Warning - some of this comedy really is 'raw'. Made with funding from NZ On Air.
Kajun Brooking has turned his gang-influenced upbringing into a successful comedy career.
Brooking’s stand-up, based on his Hastings childhood, has gained popularity for its unique “street comedy” style.
He will perform “Kajun Brooking Escapes The Hood” at the 2025 New Zealand International Comedy Festival in Auckland and Wellington.
What happens when a future gang member walks into a comedy show? He walks out with a new career.
It’s no joke, just the story of how a Hawke’s Bay-raised man took his rough and rowdy upbringing living with gangs in Hastings and turned it into a bit of alaugh.
Now Kajun Brooking has landed on the main stage of this year’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival.
Brooking started life in the streets of Flaxmere and Raureka, going back and forth between his mother’s and grandmother’s homes.
After becoming involved in the gangs at a young age, Brooking’s ambition was to one day become a fully patched-up member.
But his parents relocated him to Palmerston North and soon Brooking found himself in Whanganui for a party and started laying down roots in the river city.
Or as he puts it “I came here for a party and ended up hooking up with this chick, now I have two kids and a mortgage”.
Brooking never wanted to be a comedian but when his wife was going to a Raw Comedy Quest in Whanganui, he jokingly suggested he would be funnier than anyone else entering.
“Then people were saying ‘you should go in it’, and I thought ‘you know what, I will’,” Brooking said.
“I rang the producer, he said I just needed five minutes.
“I had a friend that had called me from jail a few days before and we were having a good old laugh, and I wrote a five-minute set about our conversation and I got through and made it all the way to the final.”
Although Brooking didn’t walk away with the win, he did take away the confidence of making it so far on his debut.
Now in his fifth year working rooms around the country, Brooking describes his brand of comedy as “street comedy”.
“I think my brand of comedy is in demand because it’s a niche market - and there’s not too many Māori or Pasifika comedians out there at the moment, which is really strange,” he said.
“My comedy comes from my upbringing in Hastings, I’m just telling stories about growing up and dudes I grew up with.”
Comedian Kajun Brooking's material is based on his Hastings upbringing. Photo / Bevan Conley
Brooking’s latest show “Kajun Brooking Escapes The Hood” is an epic tale of how Brooking escaped a life of poverty, gangs, and violence and replaced it with the life he had always dreamed of, where he can afford to buy food, shelter, and Lego.
“My story is just about even though you can come from humble beginnings and grow up poor, you can still make it out and you could still have a successful life,” he said.
“I want people to come along to my show and be inspired, especially people who grew up like me and can see me as a light at the end of the tunnel.
“You can get out, you don’t have to live that life, you don’t have to become a gang member. You can put all that behind you and strive for success.”
He will be performing his show in Auckland and Wellington as part of the 2025 New Zealand International Comedy Festival, where he is included in the Best Foods Comedy Gala at The Opera House in Wellington on May 3.
“That’s in front of 1400 people,” Brooking said proudly.
“I’m looking forward to crushing that room.”
Brooking is currently working on when he can bring his show to Hastings and Napier.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.
