One man and his wild, windmill-tilting mission to make this election funny

The James Nokise campaign is gathering steam.

At first, the plan for One Night Rant, the standup tour that James Nokise embarked on last week, was mostly standup. Respond to the news of the day, lace in some gags, and then head to the next town. “Just like doing a fun little comedy tour with some jokes about how Luxon looks like a potato and Winston is a bottle of whiskey – like very simple jokes.”

When he started up north, the form evolved almost immediately. “It changed from me going, ‘here's an hour of jokes on the state of politics and the election cycle’, to more of the audience telling me what's pissing them off, or what's getting them fired up, or what they're absolutely tired of.”

The stories they tell are often the very opposite of hilarious. The state of the local hospital, for example. “There's nothing funny about people having to wait a long time in an ER, but if you dig into the details, then that very painful story can slip comedy-wise into farce, and so you get kind of like the trauma laugh of recognition from the rest of the audience. And in terms of political comedy, you highlight a very serious issue, but you show it through the ridiculousness,” said Nokise, speaking to The Spinoff for an episode of At Large with Toby Manhire.

So far, there is no obvious wellspring of comedy in the campaign itself, he said. The first leaders’ debate, for example, felt like a grim scene from a messy divorce.

“About the 40-minute mark, my brain went numb because all I could hear was one parent going, ‘You haven't costed this,’ and and the other one going, ‘Stop lying, stop lying.’ I understood something that I've been getting through my tour from the audiences, which is fatigue.”

In that sea of grey, said Nokise, Winston Peters’ most powerful weapon is his his million dollar grin. In the Kingmakers’ Debate last week, said Nokise, he “didn't actually say too many things of substance, but he smiled and chuckled enough for everyone [to think], ‘He's clearly won this debate.’”

The approach is equal opportunity – Nokise is committing to skewing politicians from every party. 

“Last night I was slamming National and Labour because of the leaders' debate … The Greens, I'm sure, will come up, along with New Zealand First and Act, after the next leaders' debate with the minor parties, who are increasingly non-minor.”

Nokise’s tour takes in 33 venues around Aotearoa. He’s simultaneously chipping away at other work including playwriting, commentary and journalism. The recipe is simple enough: “Hot chaos, constant beta blockers, and a high, high level of stress. I mean, I have stumbled through most of my career into other careers and just kept stumbling. I enjoy working with people and meeting people and learning about people and the human condition.”

Find tour dates, tickets and more on One Night Rant here.