Playing up the laughs in A Horse Walks Into A Bar: Humour and Portraiture in Aotearoa, New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata will host an (early) night of stand-up comedy, featuring local comics James Nokise, Mike Fowler, and Samantha Hannah.

Friday 20 February

5:30pm-6:30pm

Tickets free, booking essential

James Nokise is a comedian, theatre maker, and writer whose work is often irreverent but never irrelevant. His inventive and quick-witted political satire took out the Billy T Award in 2019 and continues to delight audiences more than twenty years after his first nomination.

Mike Fowler has shared his observational style of comedy, peppered with a healthy dose of cynicism, in the Wellington comedy scene since 2017. He has made memorable appearances in multiple Fringe Festivals around Aotearoa, and the NZ International Comedy Festival, where he was awarded Best Debut for Wellington in 2019, and Best Up & Comer in the Wellington Comedy Awards 2020.

Samantha Hannah has brought houses down in laughter from her native Scotland all the way to here in Pōneke Wellington. Weaving vulnerable storytelling with punchy observations, her charming stand-up was recently nominated for the 2026 Billy T Award.

Images provided by the Humourous Arts Trust