Tofiga with the Topp Prize, presented by James Nokise during this year’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival. (Photo: Lewis Ferris)
The biggest comedy award in Aotearoa is the Topp Prize, named after the Topp Twins (Jools, who passed away last week, and her sister Lynda) and awarded to “a wild card” of Aotearoa comedy.
During this year’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival, James Nokise, who won the award in 2024, handed the crown to his old friend, Tofiga Fepulea‘i. Here’s James on why Tofiga deserves the award.
It’s a strange thing being an award-winning comedian. Even though your skill has been acknowledged, the award means nothing when you’re performing. Once the show starts, you’re on the same level as everyone else.
Even then, in Pacific comedy, regardless of awards, there is one name that sits above the rest.
By popular opinion, Tofiga Fepulea‘i is the greatest Pacific comedian of all time. That might not be your opinion, because comedy is subjective, but in terms of live audiences, few performers from Aotearoa can claim to have drawn larger audiences, or a larger number of large audiences, than Wellington’s loudest Moana Pasifika fan. The few who could match his numbers — the likes of Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords, and Urzila Carlson — have all had Hollywood success and multiple TV deals to their names.
Tofiga — who, like Prince and Sting, needs only one name — has amassed his fans through a combination of DVD sales (official and not so official), Laughing Sāmoan sketches, occasional appearances on Fresh TV, and a relentless run of live performances on tour and at community events, weddings, 21st birthday parties, rugby and league games, music concerts, and church gatherings.
It’s in large part because of this wide variety of community-based work that Tofiga was awarded the Topp Prize by the New Zealand Comedy Trust. Named after the Topp Twins, Jools and Lynda, and awarded only with their approval, it’s the country’s largest comedy prize, worth $15,000. If you haven’t heard of it, that’s because it’s relatively new. There have been only four winners so far: Tofiga, Chris Parker, Jo Randerson, and me.
I admit I’m not unbiased about Tofiga. Even if I were, our family and professional ties would make it hard to believe. We go back a long way.
My father came to New Zealand from Sāmoa on a banana boat in 1960. Tofiga’s parents arrived a little earlier. My father was Tofiga’s father’s best man at their wedding. My grandfather baptised him. Still, we were nine years apart (he’s my senior, at 52), and never properly met till the early 2000s, when Eteuati Ete had us as the MC and opening act for Laughing with Sāmoans, which the two of them would go on to refine into the Laughing Sāmoans.
Though our careers took different paths, the pandemic brought us back together. I was stranded in New Zealand with my overseas work all but gone. During lockdown, Tofiga’s father passed away, and mine — as the minister of PIPC, the Pacific Islanders’ Presbyterian Church, in Newtown, Wellington — was at the hospital attending to his family.
As the country opened up, Tofiga asked if I’d direct his latest show and open for him on tour. Tragically, on the eve of the 2021 New Zealand International Comedy Festival, his mother also passed away. In the same week she was laid to rest, we both performed at the comedy gala, followed by a sold-out and now legendary show at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Auckland*.* Everyone knew that his mother had just passed, and we all brought our A-game.
And then, still heavy with grief and exhausted from the past weeks and his own show, I watched Tofiga sit at a table, signing autographs and photos for his fans. The line lasted almost two hours. It didn’t matter whether they were a cleaner or an All Black — he laughed and smiled with all of them. Sometimes I sat with him, and sometimes one of his boys did. Sometimes his indomitable wife, Bessie, joined him. But he took no breaks and wouldn’t leave till the last audience member left.
This is what I would say to you about Tofiga Fepulea‘i, and why he deserves the Topp Award. I’ve never seen a more community-minded comedian. That’s partly why his shows used to run long. He wanted the audience to get their money’s worth.
When I started directing him, there were two rules. One, no costume changes. That meant popular characters like Aunty Tala wouldn’t be making an appearance. This was partly because I really wanted him to focus on stand-up storytelling, and partly because the changes would eat up time. This was related to rule number two: His performance time would be an hour, plus an encore, and that was it.
They weren’t concrete rules, because who was I to give Tofiga notes? But I justified cutting stage time by cramming more jokes into the hour. It helped that underneath all that clowning is one of the fastest comedy minds I’ve ever encountered.
When I went overseas again, Tofiga kept touring, and each time, he’d offer opening spots to younger Pasifika performers to introduce them to his big audiences. Sometimes he also had musicians, but he was never flying solo. As his children have grown older, he’s been able to tour more with Bessie, which led to one of our more recent fun memories.
James Nokise presenting Tofiga with the Topp Prize at this year’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival, along with festival director Gemma Gracewood. (Photo: Lewis Ferris)
Though Tofiga had been awarded the Topp Prize at the end of last year, he had yet to be presented with it. By chance, he was booked for this year’s comedy festival as a headline act for the Pōneke House Party, a charity concert for the Wellington mayoral flood relief fund. I also happened to be the MC. Festival director Gemma Gracewood saw a chance for a literal award handover.
Bessie, knowing Tofiga’s humility would make him shy away from such a public ceremony, gathered close family members in secret and snuck them into the audience. After his performance, I kept him on stage while Gemma presented the award, other comedians came on to applaud him, and then his family stood up in the crowd and sang to him, as is our way.
Caught off guard, he cried a little as he gave a quick speech, and I cried a little as I came back to MC, because that is also our way. Thankfully, Tami Nielson closed the show with gloriously powerful vocals, so we all had time to emotionally regulate.
Then, even though it was late on a Sunday night, I emerged from the State Opera House to see my old friend sitting with his family, taking photos with fans.
Spontaneously, and possibly because some of his family are members of Signature Choir, there was suddenly singing in four-part harmony. Tofiga was still in the middle, and other comedians from the show, coming out of the theatre, gathered round to watch a little magic from a community man surrounded by his community. It spoke perhaps to that most basic principle of stand-up comedy: joyful connection.
Awards aren’t everything, but seeing a performer who’s brought joy to so many finally receiving his flowers? Now that’s something to smile about.
James Nokise is a two-time Billy T James Award nominee, 2014 O’Reilly Award winner, 2019 Fred Award winner, and the 2024 Topp Prize winner.
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