MR POPULAR
Willie Cribb, aka Willie Waiirua, is the Feilding funnyman with a weekly social media reach of 1.5 million. Sam Kilmister finds out what’s so special about the guy in the funny glasses.
ASK anyone and they’ll tell you Willie Cribb has always been a joker.
When he left school and joined the meatworks he found himself the subject of several stitch-ups.
The old guys would often rub his knife along the concrete as payback before placing it back in his satchel. He learnt a lot there, especially how to sharpen knives.
‘‘I’d struggle. They threw me under the bus, but it was fair game because I gave them heaps,’’ he says.
School teachers, sport coaches, friends and family say he’s always been cheeky, mischievous and entertaining.
As a child Cribb was the heart and soul of his rugby league team, former coach David Lomax says. He believes Cribb has always been a master of the art of being funny without causing offence.
Lomax recalls a player in his 2007 Central Falcons team with a lazy eye and, during an arduous bus trip, hearing Cribb belting out Dr Hook’s 1980s hit Sexy Eyes.
‘‘He’d take the piss out of them, but he knew how to without being offensive.’’
Ten years later Cribb is in the latest police recruitment video, has led a charge to get Ma¯ori voters to the polling booths, has a line of eyewear and, most recently, his own music video.
His whimsical charisma has led him on a journey he hopes will never end.
Cribb, from Feilding, has become a Kiwi internet sensation, thanks to unique dance moves and catchy phrases, such as ‘there he is’, ‘do the mahi, get the treats’ and ‘give it your breast’.
He’s used his popular ‘‘Waiirua wave’’ to greet people since he was a child, but it was altered during his six years working with Child, Youth and Family to pay respect to a friend there who lost her finger in a ‘‘horrific’’ dog attack.
He began to tuck his index finger, which is when it really started to take off online.
It’s become a fulltime career for Cribb, who gave up his job as a youth worker to pursue the dream. Growing up in Northland – in Kaikohe – Cribb never thought he would one day be in a position to inspire young Ma¯ori.
He moved to Feilding, aged 10, where he attended Feilding Intermediate and Palmerston North Boys’ High School. Cribb says he was always the class clown, which often earned a few tellings-off from mum.
‘‘The generic school report said ‘good, great kid, but lacks a bit of attention span’, just too much talking. You’d get home andmumwould say ‘oh what. Come on’.’’
It was in Manawatu¯ that Cribb met future All Black Aaron ‘‘Nuggie’’ Smith, the man largely responsible for his rise to social media prominence. The two were about the only Ma¯ori boys to play twilight cricket in Feilding, Cribb says.
Before long, video clips of his eccentric dance moves and unique mannerisms were being mimicked by Smith and other Highlanders mates.
‘‘It found its way into the All Blacks and, from that point, it just blew up,’’ Cribb says.
But it was his obsession with inspiring youth while working for Child Youth and Family that set him on the path.
Working with vulnerable children for six years, his only job requirement was to put smiles on faces – and he wasn’t afraid to make a fool of himself to do it.
‘‘They come in with their guard up. There’s some pretty horrific stuff and you read about what they’ve been through, but you give them 100 per cent of your heart and they open up.’’
He still returns for a few ‘‘verbal jabs’’ whenever his schedule allows.
Lomax isn’t surprised his former protege ended up helping other people.
‘‘I knew him as Willie Cribb, not Waiirua. He’s a genuine person, he’s got a bit of integrity, and that’s why it didn’t surprise me. He’s got a real good heart about him – to help young people. The social media thing was good because it gave him a bit of a platform and now he wants to do something with it.’’
That desire led Cribb to get young Ma¯ori voters to the polling booths at September’s election and he ended up the face of a playful campaign for the Electoral
WILLIE WAIIRUA