Review: James Nokise at Comedy Underground

Jimi Samoa could have very well gone the way of Jimi Hendrix. Photo / Supplied

It's not so much a show about the adventures of Jimi Samoa as about how up-and-coming local comedian James Nokise came to be Jimi.

Not that he knew it at the time, but Nokise tells us that he started developing this persona as far back as school in Lower Hutt - a difficult time when he got shunned by his gang for reading books and got up to "dumb shit" on the weekend like sitting on a chair in the queue at KFC because he was too stoned to stand.

He starts off a little tentatively. It's hard to tell whether it's nerves or just his slightly stilted delivery and self-deprecating humour about his Pacific Island people that makes it seem that way.

Once he warms up, it's a laidback and enjoyable mix of cheeky gags ("Hey, Savage, you sound like the Cookie Monster on E"), random acts of theatre (like confronting the Mongrel Mob in Havelock North when he resolves "staunch young guys get freaked out by campness"), and deeply personal stories about his love life and many vices.

There are many adventures about being under the influence, like finding himself dancing in a toilet cubicle on Ecstasy and bonding over "heavy drinking" with the love of his life, Petrina.

He also does impressions of Mongrel Mob members ("The single most retarded group in the country"), taken from last year's show Beige Against The Machine, and later turns his gang taunt towards the Killer Beez, who just "aren't that bright".

And in an emotionally charged second half, he recounts relocating to Britain, losing the love of his life, and how Jimi Samoa could have very well gone the way of Jimi Hendrix if he'd kept up his reckless lifestyle. It's touching, but hardly hilarious, and to lighten things up before this likeable comic sends us on our way, he jibes one of his Fijian bros - that 80s pop-star wannabe Frank Bananarama.

Who: James Nokise - The Adventures of Jimi Samoa.
Where: Comedy Underground, 305 Queen St.
When: 7pm, until Saturday.