INTERVIEW. Siv Ngesi on M-Net's Wingin It, traveling the world, dealing with jetlag, what he's learnt - and yes - those bum pics.

Sivuyile Ngesi is South African television's undisputed Energiser bunny - a TV presenter with a six pack and unrivaled energy that sees him going, going and going.

Besides his island adventures in the Seychelles in the 7th season of Tropika Island of Treasure that just concluded on TV screens, Siv Ngesi is also one half of the intrepid and hilariously funny bro-bro traveling duo in the Wingin' It travel show with Janez Vermeiren on M-Net (DStv 101).

I spoke with Siv Ngesi who shared more about his Wingin' It traveling experiences,  his bum pics, his "bromance" with Janez, how the show changed his perspective, the authenticity the cameras captured and why he now feel just a little bit lonely.

What has been one of the best experiences of doing Wingin' It?
Siv Ngesi: Going to Cuba was just an unbelievable experience, just being able to go to a city that literally looks like its from 1959 - the cars, the people, the mindset.
I wasn't ready and it was just a mind-blowing experience to experience how they're literally from 1959 - everything looks exactly how it was before.

What did you learn from Janez Vermeiren as your co-presenter as you both traveled the world?
Siv Ngesi: One thing I've learnt is that Janez is a lot more social than me. I'm quite a personal kind of a person, I like my own space.
So I've learnt to socialise a lot more. No. Not socialise. To try and socialise a lot more. And to try and to learn as much information about a city as possible. I'm a lot more about the experience and the people. So I think putting the two of us together for Wingin' It really was a great mix.

And what didn't you like?
Siv Ngesi: I love travelling. What I hate is the travelling. I wish I could just get to the destination without flying.

What travel tip do you have for viewers?
Siv Ngesi: Never forget your passport, your smile, your self-respect, an open mind and a toothbrush.

I'm wondering how did you deal with the jetlag, you went and filmed in so many places in a very short space of time?
Siv Ngesi: We sleep on the plane, we juggled it very well on our watches. We're very good at going: "Okay I need to sleep now, I need to sleep that way." Your body knows what you need and adapts.

How would you say Wingin' It is different from the other TV you've done before?
Siv Ngesi: I would as modest as possible say this is one of South African television's best shows I've ever seen; one of South African television's best shows I've ever been part of.
Janez and I are genuine friends; genuine brothers, who both genuinely love travel; who even if the cameras weren't there, would still be doing the exact same things we're doing on camera.
So the authenticity is real.

And the bum pics?
Siv Ngesi: Wherever I go in the world, I try and take a bum pic somewhere. And Janez and I started doing it and it actually started becoming popular online, so we just carried on doing it.

You've been well-traveled before you started doing Wingin' It, but how did doing this show further broaden your own perspective about life and people and the world?
Siv Ngesi: The experience of Wingin' It is more travelling than most humans do in such a short period of time - so having to adapt to so many cultures in such a short time.
I can see everyone in the crew has become better humans, better versions of themselves. For instance Janez is talking about things that he's never talked about before Wingin' It started.

Even me - there's certain things that I'm open-minded to that I wasn't open-minded to before. I didn't care about history and because I went to places that's very history-related, Janez got me into the history of a city.
The conversation we had about South Africa made me love South Africa even more. It's made me have a great perspective of the world.

Impulsive is probably the wrong word, but watching Wingin' It, you're almost the one who pushes to try the new things and Janez seems a little bit more the reserved one. Did that play off of each other just grow and develop organically?
Siv Ngesi: Janez and I are very, very very, very, very adventurous. Janez and I are very competitive with each other, so everything formulated very naturally.

I don't think Wingin' It the way we're doing it would work out with anyone else. If Janez couldn't do it, I wouldn't be able to do it with anyone else, and vice versa. The show works because of the people we are, the dynamics we have. You could have put us a public toilet and we would have found a way to compete to see who can pee the longest!

You obviously don't just do this, you're very much a multimedia-man. How much planning had to go into given the time away and travelling and your other media commitments and diary?
Siv Ngesi: Wingin' It became my wife. If it was time to go, we went.
For the last six months Wingin' It really owned my life. I have come back home now and I feel that life has just moved on past me, you know what I mean? Like people have moved on. And it seems a bit lonely without the travel, you know what I mean?
I went six months with having Janez and the crew with me every single moment of my life and now I have just me.

When you said yes to do Wingin' It on M-Net, what was you preconceived notion of what it would be, and what of that became true, and not?
Siv Ngesi: To be honest, I never thought travelling would be so tiring. I've done a lot of travelling, I've always traveled and rested you know?

Travelling is tiring. I think because I've traveled so much, Janez and I easily adapted to the experience. I don't think anyone can just do what we did. We did crazy things but it was really tiring and there were moments where you didn't want to do anything but you had to do something.
So when people always talk about "opening up the industry" I feel like telling people "come travel for 6 months and see if you can really do it".
Everything else was just the most amazing experience of my life. I'm still trying to reminisce and trying to think back on this great experience that was just utterly amazing.


Wingin' It is on Sundays on M-Net (DStv 101) at 17:00, repeated Mondays 15:30, Tuesdays 15:00.

Janez Vermeiren and Siv Ngesi co-presenting new M-Net travel show, Wingin' It, from 29 January; produced by Cheeky Media.

Janez Vermeiren and Siv Ngesi will co-present a new locally-made travel show, Wingin' It, produced by Vermeiren's production company Cheeky Media for M-Net, in which the two who are friends in real life, jet-set across the world to exotic locations without a pre-planned itinerary.

Wingin' It will start on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sunday 29 January at 17:00, spending 48 hours in places ranging from Baku, Ho Chi Minh City, Bogota, La Paz and Kathmandu to lesser-seen sides of Istanbul, Bangkok, Tokyo, Mexico City, Havana and Reunion Island.

I'm told there's 12 30-minute episodes of Wingin' It, with Janez Vermeiren and Siv Ngesi travelling together and both appearing in each episode.

As one of the most well-travelled South African TV presenters of the past decade, Janez Vermeiren, together with Siv Ngesi, have been visiting some far-flung international destinations the past few weeks - especially Asia and Southeast Asia - the social media snaps of which some media over the past month interpreted as the two being on vacation.

It's the first TV production from Janez Vermeiren's Cheeky Media for M-Net, and will be the first time that the double-dipper producer and presenter will be fronting as an M-Net face after he's been known to SABC audiences for years.

After leaving SABC3's Top Billing two and a half years ago in mid-2014 after he also co-presented three seasons of the spin-off travel show, Top Travel, Janez Vermeiren produced and appeared in the Edgars advertiser-funded production (AFP) She’s the One reality show for e.tv.

That was followed by a flurry of shows that Cheeky Media - co-owned by Janez Vermeiren and Yusuf Stevens - did for SABC3 that included five seasons of The Man Cave that Janez Vermeiren co-presented with Siv Ngesi and Lunga Shabalala, and the ongoing weekday afternoon talker Real Talk with Anele Mdoda.

As part of its now depleted budget to up its local content ratio to 80% on SABC3, the SABC this year also commissioned Cheeky Media to do the local travel show Biting About with Dene Botha and Bridget Pike, the Johannesburg restaurants review show Biting About that Janez Vermeiren co-presented with Amanda du-Pont, and Jou Ma se Chef presented by Siv Ngesi.

Siv Ngesi who had previously appeared on M-Net's 2010 local soccer drama League of Glory, and Mzansi Magic's S.I.E.S, became very good friends with Janez Vermeiren during the production of Man Cave over the past two years.

M-Net describes Wingin' It as "a fast-paced plunge into the world's most fascinating and eclectic destinations seen through the eyes of two diverse and intrisically competitive best buddies".

"These heartthrobs certainly don't visit the world's run-of-the-mill travel brochure type of hot spots and tourist attractions," says Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity.

"They land in cities you might never have thought of exploring, or even heard of, but which may just, after you've seen their mischievous adventures, end up on your bucket list. It's a great fun-filled show that will put a smile on your face - and awaken the explorer in you".

Other January local programming highlights on M-Net include the start of the second season of Sarah Graham's Food Safari on Monday 9 January at 18:00, and the second season of The Voice South Africa starting on Sunday 29 January at 17:30.

The 101 starting on Sunday 29 January at 16:30 will be a new weekly "TV guide show" to help viewers find new programmes and be informed about schedule changes across M-Net's channels on DStv.