They haven’t even been in the same room together yet — hell, they haven’t even been in the same country — but already the Naked Samoans are being crucified.
“What people have to remember is, for the past 27 years we’ve offended people,” Robbie Magasiva says from his home in Los Angeles. “We don’t offend people on purpose, but with the topics we have in our shows it happens.”
Usually, the comedy troupe of Magasiva, Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Mario Gaoa, Shimpal Lelisi and Iaheto Ah Hi have had to wait for the curtain to drop on a performance before any offence was taken. But that was back in the noughties, before social media, culture wars and everyone being online.
As it stands today, the group barely had time to announce their surprise reunion show at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival before the complaints started rolling in. These moans weren’t over a pointed joke or a harsh truth exposed like in their 2000s golden era.
Instead, the uproar was over the publicity for their reunion show, The Last Temptation of the Naked Samoans.
“We put out a poster inspired by The Last Supper, the depiction of Jesus and all the disciples, but with our heads added in,” Magasiva says. “All the Christians came out of the woodwork and now there’s a huge backlash. It’s taken a toll on some of the boys.”
The picture got some people very upset over a visual gag that has featured in everything from The Simpsons to Monty Python to The Blues Brothers.
Nevertheless, the uproar was loud enough for Kightley to be dispatched on a mainstream media apology tour and for the image to be replaced with an inoffensive illustration.
“Times have changed,” Magasiva says with a sigh. “It’s been eye-opening. Twenty years ago, if we put that up, it wouldn’t have mattered. But now that everyone has a platform to voice their opinion or hide behind online, we’ve got to be careful with what we put out there.”
“But we’ve also got to be truthful to ourselves,” he says, speaking carefully. “The core of Naked Samoans was telling stories of Polynesians. We were never afraid of or shied away from topics that people didn’t want to explore or touch. We told stories that weren’t being told elsewhere. Stories of abuse and everything else that people didn’t want to hear.”
Then, less carefully, he finishes up by saying, “It’s a really fine line in being truthful to the Naked Samoans while trying not to offend every frickin’ person out there.”
It’s strange to see the Naked Samoans on the back foot. This is the group that pushed Pasifika humour into the mainstream. Their stage shows were hilarious and confronting, tackling hard-hitting social issues like domestic violence, racism and suicide in Pacific communities. Their comedy contained a message, and they weren’t afraid to tell their stories with brutal honesty and comedy.
What began as something to create jobs for themselves – “Pardon my French, but there was fuck-all work for brown people on our TVs or stages back then,” Magasiva says – soon grew into a beloved cultural force.
There were sold-out shows, the long-running animated series bro’Town and the Sione’s Wedding movies. Their work gave Aotearoa’s Pacific community a long-overdue chance to see themselves represented in the mainstream and offered many European New Zealanders their first real glimpse of Pacific culture.
“We never sat down and said, ‘Oh, let’s challenge society!’” Kightley says from his home in West Auckland. “The thing that powered us was the indigenous Pacific approach to comedy. It’s full-on, it skewers sacred cows and it holds authority up to the light and makes jokes about it. That’s where it comes from. Naked Samoans is about being true to that approach.”
The poster snafu may well be the last trial for the Naked Samoans. With damage control done, their focus can now shift back to the show, which, when we talk, is more of a concept than a completed work.
“We have been bubbling away, building our script,” Kightley says, noting that the hard mahi is about to start. “We’re too old to wing it,” he says.
Magasiva hasn’t seen any words yet, but that hasn’t stopped him from booking his flight home. He’s jazzed to get into it, even though he’s “nervous as hell”.
“I fucking love theatre,” he says. “It pays nothing, but I get to be on stage with my buddies and get to play. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
He’s been wanting to reunite for ages. He even tried to make it happen a few years back. But despite his enthusiasm, he eventually had to concede defeat.
“You have no idea how hard it is to get five fricking Samoans together to do something,” Magasiva says, laughing. “It’s near impossible.”
In a roundabout way, the reunion is happening thanks to Jemaine Clement. At last year’s Comedy Festival, Clement and Johnny Brough performed as comedy band Goth 2 A Flame. Kightley was in the audience.
“It was inspiring seeing those guys put on a show,” he says. “Because you reach a point where you’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s something I used to do when I was little.’”
It motivated him. He started brainstorming ideas. At the start of the year, he contacted the guys. They were keen. To ensure his motivation and their commitment didn’t fizzle out he accepted a longstanding invitation from the Comedy Festival for the group to perform. After that, he began to think about getting started.
“It’s how we did it in the olden days. We just booked a theatre, and then we knew we were locked in and had to do the work,” he says. “Because left to our own devices we probably wouldn’t.”
“That’s how they work,” Magasiva says. “They put themselves under tremendous pressure.”
With just over a month until showtime, it’s now all go. Kightley and Lelisi are handling much of the legwork on the script before the full squad assembles to flesh it out and dive into rehearsals.
“I feel so fortunate,” Kightley says. “We’re all still alive and we can still hang out and get back on stage one more time.”
Then, quietly, he adds, “You know, it might be our last show.”
The words linger. The same thought had crossed Magasiva’s mind.
“I hope it isn’t, but I feel like it could be the last one,” he says, unprompted. “We’re in our 50s. It’s young for some, but we talked about doing this probably five years ago and it’s taken this long to make it happen. I’d love to do more but it just gets harder and harder to get all of us together.”
Perhaps time really is up for the Naked Samoans. They seem to think time’s not on their side. But still ... maybe they could be tempted back for one last dance after this last temptation? They’re both excited about the show and thrilled the group is going on stage again.
“It’s an excuse to hang out, and that gets harder as you get older and pick up responsibilities,” Kightley says, before leaving a sliver of possibility hanging in the air. “So, we’ve got to keep creating these opportunities, just so we have an excuse to hang out.”
Then, with a grin, he adds, “While we still have the energy.”
The Last Temptation of the Naked Samoans runs for six shows at the NZ International Comedy Festival, May 20-24. Tickets on sale now.
