Comedian Sed Pillay returns to South Africa with exciting future plans

South African comedy creator Sed Pillay is back in South Africa after spending a year abroad. 

The comedian, who took TikTok by storm with his laugh-out-loud parodies, recently got back to his hometown, Durban, after deciding to travel with his wife, Dhamini Sing, to Cardiff, where she would go on to complete her MSc in Clinical Dermatology at Cardiff University. 

"It wasn't to leave South Africa forever. It was just to get exposure to a new culture, a new country. I was on a tourist visa, so I did make a few trips back to SA for work during that time, but we got to tick off a lot of things on our bucket list," said Pillay.

Speaking about his year-long adventure on Instagram, he posted: "What a year it’s been! From watching the Boks in Cardiff, to visiting Anfield and Old Trafford to seeing the Proteas at Lord’s - it’s been an unforgettable sports-filled UK adventure ..."

"It was also a truly artistically fulfilling year. We got to see the best shows on the West End, explore the magical city of Edinburgh at Christmas, and even saw Arijit Singh live in London! While we knew our UK 'holiday' wouldn’t last forever, we had a truly unbelievable time abroad.

"We’re so excited to be back in South Africa. There’s seriously nothing quite like home." 

During a telephonic conversation, the comedian said that while they learnt many things abroad, South Africa is "still home". 

"We learnt how things can work and also how much we love South Africa. I've been back for less than three weeks now, it's just the warmth, literally, from the temperature, but also the people. A lot of the shops are self-checkout, so you don't get to speak to the cashier; it's almost like you lose that human element.

"People don't greet that side. Some look at you like a weirdo, if you do. The only person that greeted me with enthusiasm was the guy at our building in Cardiff. I walked past him and said, 'Howzit', and he said it back. And I was like yoh! He is South African. 

"One of the cool things was that I had followers in Cardiff, who have now become friends. They reached out to me on Instagram. They made Cardiff really nice for us; they showed us around, telling us what to do. That made it a lot easier."

Now that he is back, Pillay said that his main aim is to get back to the South African comedy and MCing space.

"I already got a few MC gigs lined up for November and December, and then next year I want to kick off my stand-up comedy again." 

Pillay took his first stint at producing content during the hard lockdown period in 2020.

Pillay and his sister, Tee Pillay, filled up our For You Pages with engaging content that illustrated the unique bond they share, punctuated by their humour and charisma.

During a time when people needed to distance themselves from their loved ones, their videos serve as a constant reminder of the joy that stems from strong family connections.

Then, when the country faced another dark patch, literally, during our load shedding woes, Pillay shed light by producing parodies on load shedding and just what South Africans were feeling.

In his sound of silence parody (originally by Simon and Garfunkel), which was posted in November 2022, Pillay goes: "Hello darkness my old friend Eskom has done it once again. We thought that things were going all too well. Elections came and now it’s gone to hell".

In his "Let Us Down" parody (originally "Let It Go" from the movie "Frozen"), he sings: "Load shedding's back, no lights, no TV. Can't make my tea. Let us down, let us down, Eskom, you are full of clowns, let us down, let us down, you know how to make us frown. You don't care how we charge our phones; load shedding has won. Complaints never bothered you anyway!"

"It was never something that I thought I could make a career out of. Definitely not. I was mainly an academic, but I was kind of funny and would make people laugh.

"The creative side came from the acting. I acted in the Grahamstown Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, as a kid. I also sang in a choir, but never thought it could be a profession," he shared.

Since then, Pillay has grown his online following to over half a million across his social media platforms with millions of views. 

Now that he is back in South Africa, fans will be happy to know that he and his sibling have big plans in store.

"The biggest thing for me right now is the start-up that I am working on with Tee. It is a social networking app called 'Groops', and the tagline is 'Find Your Tribe'. We think that it is going to revolutionise friendship around the world and attack this loneliness epidemic that we're experiencing.

"Being in the UK, I learnt how lonely people were; they would invite me to braais, etc. There is a hunger out there to meet new people, just to connect with others. So we built this app and will be rolling it out soon," said Pillay. 

"We are also focusing on building an agency whereby we will manage other companies' social media platforms.

"She is a former investment banker, I am a former management consultant, we've seen the gaps in the social media space, how people talk to each other, how they treat each other, so we want to change the game in that regard.

"We want to bring a proper professional edge to social media management for large and small corporates in South Africa".