orlando stadium. The space is totally different.

Secondly the calibre of guests.

In the first season the guests were people I was very close to in the industry, people who understood me. I created that ambiance because I wanted to be comfortable in a new zone, I was walking into a new world. I wanted to be comfortable with people who have always supported me.

In the second season I pushed the boundaries. I took all sorts of public figures, people that I generally wouldn’t get along with or even understand. The one thing I learnt about being a talk show host is that you are forced to be neutral and to give someone a hearing whether you agree with their way of life or not. You need to try to see where they come from and that has taught me humility. Humility and learning how to listen have been the greatest things I have learnt from being a talk show host. 

Channel24:
How is your show different from all the other talk shows?

Khanyi:
I’m not a talk show host that went to journalism school. I’ve been in the shoes of my guests. I’m a sinner. I say I’m a sinner because I’ve done some of the worst things in the industry. I’m even naked on the internet somewhere and I am not proud of it.

It gives me so much liberty to ask someone their deepest darkest secrets. I can raise a topic and really touch on the elephant in the room that people don’t want to ask about.

And people take it graciously, they understand that I’m really asking because I am trying to show another side of them.

That’s the advantage I have from every other talk show host in the county; I’ve been there. And I’m really sharing advice and also finding solutions of things that I have also personally gone through.



Channel24:
What has been some of the shocking and surprising moments on the show?

Khanyi:
One thing that surprised me is how emotional I was. The stories of people touched me and when people become sincere you can really see it.

I know how much it takes to be candid and during most of the interviews I end up shedding a tear or asking the director to cut so that I could compose myself.

Some of the wow moments for instance, Tall Ass Mo’s mother was a DJ and Joe Mafela used to be a soccer player, who would’ve thought! Those are the things you discover when you talk to people and a lot of other serious issues too.

Some have been raped and abused. People have gone through things that when you look at them they seem too strong but yet they are suffering inside. Those were the AHA moments for me.

Channel24:
What has been the most memorable interview?

Khanyi:
Interviewing Tessa Beetge, who was jailed in Brazil for drug smuggling. I read her book but once you speak to the woman herself, wow!

She is a strong woman. I would not have managed in that prison. She went through a lot, yet she is so humble and sweet and she wants to teach. For me that was the highlight of season two.

Channel24:
Who is the one person you would like to interview?

Khanyi:
Jacob Zuma, I think I could get him to really open up to me. I think he is protected by so many people who speak for him that nobody really knows what he says unless he is standing up in parliament.

I would like to speak to him and find out how he feels about Julius coming after him. I would love to talk to him on a candid note with no bodyguards in the room.



Channel24:
What’s the one thing that will surprise people about you?

Khanyi:
I have acute dyslexia. I can’t read autocue if I haven’t studied it at home. What they do is they write my script in pink because it doesn’t muddle up the letters for me.  I need to go through stuff on my own and then I can do autocue. If it is just thrown at me I would read something else.

Channel24:
Do you have any other big projects lined up?

Khanyi:
I am focusing on the talk show. I still do eKasi stories but I really don’t want to dilute the person that I have become.

I want people to get used to Khanyi in the world of talk show because it will dilute it if I mix it with anything else. And in two years time I’d like to study psychology.



Katch It With Khanyi airs every Friday on eKasi+ at 18:00 and Mondays on e.tv at 18:00!

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