Stuck at home like the rest of the nation during the Covid-19 lockdowns, bored out of his mind, Coster FX tried his hand at acting, filming a short comedy sketch.
It proved the unlikely beginning of a thriving career for the 24-year-old, who has established himself as one of the country’s top young comedians, and now boasts a TikTok following that’s closing in on 160, 000.
Known for his high-flying action stunts, the Maun native is a man of many talents, as Celeb Edition found out this week…
Who is Coster FX and what does he do?
My real names are Coster Constance Tshoganyetso.
I am a comedian/producer/scriptwriter/editor and rapper based in Maun.
I also have my own studio, which I rent out to artists to record their songs.
However, most people know me as Coster FX the comedian, due to my content which I post on my social media pages.
How did you get into comedy?
When Covid first hit in 2020 and we got into lockdown, there was little to do due to restricted movement.
Being bored, my friend, Junior Diphoro, whom I am always with in my skirts, and I started shooting videos with a mobile phone, pretending to be martial artists, like in Bruce Lee movies.
We fused it with humour and the strong Maun accent, just for our entertainment.
And that was it?
Later I posted the video on my social media pages and to our surprise we started noticing numbers of followers and positive responses.
That gave us motivation to create more content.
Since then we never looked back and continued producing interesting content for our fans using martial arts in comedic way to create something different since in Botswana
Your Kung Fu skills are pretty impressive – are you a trained martial artist?
I know many people think we are martial artists or Kung Fu Masters due to our captivating Kung Fu moves, which some are just edits, to make the scenes look more realistic.
I grew up binge watching Chinese movies that were mostly about Kung Fu and Karate, starring, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
I went as far as watching their ‘behind the scenes’ reels to see how they make those impossible movies seem so easy and simple, which I then introduced to my supporting Acts, Junior and Sam.
Tell us about them?
There’s Junior Diphoro – we used to call each other ‘Mgwaadiame’ – who has been on this journey with me from the very beginning. And then more recently there’s Sam (bontle jwa sphane): we are not just friends, we family!
Do your skits make any money?
Yes, we do make money from our videos, through Advertising.
Companies approach us for paid content, due to our large following on social media.
Business cooperates and individuals tells us what information they want us to relay to the public, then, through our acting skills, we come up with comedy skits, in a way that an individual will be entertained whilst at the same time being informed.
We have worked with big companies such as: DCEC, Letsholathebe Hospital, Maun Council and many Safari Lodges.
Take us through the process of making a video, from scratch until it’s ready to be uploaded online?
It depends on how long the video is or what special-effects challenges there are.
But typically, for a three-minute video we take about three hours to shoot then another one hour editing.
As well as making people laugh, you’re also a seriously talented rapper. Tell us about Coster FX the musician?
In 2022, I started rapping, where I introduced my own genre called ‘Bokhete’, with a single titled ‘Bokhete bo Easy’.
I was just trying to simplify how easy it is to rap using our language, it’s not motswako like others do, its ‘bokhete’.
You bare the initials FX in your nickname, a handle normally associated with local forex traders. Is that also something you’re into?
No it does not translate to Forex trading, rather visual sound effects which are abbreviated as FX.
Five things people don’t know about you?
1. I’m a shy person
2. I don’t do drugs or alcohol
3. One of my songs, ‘Nthuseng’ is playing on Channel O
4. I edit and produce my own content
5. I’m a professional musician