Interest in Tali’s Wedding Diary, the first Showmax Original, is reaching fever pitch. Promotional videos for the show have generated nearly two million views in less than a month, with the trailer trending on YouTube for the week of its release. As Channel24 wrote last week, “Her show hasn’t even aired yet but Tali is already a star.”
While @Tali_babes has been an undeniable hit on Instagram, she’s still not as popular as SuzelleDIY, whose YouTube channel has more than 23 million views. Not that it’s a competition, of course…
SuzelleDIY has been very supportive of Tali_babes, following her on Instagram and inviting the bride-to-be onto her YouTube show for an episode called How To Make A DIY Wedding Cake, released today. But while Suzelle starts the episode praising Tali as “gorgeous” and “fabulous,” things quickly get tense as Tali and Suzelle disagree over, well, everything, really.
Suzelle and Tali are both played by actress Julia Anastasopoulos and co-created with her husband, Ari Kruger, who directs both shows. Ari is also known as one of only three South African directors to have directed two Vimeo Staff Picks, the short films Jakkals13 and Focus.
Premiering this Thursday, 14 December 2017, Tali’s Wedding Diary follows a self-obsessed Sandton princess (Julia) who’s moved to Cape Town and is filming the build-up to her wedding to her property-agent fiance Darren (Anton Taylor, star of the popular web series Jozi Shore and the award-winning short Money, Keys, Phone).
At last week’s three-episode cast and crew premiere at The Labia in Cape Town, the packed audience was in hysterics from start to finish, with TVPlus tweeting afterwards, “Great news. Tali’s Wedding Diary is AWESOME. So funny… She’s a monster. Shrieking with horror and laughter… We can’t wait until 14 December to binge the rest…”
Tali’s Wedding Diary also stars Lara Lipschitz, who just won Best Actress at NYC Web Fest for her series Chin-Up; three-time Savannah Comics Choice nominee Glen Biderman-Pam; Fleur du Cap Best Actress winner and 2017 SAFTA nominee Kate Normington (Those Who Can’t); and two-time Fleur du Cap winner Guy De Lancey (The Pervert Laura). Look out for cameos from the likes of Top Billing host Lorna Maseko; Nic Smal from Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues; Nicci Saint Bruce (Push Push); members of Al Bairre; and, of course, Gina Collins (Marianne in SuzelleDIY).
Tali’s Wedding Diary is the debut Showmax Original, building on the success of this year’s acclaimed co-productions: iNumber Number with Mzansi Magic and Waterfront with kykNET. “We’ve already seen a spike in subscriptions directly linked to Tali’s Wedding Diary,” says Showmax Africa head Chris Savides. “It’s further confirmation that hyper-local content like this is a key differentiator for us.”
The eight-episode mockumentary will be available to binge-watch from this Thursday, 14 December 2017 on Showmax, which was just included in the App Store Best Of 2017 list. Save the date; as Tali says, “It’s going to be the best day of your life!”
