 Okay, who gets excited with a bumper like me? Guys, kita, good morning, how are you? And why do you know me like this? Hashtag is why in the morning. Can I tell you a secret? And no, sayam bmw tu saa. Okay, twa kwa TV. And it's not much of a secret because there are like thousands of you watching, but sayam bmw tu. I think I'm shy. Like, generally, like... Kuli kwen metimbea, I was going to see somebody I care about. Alafu, nika kutana rendiflani. So just imagine we're two girls and then everyone else nini nichiwali. Alafu, I was expecting to be told hi. My name, I was expecting to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Val. Who are you? A-a, napraval! Bro, hi, hi, hi. Koza nichiwa nikiwa. I'm like, you are this excited to see me? I should be an authentic. You don't even know. You don't even know. What if I form Facebook? What if I form a channel on Twitter? Hashtag is why in the morning. Now, insto deal with me because Wednesdays I reserve for special people. I will remember you. Okay. I will be there on Wednesday. Okay. I will be there on Wednesday. I will be there on Saturday. I will be there on Wednesday. But hashtag is the why in the morning. Let me allow her to introduce herself to you. Hi. Hi, Hawaii. Thank you. Please introduce yourself to the people. My name is Grace Murema. K-a, Grisel. That's who call me Grisel. That's my social media. Even who knows me as Grisel. I am a special effects makeup artist. Yeah. Can you first take a moment to appreciate how good you look? I like your whole look. All of it. All of it from your hair to your top, to your necklace. I just like a bit of your hair. Thank you. Wei. For many people, good things happen when you watch it in the morning. Good things happen. Tell us a bit about yourself. Like I said, I am a special effects artist. I started in South Africa. What is your name? Kupakubuwa pole pole? Sipo, we are going to UASIU. We can't sleep because of English. Yeah, we are going to South Africa and you are saying it so nicely. Anyway, come, bless you. Well, the reason why I had to go all the ways is because there are no schools in Kenya that offer such a cause. So I had to do research. It was either states or I say, so I just ended up settling for South Africa. Studied for a year, then I came back to launch my career. Okay, just personally, tell me how is it like? How is it like? Just to say, job bag. Wei! Chok chiza jini. I want details. How is it in job bag? Like, how is life? Like, what's... Uli kuna kula ni nisembe? Skumas kuma manago? Terere. Like, what did you eat? What did you do? A lot of takeouts because I was living by myself. Exactly. I was living by myself. A lot of noodles. No. I can relate. So, cooking was very... It wasn't something I would do all the time. But yeah, it was just easy. There's nothing special about South Africa, to be honest. Yeah? We had a recent outbreak of streets in Ophobia, Juzi. Have you ever experienced it? A lot. Really? Yeah. I'm surprised. I have, but... Tell me the experience. This was back in 2015. It was just the whole thing. They felt like foreigners are still in their jobs. And it was just very dramatic. So, we were told not to go to town for some time because that's where they would target foreigners. They would kill them, especially Somalis, Zimbabweans. So, anyone who sells vegetables along the road, they have a problem. But then they wouldn't do such a job because according to them, kazi ofisidi o kazi, like you can't... They can't sit and start selling vegetables. But then they also don't want other people to do that. So, it was a bit confusing. But I experienced it a lot. Even in school, I experienced it, but I survived, I guess. I once met Tamu Indian. Tamu looked like a gozi out, same, but nearly tofouti. And he was darker than me, but he asked me why you so black. I looked at him, bro. I didn't even have an answer. I was like, are you serious? Okay, God be with you. God be with you, I'm sorry. I also had someone tell me to go back to my country, black monkey. And it's a black person telling me that I was like... We live in a world where one person in America won. One person in America, Brianna Taylor, Sijuid George Floyd, Sijuid who is killed by a white person and the whole world is up, all up in arms and there's a whole revolution. But meanwhile, every other day, you hear hip-hop artists has been shot, you know, wozi ko wozi, South Africa wozi ko wozi. Nama liza na tui viki ovio, but we won't talk about it because, you know, black life is not matter then. I'm just asking for a friend. Hashtag is why in the morning. But that's too deep for in the mornings. No, tell us why you're here. I have to talk about my crafts. I recently just started, well not recently, maybe late last year, I started as a school to teach. Look at you. Special effects because not everyone is lucky enough, like me, to go study. It's expensive. It's just financial, it's draining. So that's why I decided to start the school. I have my own product line for special effects. Look at you. So I'm just trying to survive. It's a miracle, what do you mean? Okay, okay, okay, I have so many questions. So many, and I'm very random. So I'm sorry if just random questions are popping up. But why special effects? The makeup industry is a bit, even as a makeup artist, is through every single person. Not that I have anything against makeup. I just felt like it was just too crowded. And at that time when I was looking for work, they would ask me what was so special about it. Like why should we give you this job and what exactly what special thing are you doing? What are you bringing to the table? Exactly, and I'm just like foundation, lipstick. Like there's really nothing exciting. So I had to figure out a way to jujup my makeup. I'm going to use that. To just, you know, up my gameki dogo. So that's why I decided to just not get rid of makeup, but to top up to it, yeah. Okay, guys, okay, first of all, kuna shoflanin kuna penda kuwachi. That was kuna kumbuka, but I just started explaining it to her and she knew what I was talking about. So there's a show called Face Off. And Face Off is basically, they give you certain type of tasks and it's all about makeup. All for the waste you from sculptorings, do you nakawu vareen, kidok dogos, do you? They use all kinds of random things to just transform something. So if you like horror movies or if they, in fact, if they freak you out, you should watch behind the scenes because it's all makeup and effects. Na sa na sa na sound. You should try watching a horror movie without the sound. It's not as freaky, trust me. And I think the whole process just fascinates me. I love everything creative. Anything that I can see started from here and then suddenly is something. You're magic. You're just basically magic. So I want to ask, perhaps maybe, have you ever been told that your craft is just, you know, because ignorance is a dangerous thing. And if someone doesn't understand special effects or the gore or the goo or the things, has they ever told you, like, form? What's this? Um, yeah. People still don't understand. Like, my grandma, she just says I do makeup. Woo! Hwaza ancestors watasema nyu chawi. Why? Because special effects includes, like, blood and all the gore and all these things. So if you can create something like that, walaesu mero go. No, because my mum actually understands. She's not your normal, traditional, she's woke. She's not your normal, traditional parent where you know they live back in the day, you know back in the day we used to do na. So for her even when I told her I wanted to do makeup, she was 100% like she's my biggest support system. So she's the one who was even watching for me like, okay, so what exactly is it? She's never tried to tell me, okay, this is not working out, try. It's like just keep trying, keep trying, you'll get what you want to get. So, I hope I over my everything. Hwaza, I was going to ask you, there's a time in life where kwa witu flani kama DJ or an entertainer, armam sani, or even just random, just basic makeup artists, ilik watu. Kani kuna, what are you doing? You're wasting your life. But now look at us, tell me about your first experience with special effects. My first experience was straight, I think after school, this was in early 2016, I came back in 2015. There was a lady she's called, she was on, I'll never forget, because she gave me a very fast gig and she got me off Instagram. So she said, oh, we're shooting this short film, we don't have money to pay people, I don't know if you're interested to come on board. I was like, of course, I mean it's my first job, I can't be there saying how, I want this much, because at that time I didn't even know the rates, how much product I'm going to use. So, it was a short film for a project called 48, our film project. That was my very first experience and I actually really enjoyed it. What was your favorite part? Being on set, working with different departments, these hair, these arts, these wardrobe, the director, just blending in with everyone. Have you ever had a very difficult client? You haven't then said you missed the spot, have you ever had that? For special effects, to be honest, I haven't. Make up, of course, but special effects, no, I haven't encountered any difficult client, because they don't understand first of all what's happening. You're smart. You're smart. So it's fine. What was your most challenging project? My most challenging project actually had two. One was a movie that I did in Uganda. It was called 27 Guns. Wait, wait, wait. So, you get to travel also. Please do what you love. Please do what you love. Look how happy she is. She's even traveling. Anyway, continue. So in Uganda, it was a film based on what happened in the 1980s with the first family and I'm saving in them. So it was a lot of dead bodies involved, chopped off hands, legs, burnt bodies. So that was challenging, but yeah, I did it. And then the second one was a project that I did with Buen Fismangili sometime last year for aging people. I had to age like 60 people in a week. Wow. It was a bit challenging. What does that mean for you in hours? Did you sleep that week? 60 people in one week? I did. It sounds a lot. But of course you need to have someone to help you out. And it also depends now with the call time, how early people will get there so that we crack people up faster, faster we go. But yeah, I managed. So I'm grateful. I don't want to judge you, but I will just a little bit. I'm just doing this out of observation, but you look like the kind of type if you're told call 106. I keep time. You see? I know it. I know you have that vibe. Because I don't like people making me wait so why am I making other people wait? We have a couple of pictures we want you to see on her Instagram page. We have a lot of examples of the magic that she does that is a special effect. So remember to watch that on Facebook by 254Channel on Twitter. Hashtag is why in the morning. So maybe let's continue the conversation in a note projected on the screen and we can expound a little further. Where is the place you traveled that your job took you that you never thought you'd be? Well, so far it's 2G. Just 2G. We never left Nairobi. Can you say Uganda? But I'm hoping to get other jobs that are out of Kenya because working in Kenya sometimes can demoralize you. Why? Because of just the pay. That's also one of the problems I encounter in my career. People want a job well done but they don't want to pay for that job. Don't you pay with exposure? Not even expo. May that exposure thing I don't like I'll hang up. The commercial do not continue after I have exposure or experience or opportunity because you looked for me I didn't call you, you called me. So that means I'm exposed enough that you don't actually call me. How did you find out about me? So exposure doesn't work out for me anymore. But they still don't pay my full rates and that's also a problem. So I'm just hoping to spread my wings and look for work out of Kenya. When I was in school a lot of the work that I did was very practical. So if maybe we were learning how to design a website we actually had to design a website. It actually had to go live. We actually just had to be real and true and that's how we're going to be graded. Is that the kind of experience that you had when you were studying special effects? Abu, paint me a picture. Because in school we did a lot of practicals but then we actually did it on ourselves. You can do it on yourself? You have to do it on yourself or you do it on each other or you just prefer doing it on yourself because now you can take all the time because if you are practicing on someone else and then they are taking hours they are tired now you have to change then they work on you as well so it's just easier to do it on yourself. Spend hours and perfect it. But the funny thing is even in my class right now everyone else dropped special effects and no one will continue. Why? I have no idea. I think it's just me and maybe some other lady from Zambia who is still continuing special effects but everyone else.