A 15-year battle with the bottle
‘‘I was surprised when they just straight out supported me. I couldn’t have done it without that.’’
He’s noticed the impact his sobriety has had on those around him, who don’t drink as much either.
Proudly, he hasn’t touched a cigarette for 12 weeks.
Nokise has got his speed back, and probably some more.
He talks quickly, and eloquently, firing off lines, and you can see how those lines transfer to the page, as he writes gritty productions and stand-up shows.
This week, Nokise is rehearsing his solo theatre show, Rukahu, which opens in Auckland next week, and his stand-up show, Britain: Let’s Talk about Golliwogs, exploring race relations in the 21st century, which he will perform in Britain in August.
He thinks it helps that he is of mixed race, so he can talk about how we generally struggle to talk about race.
He started the idea with Australia: Let’s Talk About Golliwogs, and will develop a New Zealand version next.
Rukahu won a Fringe Festival award when it premiered in 2015, telling the story of Pacific performer Jon Bon Fasi (performed by Nokise) who wins Creative New Zealand funding and blows it.
Rukahu means ‘‘bulls---’’ and it’s Nokise’s cynical comment on arts bureaucracy.
Jon Bon Fasi is trapped in the cycle of making work to get funding, rather than for the sake of art.
‘‘I’ve spent a lot of time overseas and so I see it here and there, where it’s a trap that artists can fall into. I’ve met larger than life characters like Bon Fasi,’’ he says.
Opening a new show each month, Nokise will spend two months at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, acting in the show his partner co-produces, Puppet Fiction, and a family stand-up show, Too Soon: Jokes from the Future, which he is co-writing with thespian Arthur Meek.
When writing shows, the comedian likes to comment on political and social issues, or anything that he’s interested in.
‘‘I really love watching people and talking about world events.’’
A self-described sports geek, his sell-out comedy piece, Talk A Big Game, at April’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival, was about sport.
‘‘People come up to me and I’m in wearing a sports top and they’re be surprised. They say things like, ’You write plays? But why are you into sport?’ But I love sports statistics. People stereotype you. That’s easier, and what they do.’’
Growing up in Lower Hutt and then Newtown, Nokise was usually kicking a ball, or running on a sports track.
At St Bernards College in Lower Hutt, he wasn’t the funniest guy in the class, but one of the best at reading and writing, ‘‘and definitely a talker’’. He joined the barbershop and the boys choir.
His father was a Samoan Protestant minister, while his Welsh lineage comes from his mother’s side.
A natural writer and performer, he discovered comedy while studying theatre at Victoria University, where he met fellow comedian Ben Hurley. They flatted together and performed a play. Nokise began gigging at the now San Fran club, at a time when New Zealand comedy was in its infancy. ‘‘Mike King was making work and there was a semblance of a comedy club in Wellington. Auckland was a bit more established, but you often had to go overseas.’’
His first gig was ‘‘clumsy’’ and a bit long. He was the ‘‘rookie’’ at a gig in 2002 when Hurley was on stage, along with Flight of the Conchords, performing in front of 60 people.
Since then, he has worked in London, been a 2013 Fred Dagg Comedy Award nominee, and featured on the Maori TV Waitangi Comedy Boil Up and Crack Up, along with the TV3 Comedy Gala. A regular attendee at the Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals, he co-wrote Wellington’s political satire series, Public Service Announcements, with Tate-Manning, which they perform each year.
Talking to him, you get a sense that Nokise’s career is on a high right now, and without alcohol in his system, he is in what he calls a creative phase. On to his sixth show this year, he says: ‘‘I didn’t mean to be this busy. I’m plugging a new production each month.’’
He may be a recovering alcoholic but he openly has addiction tendencies, drinking five coffees a day, and playing back-toback video games in his downtime.
And there’s a sense that while life is looking up, Nokise is still healing. ‘‘There was a six month period where I thought, ’Oh god, I’ve accidentally destroyed my career’. I had ruined my brain.’’
‘‘Alcoholism put a massive strain on everything. For people in a similar situation, understand that it’s a really raw,
really hard thing.’’