Kura Turuwhenua: The Hōhā Guy in Aotearoa Comedy
Words by Maia Ingoe (she/her)
Kura Turuwhenua greets everyone who comes to her comedy show with a hug at the door, demonstrating the kind of welcoming, unassuming yet witty, comedy she does.
Kura is an up-and-coming comedian from Tāmaki Makaurau, hailing from Tūhoe, Kāi Tahu, and Ngāti Porou. Hōhā Guy is her solo comedy debut, showing as part of the 2023 NZ International Comedy Festival. I caught up with Kura while she was in Pōneke performing the show to chat about how she stumbled into the comedy scene and what it means to make Māori comedy.
In the Dome theatre at Bats, Kura performs Hōhā Guy from a comfy seat, centre stage, guitar and laptop within reach. There’s a plant, a rainbow flag sitting in a jar, and over the entrance hangs a Tino Rangatiratanga flag. Kura’s set includes jokes about family and parenting siblings, being a nerd at high school, colonisation (“Pōneke Pākehā are built different, aye,” she jokes with a side eye), and singing about having a crush on your bestie before realising you’re actually just gay.
Kura’s comedy journey began just after the first Covid-19 lockdown. “I was just like, oh my god, I cannot sit in my house any longer,” she said. So, she wrote a six-minute set and took it to an open mic night. “It was pretty average, not gonna lie,” she laughs. But it wasn’t so bad that it turned Kura off comedy for good. Starting with an audience of four, she’s now performed to crowds as big as 500 in the Comedy Mixtape.
Getting into comedy was first about persistence, and then about getting noticed. Kura says that her mates in the comedy scene, and connections with other Māori comedians, helped her find a place in the industry. “Having that community of other Māori comedians behind me […] is probably one of the main, if not the only, reason that I've remained in comedy so long,” she said.
Kura tells me about one of her favourite shows, from when she first started becoming recognised in the comedy industry. Titled Pākehā, the hour-long comedy show took place at the Classic Comedy Club in Tāmaki Makaurau. The all-Māori line-up had Kura telling jokes alongside Courtney Dawson, Bailey Poching, and Joel McCarthy. Another favourite show of Kura’s was Shoes Off (At The Door), featuring an all wāhine Māori line up. The season sold out. “Heaps of Māori people came to watch the show. I think now I've hit the point where, you know, I started as a hobby. But now it's gotten to this point where I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can actually do Māori stuff!’” she cheered.
Live comedy is “cathartic”, Kura says. People leave her shows feeling warm, and at ease. Like Kura says, laughing should be “relaxing”. Her comedy style is far from self-deprecating. “It’s very much how I see the world and how other people have shaped me.” This sense of coming together is reinforced with how Kura ends her shows, asking the audience to join her in singing a waiata.
Kura’s comedy not only felt more conversational than other stand-up I’ve seen, but it also felt inherently political—something comedians sometimes avoid in fear of dividing the room. “I find actually looking into politics very boring,” Kura says. “But then, just living in this world, and in my body, it is impossible to be separate from politics.”
Kura says that she likes to be critical and blunt in her humour. It’s based on the worldview she formed through an upbringing at odds with Pākehā New Zealand culture. “My comedy is for Māori people. Pākehā people will get it, they can enjoy it if they’re willing to see it from my perspective. But ultimately, I think it's Māori people that will feel my comedy.”
Catch the full interview with Kura on this week’s Unedited Session on Salient Podcasts, and follow her work on @kumara_chipz on Instagram!