June 1, 2025 • 25 mins
2025 Billy T Award winner Hoani Hotene (Ngāti Hauā) is a comedian from Petone, Lower Hutt. Bursting onto the Wellington comedy scene in 2020, Hoani quickly made a name for himself with his high-energy, alternative style.
He won Best Newcomer at the 2021 Wellington Comedy Awards, took out the 2022 Wellington Raw Quest final, and was crowned Funniest New Comedian of the Year after winning the Raw Comedy National Grand Final.
In 2024, he was named Breakthrough Comic by the NZ Comedy Guild. Hoani brings a personal, unpredictable mix of comedy to stages across Aotearoa.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News talk S ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Today. Welcome to Real Life. I'm John Cowen, Taiker Way,
t Jermaine Clement, Die, Henwood, Rose, Meta Fayo. I've all
been in the same situation as my guest tonight. Love
one a towel, the highly esteemed Billy t towel. Welcome
to Welcome and congratulations.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you very much. It's very nice to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, those are some lovely names to be to be
associated with.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're in the same galaxy, You're in the same constellation
of those stars now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, and it really is a towel. I don't know
why that shocked me when I got it. You but
when you feel it, you'd say, oh, this this is
a towel. It's exactly like the towels I have it
in the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, will you use it?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No? No, I don't know why. Somebody told me the
other day, yesterday, somebody told me the story about how
the Billy tea when he was like a few years ago,
he'd like come out of the bathroom at the end
of the fesst function and somebody was wearing the Billy
tea towel around their neck. But he didn't click what
it was as he came out. He just saw a
(01:35):
towel and like rubbed it all over his hands and
it was like, in my head, it shocked me because
it was like such a big disrespectful move, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So last week at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival,
how Only won the twenty twenty five Billy te Award
for the Comedian with the most Outstanding Potential. So it
is a buzz and I tucked in that towel was
a little bit of cash too. That'll be handy.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit of money goes along with
it as well. It's kind of nice. I'm going to
be spending that money I go off to Edinburgh later on,
so I'm pretty sure I'll be Any money I've made
from this whole competition will be definitely lost in Scotland,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, I was watching the Chase this week and there
was one of the contestants wanted to go to the
fringe to can be a contestant there and she got
nineteen thousand dollars and then it got wiped off the board.
And so the chases that I've just given you an
Edinburgh Fringe experience, you had nineteen thousand pounds in the
bank and now it's gone there because it costs a
lot of money to get to Edinburrow. That's yournique step though,
isn't it the Edinburgh Fringe.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yes? Yeah, And now I think I've got my plane tickets,
I've got accommodation, got my venue sorted, and now those
are the big three, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, And how do you get people there? Are you
going to be out on the street handing out flyers
and doing that type of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, I'll be doing a bit of that, But I'm okay,
I don't mind handing out flyers. I feel like some
people get embarrassed kind of handing out flyers on the
streets and everything. You lose a lot of shame doing
stand up comedy.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
It must take a lot of guts, And that's the
thing I mean, I think I'd be too shy shy
to do stand up Does it take a lot of courage?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think I suppose so you know, but then once
you get to a point where you love it, you know,
you just kind of want to do it all the time. Like,
you know, my auntie was a skydiver, and she you know,
she dove out of this plane like two hundred times,
and I'm sure the first couple of times it was
it was very brave. But once you fall in love
(03:39):
with something, you kind of like you kind of just
want to do it and unstop almost.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You know, what is it that you love about being
on stage doing stand up? Is it the audience, is
it the lifestyle? What is it that you love?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It's a real like it's a real connection, you know
what I mean when you can kind of curate the
language to put a point across that seems to connect
with a large group of people. And I think sometimes
when people hear jokes, they you know, like there's a
lot of hacky things you can do to make people laugh,
(04:14):
like you know, hecky.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The end of the term.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, So there are things where any comedian can kind
of say these same things. You know, no comedians own
these jokes. When it comes to like pointing at the
crowd and being like this guy's folding his arms he's
not enjoying himself, you know, and then seeing him later
and like you know, just pointing out people in the
crowd and talking about them. But every now and again
you might say something quite clever or you know, a
(04:39):
very specific idea that nobody had talked about, and get
a big group of people laughing about it. And I
don't know, I mean, it feels like a particularly like
unique thing to comedy, where you kind of you've created
this new idea with people and this little thing in
your mind that you don't feel like anybody kind of
like connected to all of a sudden, Apparently it's like
(05:02):
pretty broadly you know, understood.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, so did you get that buzz? I imagine that
you've always been a funny guy. I mean you've seen
the funny side of things and you can wrap words
around it and put it across to make people grin
and chuckle. So how did you move from being this
the funny guy at parties and with your mates to
actually standing up with a mic in front of you?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I was friends with some people who had this
rooftop apartment who would put on music gigs at their house,
and it was quite a big place, you know, like
they'd have a couple hundred people there sometimes. But one
of the guys who lived there, he had done stand
up about you know, forty, he'd done it a few times,
(05:47):
and so he decided, oh, let's just have you know,
a stand up at our house and we'll get some
people that are met on the open mics. And then
you know, he was friends with musicians and poets, and
they were like, oh, we'll just kind of it'll just
be our mates. Each of us will get it like
a boxer bear or something, and we'll just kind of
do stand up for each other.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So there was already a sort of like a a
party vibe going on that you're doing your stand up too,
and they knew each other, and.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It was it was definitely like a house party sort
of vibe. So but you know, with quite good gear.
So if we did have a microphone. We had a
guy on the side who had kind of played piano,
and it is like the music and he was really good,
you know, because sometimes you just come in while you
were doing your jokes, if you if it suited it.
But yeah, and then and then there was maybe i mean,
(06:36):
it might have been thirty forty people in this big lounge,
so it's a pretty good crowd of pretty warm people.
And then yeah, I just kind of went up and
told a few jokes and it just it was one
of those things that went so much better than I
could have imagined, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It was great preparation for your second gig, which I
think I've heard you talk about.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Oh, which was terrible, Yeah, which was really bad, which
was at a bar down the road from from that apartment. Yeah,
and had two elderly two people and maybe their fifties
or sixties.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You know, I don't think if that counts as elderly
on ZB but carry on.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Two young roosters or whatever, young bucks or No. It
was a couple who had clearly been in an argument.
That was the other thing. It wasn't the age that
made it bad. It was that they had clearly been
in an argument. Because the wife, I imagine she was
the wife, she wasn't even facing the stage. She was
(07:39):
facing with her back towards her husband, looking at a
wall like she was.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And they were simmering they had issues, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And the husband was folding his arms like looking at
me directly, but kind of he was Maybe I've just
imagined it more dramatic than it happened, but I do
remember it was not good.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I think that your comedy routine was probably therapy for
their relationship. You probably saved their marriage.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
There's no way they're still together. Was five years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Now a lot of your humor revolves around your Maori identity,
and you're heading to Scotland to Edinburgh. How's that stuff
going to go down? Are they going to identify with
that style of humor?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I think I think sometimes there are specific things with
an identity that can that can kind of translate, you know,
regardless of where you are in the world. I mean,
you know, I will change some things, but probably I'll
probably change more things that are very specific to New Zealand.
(08:43):
I think there are some things where I can explain
enough to kind of be able to still do some
pretty important things. I think perhaps some like there might
be a small message in the show that won't really
translate there, so I might just kind of it might
just be more just stand up, stand up, stand up
the whole time.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, you've done Melbourne, I think three times. Yeah,
did you have to modify it there? Or is there
enough Maori in the than the population over there to
actually get it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, I think there was a pretty strong multi population
there also, Like I think I think multi culture has
kind of gone global, you know what I mean, Like
you'd be surprised at how how much people overseas know
about multi people, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's encouraging.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah, and I probably will not do just just as much,
i'd say when I'm overseas, you know, partly because I
also think it's quite a good opportunity to just just
kind of try try a bunch of new stuff in
a space like Edinburgh where honestly I'm kind of excited
that nobody knows who I am, you know what I mean.
(09:52):
You know, not that I'm super big here, It's just
there's this real feeling of like, you know, now that
I've had this award, or even before that, when I
was getting a bit of attention online, you know, there's
a there's a little bit of pressure to to to
be good because people will remember if you bad, Whereas
like if I'm bad in a place where nobody knows
who I am, I can fail in anonymity, you know,
(10:14):
and grow that way.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, Okay, I wouldn't have said that was a major
goal in life, was it, I would have failed. And
the anonymity and I can't even say, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Your name, why Harts in it?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, people hear your name, certain expectations built, They form
categories in their mind of who I'm going to see
on stage. You walk on stage, those categories get challenged.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yes, oh well not even the radio stage for the
radio audience.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Explain why that would way you'd be a challenge to
those mental categories.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Well, I mean I've got a real prince Harry look
about me right now. I've even't got the little big
thing going on. But like, yeah, no Hawts in it.
But you know that wasn't that wasn't just like it's
a MOULDI name, it was a very very white look,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah your rocket.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, by the way, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So that's and I mean you this has provided a
lot of opportunities for humor, the idea that you know,
you can here is a very Irish looking, Scottish looking
person who is proudly Maori. And but has that ever
been a challenge for you personally growing up in a
Maori world? I mean you went to a went to
(11:41):
a Maori school and in that world, did you when
you're talking before about aspects of identity that people can identify,
that idea of hey I'm slightly you know, category challenging.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Category challenging. That's a fun you know.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Has that been a discomfort for you growing up?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No, No, not a discomfort. I mean, like I think
you know the thing of my name and you know
the way that I look that was. You know, that's
a conversation that I've had like a million times, you know,
before going on stage. You know, it's one of those
things where you almost have your your predetermined script of
like you know, where's the name from. It's from here,
(12:23):
It's you know, it's like there's somebody in your family Moldy.
It's like, oh yeah, my dad's Moldy. And it's like
yeah and I.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And people always want to give your family tree a
good heart shake to see what drops out.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
My guest tonight Hawaani, who won the Billy Te Award
at the International Comedy Festival last week, and so we'll
be talking afterwards about some of his aspects of doing
life as a young guy doing comedy in New Zealand.
This is Real Life on News Talks. It b I'm
John Cown'll be back with you in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news talks.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It be up and in it all comes down, up
and in it all comes down.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Welcome back to real life. My guest tonight, Hawaiian Hot.
Then they who won the Billy t Award last week?
And what are we listening to? You picked a song
for us? What are we listening to?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Up and down? Like casual healing? That's this is what
I played to end out the song. I love that song.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah. Yeah, so You're people are sort of be the
saying they're fear welling you off the stage versus a
song that like you're going out on.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, and it's I mean, it has nothing to do
with the show, I suppose, but I just kind of
like that thing of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I don't know, I think it leads a good feel
in their heads.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, it's a beautiful song. And I think throughout the process,
I was like, it really felt like an up and
down sort of process.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You know, before the break, we're talking about your studies
and things about how you're moving along and doing different
things in your studies, and you got to university.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Oh, eventually.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, and a person like yourself with such diverse interests
and and you've got interest in your routine, you're hopping
from one thing to another study. Was that something like
that as.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Well as in hopping from one study to ano.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Of fair By here that you did? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, yeah, I was a bit of a UNI dropout,
to be honest, I don't know why. I just really
I didn't enjoy writing essays. So I love actually and
really enjoyed learning most of the things. I just mean
it came to writing down essays.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I just come on, give us that in pressive list
of the things that you actually dropped out of.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Oh man, I yes, So what was it I did?
I must have done. I did law. I dropped out
of law. I dropped out of philosophy, philosophy, I would
probably went the furthest A little bit of history I dropped.
I did like one math paper, but then the logarithmics
and I just forgot what that was. And then I
(14:56):
was going to do Bachelor of Communications at Messy and
I think that was the last thing I dropped out of. Yeah,
but yeah, it's kind of it is silly, because, yeah,
the student loan is very high and the knowledge is
very minimal.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You know. No, I think you've got a stack of knowledge.
You've just gone through and picked up a whole lot
of things from different shelves. You've loaded yourself up with
stuff to use for comedy routines with the rest of
your life.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, it is kind of like that's the best thing
about comedy is that you don't If people laugh, then
it's paid off, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
because I have done jokes where later on I've seen
somebody's face in the crowd and they'll be like, what
he said isn't actually correct, And then I've gone back
and looked at it. But when I told the joke,
(15:45):
it gotta laugh. Yeah, so clearly it was still funny.
I just had to get the facts right.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And you didn't fail university. University failed to put together
a curriculum for a future comedian. You created it. You
created that curriculum.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah. I mean, there's still a lot of comedians that
seem to have been able to get through university. Pretty well,
a couple of them there.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I was giving you an excuse. No, no, then some
postgraduates overseas in Ireland and oh.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, man, you know what I think. I think actually
traveling overseas was the biggest university for comedy I could
have done, because I genuinely was doing this thing where
you would volunteer in hostels. So I was in Ireland,
a tiny place called Lahinch. It's actually a surfing town.
Yeah yeah, surfing in golf town. But because I was
(16:33):
volunteering at this hostel, I felt like I had a
reason to welcome in every guest that would come to
the to the place.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So I all those skills to be able to relate
to all these different people, different backgrounds and resonate with them.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah yeah, I mean, I mean maybe it's the same
with you, where you just kind of like love talking
to people, you know. I mean sometimes the biggest obstacle
to talking to people is you don't actually have a
very good reason why. But when I was the volunteer,
when I was the hostile employee, you know, I almost
in my mind made it like my job to make
(17:13):
a welcoming environment, you know, So anybody who came in,
I was like, hey, how's it going, you know, like
where you come from, Like there's this thing, that thing
and the other down the road. And then I did
that in Spain as well, and it was probably about
maybe nine months where almost every single day I'm talking
to new people or where you know, those social skills
(17:37):
really coming strong.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
All right. I can easily see how that would build
up your ammunition, your skills for getting on stage and
relating to a group of people that you've never seen
or met before and instead of getting a rapport going.
And the other thing I think is that you talk
about things that people can relate to. And I've been
speaking to a couple. I've haven't caught your show. I've
seen lots of little reels and things, but I've talked
(17:59):
to people that been to your shows, and there's a
number of things that really impressed them. One of the
way you honored your parents. Yeah, I mean I and
that's that's lovely. You know the idea that yourself, you
enjoy all this huge range of people, but you come
back to your mom and dads.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I mean they they they to be fair, they
were great parents, you know, they really like Yeah, they
were both. They were both. They used to run like
children's homes, you know, like homes for mostly teenagers that
didn't have anywhere else to go. So I feel like
(18:37):
by the time they were parents, they were so ready
for children, you know what I mean. But also in
a weird way, like when I started doing stand up,
I kind of you know, I kind of imagined that
I'd be doing stand up that my parents could listen to.
I didn't mean to.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
The other thing. These people commented on no swears, you know,
very friendly, friendly, family friendly, and you know a lot
of comedians, you know, they spice it up a bit
with a bit of a tang in their talk. But yeah,
you managed to get your jokes across about having to
do that. So you're thinking your mum and dad in
the audience.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Well they are, to be fair, they also come to
more shows than I reckon any other parents of any
other comedian.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yes, lovely.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, maybe there's like a sixteen year old out there
who's starting out in comedy that needs his dad there
to go to a bar that the open MIC's hat.
But no, I mean, I just don't swear very much
in life, you know what I mean. So you know
where that comes from, just probably my parents. Really, Yeah,
(19:44):
I don't know. I mean, it's not like I don't
swear ever, And I think there's a couple of swear
words in there, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Folks, we just had to ed about a few there
that he pray recording this, and we just edited them out. Now.
I'm just interested. We're talked before about your life within
Maordi culture, and a big part of that is the
spirituality of tael Maori. Yeah. Do you do you reflect
much on spirituality and religion?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah? I think I think, Yeah, I think about it
a lot. Perhaps not i'd like, you know, I'm not
a very religious person in itself, but I do. I
do like to think about religion and spirituality. I mean,
I think one of the big things that when when
(20:34):
the maldi Uts were, who are living in you know,
living in all these different things. You know, it's very
much a different sort of way of thinking about the world,
which I think, you know, when like Malti spirituality gives
a lot more value to I think the whole world
because it kind of gives value to that there there's
(20:56):
the you know, tongue lid or in the ocean and
you know tiny mahuta in the in the in the
forests and things. And I think when yeah, is.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
That inslated through into your being a vegan? You know,
I respect for living things.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I don't. I that vegan was a real Peter Singer
thing I would say for a while, like even though
like I think sometimes that guy has like some pretty
interesting ideas. Yeah, the vegan thing, I mean, I always
felt like I should be vegetarian, just in the sense that,
like we can survive without needing to eat meat. You know,
(21:37):
I'm not like, I'm not the strictest vegan there is.
There there's the like I'll probably never eat another piece
of pork, and I'll probably never eat another piece of
steak or something. Occasionally I've eaten fish, you know what
I mean. Yeah, but no, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
From an ethical base, not just a health base.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Well, I mean, even though I dropped out of philosophy,
I actually really enjoyed philosophy and I got, you know,
after leaving university and things. I got really really and
to just listening to podcasts about it. And I know
listening to podcasts doesn't make you an expert on anything,
but you know, it's it's probably put you close to them,
not listening to anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's a nice way to put it. Yeah, but I did.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I really I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed ethics. I
particularly got into philosophy because you know, I grew up
around like a religious place, yes, and you know, would
go to youth group and do all these things and
and it was very good though, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So conventional Christianity didn't really compost into anything in your heart,
but it's sort of shaped things.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think, Yes, I mean, I would say, you know,
there's a real emotional pool to a lot of things
that you're doing when you're a teenager at these Christian camps.
You know, a lot of it is kind of big music,
big lights and and and a lot of the times
it's you know it there's an endearing message. I'm not
I'm not like roasting them for for anything, but I
(23:08):
wasn't you know, I'm not one of those people who
will change their life because the music is lovely and
the singer is lovely and they've said something emotional. I
kind of always was a little more like the.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
More skeptical cynical than that. Wow. I just like.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Discussion, Like I just like talking, you know. So, yeah,
when I got into philosophy because I was very much
like I didn't I just felt like sometimes the message
of what religion was was almost quite basic, you know
what I mean. I understand that it's very nice to
have the message of like, you know, God is love
(23:47):
and uh and he's always there and he's jealous and
hears and he's like you know, these sort of things.
I just don't think that's a very in depth message,
you know what I mean? So I kind of like
I don't really feel like I believed it, but I
didn't want to just be like one of those people
who is like, wow, God's just imaginary, you know that
that kind of.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Starting post place to do some more exploring and thinking.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then yeah, and then I found
some interesting things and I kind of kind of like
switched up how I felt about things. And I'm not
religious now, but at least I feel like I don't.
I don't just like, you know, just see religion. There's
some silly thing that a lot of people do, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Hawani, it's been great listening to you. Keep scanning the
news for whatever Hawani Holton he is doing, whether he's
doing a live show or a podcast, it's going to
be worth you while listening to it. He's a great
guy and very entertaining as well. This has been real life.
I'm John Cown. I'm looking forward to being back with
you again next Sunday night. But let's go out on.
What are we listening to?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Brothers, Venetia and.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Mister Fantastic, Thanks so much money, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Am habby deaf with you, your olds are nothing with you,
times in need on there by the say you don't
even have to be.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I'll be dead with you, joh and I you,
I'm there and see don't you for.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Ha speed.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
For more from News Talk set B listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
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You're listening to a podcast from News talk S ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Today. Welcome to Real Life. I'm John Cowen, Taiker Way,
t Jermaine Clement, Die, Henwood, Rose, Meta Fayo. I've all
been in the same situation as my guest tonight. Love
one a towel, the highly esteemed Billy t towel. Welcome
to Welcome and congratulations.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you very much. It's very nice to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, those are some lovely names to be to be
associated with.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're in the same galaxy, You're in the same constellation
of those stars now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, and it really is a towel. I don't know
why that shocked me when I got it. You but
when you feel it, you'd say, oh, this this is
a towel. It's exactly like the towels I have it
in the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, will you use it?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
No? No, I don't know why. Somebody told me the
other day, yesterday, somebody told me the story about how
the Billy tea when he was like a few years ago,
he'd like come out of the bathroom at the end
of the fesst function and somebody was wearing the Billy
tea towel around their neck. But he didn't click what
it was as he came out. He just saw a
(01:35):
towel and like rubbed it all over his hands and
it was like, in my head, it shocked me because
it was like such a big disrespectful move, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So last week at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival,
how Only won the twenty twenty five Billy te Award
for the Comedian with the most Outstanding Potential. So it
is a buzz and I tucked in that towel was
a little bit of cash too. That'll be handy.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit of money goes along with
it as well. It's kind of nice. I'm going to
be spending that money I go off to Edinburgh later on,
so I'm pretty sure I'll be Any money I've made
from this whole competition will be definitely lost in Scotland,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, I was watching the Chase this week and there
was one of the contestants wanted to go to the
fringe to can be a contestant there and she got
nineteen thousand dollars and then it got wiped off the board.
And so the chases that I've just given you an
Edinburgh Fringe experience, you had nineteen thousand pounds in the
bank and now it's gone there because it costs a
lot of money to get to Edinburrow. That's yournique step though,
isn't it the Edinburgh Fringe.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yes? Yeah, And now I think I've got my plane tickets,
I've got accommodation, got my venue sorted, and now those
are the big three, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, And how do you get people there? Are you
going to be out on the street handing out flyers
and doing that type of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, I'll be doing a bit of that, But I'm okay,
I don't mind handing out flyers. I feel like some
people get embarrassed kind of handing out flyers on the
streets and everything. You lose a lot of shame doing
stand up comedy.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
It must take a lot of guts, And that's the
thing I mean, I think I'd be too shy shy
to do stand up Does it take a lot of courage?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think I suppose so you know, but then once
you get to a point where you love it, you know,
you just kind of want to do it all the time. Like,
you know, my auntie was a skydiver, and she you know,
she dove out of this plane like two hundred times,
and I'm sure the first couple of times it was
it was very brave. But once you fall in love
(03:39):
with something, you kind of like you kind of just
want to do it and unstop almost.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You know, what is it that you love about being
on stage doing stand up? Is it the audience, is
it the lifestyle? What is it that you love?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It's a real like it's a real connection, you know
what I mean when you can kind of curate the
language to put a point across that seems to connect
with a large group of people. And I think sometimes
when people hear jokes, they you know, like there's a
lot of hacky things you can do to make people laugh,
(04:14):
like you know, hecky.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The end of the term.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, So there are things where any comedian can kind
of say these same things. You know, no comedians own
these jokes. When it comes to like pointing at the
crowd and being like this guy's folding his arms he's
not enjoying himself, you know, and then seeing him later
and like you know, just pointing out people in the
crowd and talking about them. But every now and again
you might say something quite clever or you know, a
(04:39):
very specific idea that nobody had talked about, and get
a big group of people laughing about it. And I
don't know, I mean, it feels like a particularly like
unique thing to comedy, where you kind of you've created
this new idea with people and this little thing in
your mind that you don't feel like anybody kind of
like connected to all of a sudden, Apparently it's like
(05:02):
pretty broadly you know, understood.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, so did you get that buzz? I imagine that
you've always been a funny guy. I mean you've seen
the funny side of things and you can wrap words
around it and put it across to make people grin
and chuckle. So how did you move from being this
the funny guy at parties and with your mates to
actually standing up with a mic in front of you?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I was friends with some people who had this
rooftop apartment who would put on music gigs at their house,
and it was quite a big place, you know, like
they'd have a couple hundred people there sometimes. But one
of the guys who lived there, he had done stand
up about you know, forty, he'd done it a few times,
(05:47):
and so he decided, oh, let's just have you know,
a stand up at our house and we'll get some
people that are met on the open mics. And then
you know, he was friends with musicians and poets, and
they were like, oh, we'll just kind of it'll just
be our mates. Each of us will get it like
a boxer bear or something, and we'll just kind of
do stand up for each other.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So there was already a sort of like a a
party vibe going on that you're doing your stand up too,
and they knew each other, and.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It was it was definitely like a house party sort
of vibe. So but you know, with quite good gear.
So if we did have a microphone. We had a
guy on the side who had kind of played piano,
and it is like the music and he was really good,
you know, because sometimes you just come in while you
were doing your jokes, if you if it suited it.
But yeah, and then and then there was maybe i mean,
(06:36):
it might have been thirty forty people in this big lounge,
so it's a pretty good crowd of pretty warm people.
And then yeah, I just kind of went up and
told a few jokes and it just it was one
of those things that went so much better than I
could have imagined, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It was great preparation for your second gig, which I
think I've heard you talk about.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Oh, which was terrible, Yeah, which was really bad, which
was at a bar down the road from from that apartment. Yeah,
and had two elderly two people and maybe their fifties
or sixties.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You know, I don't think if that counts as elderly
on ZB but carry on.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Two young roosters or whatever, young bucks or No. It
was a couple who had clearly been in an argument.
That was the other thing. It wasn't the age that
made it bad. It was that they had clearly been
in an argument. Because the wife, I imagine she was
the wife, she wasn't even facing the stage. She was
(07:39):
facing with her back towards her husband, looking at a
wall like she was.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And they were simmering they had issues, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And the husband was folding his arms like looking at
me directly, but kind of he was Maybe I've just
imagined it more dramatic than it happened, but I do
remember it was not good.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I think that your comedy routine was probably therapy for
their relationship. You probably saved their marriage.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
There's no way they're still together. Was five years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Now a lot of your humor revolves around your Maori identity,
and you're heading to Scotland to Edinburgh. How's that stuff
going to go down? Are they going to identify with
that style of humor?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I think I think sometimes there are specific things with
an identity that can that can kind of translate, you know,
regardless of where you are in the world. I mean,
you know, I will change some things, but probably I'll
probably change more things that are very specific to New Zealand.
(08:43):
I think there are some things where I can explain
enough to kind of be able to still do some
pretty important things. I think perhaps some like there might
be a small message in the show that won't really
translate there, so I might just kind of it might
just be more just stand up, stand up, stand up
the whole time.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, you've done Melbourne, I think three times. Yeah,
did you have to modify it there? Or is there
enough Maori in the than the population over there to
actually get it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, I think there was a pretty strong multi population
there also, Like I think I think multi culture has
kind of gone global, you know what I mean, Like
you'd be surprised at how how much people overseas know
about multi people, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's encouraging.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah, and I probably will not do just just as much,
i'd say when I'm overseas, you know, partly because I
also think it's quite a good opportunity to just just
kind of try try a bunch of new stuff in
a space like Edinburgh where honestly I'm kind of excited
that nobody knows who I am, you know what I mean.
(09:52):
You know, not that I'm super big here, It's just
there's this real feeling of like, you know, now that
I've had this award, or even before that, when I
was getting a bit of attention online, you know, there's
a there's a little bit of pressure to to to
be good because people will remember if you bad, Whereas
like if I'm bad in a place where nobody knows
who I am, I can fail in anonymity, you know,
(10:14):
and grow that way.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, Okay, I wouldn't have said that was a major
goal in life, was it, I would have failed. And
the anonymity and I can't even say, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Your name, why Harts in it?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, people hear your name, certain expectations built, They form
categories in their mind of who I'm going to see
on stage. You walk on stage, those categories get challenged.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yes, oh well not even the radio stage for the
radio audience.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Explain why that would way you'd be a challenge to
those mental categories.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Well, I mean I've got a real prince Harry look
about me right now. I've even't got the little big
thing going on. But like, yeah, no Hawts in it.
But you know that wasn't that wasn't just like it's
a MOULDI name, it was a very very white look,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah your rocket.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, by the way, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So that's and I mean you this has provided a
lot of opportunities for humor, the idea that you know,
you can here is a very Irish looking, Scottish looking
person who is proudly Maori. And but has that ever
been a challenge for you personally growing up in a
Maori world? I mean you went to a went to
(11:41):
a Maori school and in that world, did you when
you're talking before about aspects of identity that people can identify,
that idea of hey I'm slightly you know, category challenging.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Category challenging. That's a fun you know.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Has that been a discomfort for you growing up?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No, No, not a discomfort. I mean, like I think
you know the thing of my name and you know
the way that I look that was. You know, that's
a conversation that I've had like a million times, you know,
before going on stage. You know, it's one of those
things where you almost have your your predetermined script of
like you know, where's the name from. It's from here,
(12:23):
It's you know, it's like there's somebody in your family Moldy.
It's like, oh yeah, my dad's Moldy. And it's like
yeah and I.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And people always want to give your family tree a
good heart shake to see what drops out.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
My guest tonight Hawaani, who won the Billy Te Award
at the International Comedy Festival last week, and so we'll
be talking afterwards about some of his aspects of doing
life as a young guy doing comedy in New Zealand.
This is Real Life on News Talks. It b I'm
John Cown'll be back with you in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news talks.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It be up and in it all comes down, up
and in it all comes down.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Welcome back to real life. My guest tonight, Hawaiian Hot.
Then they who won the Billy t Award last week?
And what are we listening to? You picked a song
for us? What are we listening to?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Up and down? Like casual healing? That's this is what
I played to end out the song. I love that song.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah. Yeah, so You're people are sort of be the
saying they're fear welling you off the stage versus a
song that like you're going out on.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, and it's I mean, it has nothing to do
with the show, I suppose, but I just kind of
like that thing of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I don't know, I think it leads a good feel
in their heads.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, it's a beautiful song. And I think throughout the process,
I was like, it really felt like an up and
down sort of process.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You know, before the break, we're talking about your studies
and things about how you're moving along and doing different
things in your studies, and you got to university.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Oh, eventually.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, and a person like yourself with such diverse interests
and and you've got interest in your routine, you're hopping
from one thing to another study. Was that something like
that as.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Well as in hopping from one study to ano.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Of fair By here that you did? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, yeah, I was a bit of a UNI dropout,
to be honest, I don't know why. I just really
I didn't enjoy writing essays. So I love actually and
really enjoyed learning most of the things. I just mean
it came to writing down essays.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I just come on, give us that in pressive list
of the things that you actually dropped out of.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Oh man, I yes, So what was it I did?
I must have done. I did law. I dropped out
of law. I dropped out of philosophy, philosophy, I would
probably went the furthest A little bit of history I dropped.
I did like one math paper, but then the logarithmics
and I just forgot what that was. And then I
(14:56):
was going to do Bachelor of Communications at Messy and
I think that was the last thing I dropped out of. Yeah,
but yeah, it's kind of it is silly, because, yeah,
the student loan is very high and the knowledge is
very minimal.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You know. No, I think you've got a stack of knowledge.
You've just gone through and picked up a whole lot
of things from different shelves. You've loaded yourself up with
stuff to use for comedy routines with the rest of
your life.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, it is kind of like that's the best thing
about comedy is that you don't If people laugh, then
it's paid off, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
because I have done jokes where later on I've seen
somebody's face in the crowd and they'll be like, what
he said isn't actually correct, And then I've gone back
and looked at it. But when I told the joke,
(15:45):
it gotta laugh. Yeah, so clearly it was still funny.
I just had to get the facts right.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And you didn't fail university. University failed to put together
a curriculum for a future comedian. You created it. You
created that curriculum.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah. I mean, there's still a lot of comedians that
seem to have been able to get through university. Pretty well,
a couple of them there.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I was giving you an excuse. No, no, then some
postgraduates overseas in Ireland and oh.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, man, you know what I think. I think actually
traveling overseas was the biggest university for comedy I could
have done, because I genuinely was doing this thing where
you would volunteer in hostels. So I was in Ireland,
a tiny place called Lahinch. It's actually a surfing town.
Yeah yeah, surfing in golf town. But because I was
(16:33):
volunteering at this hostel, I felt like I had a
reason to welcome in every guest that would come to
the to the place.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So I all those skills to be able to relate
to all these different people, different backgrounds and resonate with them.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah yeah, I mean, I mean maybe it's the same
with you, where you just kind of like love talking
to people, you know. I mean sometimes the biggest obstacle
to talking to people is you don't actually have a
very good reason why. But when I was the volunteer,
when I was the hostile employee, you know, I almost
in my mind made it like my job to make
(17:13):
a welcoming environment, you know, So anybody who came in,
I was like, hey, how's it going, you know, like
where you come from, Like there's this thing, that thing
and the other down the road. And then I did
that in Spain as well, and it was probably about
maybe nine months where almost every single day I'm talking
to new people or where you know, those social skills
(17:37):
really coming strong.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
All right. I can easily see how that would build
up your ammunition, your skills for getting on stage and
relating to a group of people that you've never seen
or met before and instead of getting a rapport going.
And the other thing I think is that you talk
about things that people can relate to. And I've been
speaking to a couple. I've haven't caught your show. I've
seen lots of little reels and things, but I've talked
(17:59):
to people that been to your shows, and there's a
number of things that really impressed them. One of the
way you honored your parents. Yeah, I mean I and
that's that's lovely. You know the idea that yourself, you
enjoy all this huge range of people, but you come
back to your mom and dads.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I mean they they they to be fair, they
were great parents, you know, they really like Yeah, they
were both. They were both. They used to run like
children's homes, you know, like homes for mostly teenagers that
didn't have anywhere else to go. So I feel like
(18:37):
by the time they were parents, they were so ready
for children, you know what I mean. But also in
a weird way, like when I started doing stand up,
I kind of you know, I kind of imagined that
I'd be doing stand up that my parents could listen to.
I didn't mean to.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
The other thing. These people commented on no swears, you know,
very friendly, friendly, family friendly, and you know a lot
of comedians, you know, they spice it up a bit
with a bit of a tang in their talk. But yeah,
you managed to get your jokes across about having to
do that. So you're thinking your mum and dad in
the audience.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Well they are, to be fair, they also come to
more shows than I reckon any other parents of any
other comedian.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yes, lovely.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, maybe there's like a sixteen year old out there
who's starting out in comedy that needs his dad there
to go to a bar that the open MIC's hat.
But no, I mean, I just don't swear very much
in life, you know what I mean. So you know
where that comes from, just probably my parents. Really, Yeah,
(19:44):
I don't know. I mean, it's not like I don't
swear ever, And I think there's a couple of swear
words in there, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Folks, we just had to ed about a few there
that he pray recording this, and we just edited them out. Now.
I'm just interested. We're talked before about your life within
Maordi culture, and a big part of that is the
spirituality of tael Maori. Yeah. Do you do you reflect
much on spirituality and religion?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah? I think I think, Yeah, I think about it
a lot. Perhaps not i'd like, you know, I'm not
a very religious person in itself, but I do. I
do like to think about religion and spirituality. I mean,
I think one of the big things that when when
(20:34):
the maldi Uts were, who are living in you know,
living in all these different things. You know, it's very
much a different sort of way of thinking about the world,
which I think, you know, when like Malti spirituality gives
a lot more value to I think the whole world
because it kind of gives value to that there there's
(20:56):
the you know, tongue lid or in the ocean and
you know tiny mahuta in the in the in the
forests and things. And I think when yeah, is.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
That inslated through into your being a vegan? You know,
I respect for living things.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I don't. I that vegan was a real Peter Singer
thing I would say for a while, like even though
like I think sometimes that guy has like some pretty
interesting ideas. Yeah, the vegan thing, I mean, I always
felt like I should be vegetarian, just in the sense that,
like we can survive without needing to eat meat. You know,
(21:37):
I'm not like, I'm not the strictest vegan there is.
There there's the like I'll probably never eat another piece
of pork, and I'll probably never eat another piece of
steak or something. Occasionally I've eaten fish, you know what
I mean. Yeah, but no, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
From an ethical base, not just a health base.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Well, I mean, even though I dropped out of philosophy,
I actually really enjoyed philosophy and I got, you know,
after leaving university and things. I got really really and
to just listening to podcasts about it. And I know
listening to podcasts doesn't make you an expert on anything,
but you know, it's it's probably put you close to them,
not listening to anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's a nice way to put it. Yeah, but I did.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I really I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed ethics. I
particularly got into philosophy because you know, I grew up
around like a religious place, yes, and you know, would
go to youth group and do all these things and
and it was very good though, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So conventional Christianity didn't really compost into anything in your heart,
but it's sort of shaped things.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think, Yes, I mean, I would say, you know,
there's a real emotional pool to a lot of things
that you're doing when you're a teenager at these Christian camps.
You know, a lot of it is kind of big music,
big lights and and and a lot of the times
it's you know it there's an endearing message. I'm not
I'm not like roasting them for for anything, but I
(23:08):
wasn't you know, I'm not one of those people who
will change their life because the music is lovely and
the singer is lovely and they've said something emotional. I
kind of always was a little more like the.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
More skeptical cynical than that. Wow. I just like.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Discussion, Like I just like talking, you know. So, yeah,
when I got into philosophy because I was very much
like I didn't I just felt like sometimes the message
of what religion was was almost quite basic, you know
what I mean. I understand that it's very nice to
have the message of like, you know, God is love
(23:47):
and uh and he's always there and he's jealous and
hears and he's like you know, these sort of things.
I just don't think that's a very in depth message,
you know what I mean? So I kind of like
I don't really feel like I believed it, but I
didn't want to just be like one of those people
who is like, wow, God's just imaginary, you know that
that kind of.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Starting post place to do some more exploring and thinking.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then yeah, and then I found
some interesting things and I kind of kind of like
switched up how I felt about things. And I'm not
religious now, but at least I feel like I don't.
I don't just like, you know, just see religion. There's
some silly thing that a lot of people do, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Hawani, it's been great listening to you. Keep scanning the
news for whatever Hawani Holton he is doing, whether he's
doing a live show or a podcast, it's going to
be worth you while listening to it. He's a great
guy and very entertaining as well. This has been real life.
I'm John Cown. I'm looking forward to being back with
you again next Sunday night. But let's go out on.
What are we listening to?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Brothers, Venetia and.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Mister Fantastic, Thanks so much money, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Am habby deaf with you, your olds are nothing with you,
times in need on there by the say you don't
even have to be.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I'll be dead with you, joh and I you,
I'm there and see don't you for.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Ha speed.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
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