Comedian Anisa Nandaula's first impression of NZ: ‘This is like Australia, but a lot nicer'

NZ Herald

26-04-2025

'Rockhampton, it's like a farming town. It's not diverse whatsoever. So whenever I saw a non-white person, it really like warmed my heart. I think the first one I saw [that] was mixed black and white [was] a cow. But it still warmed my heart. So that's the level of Caucasianess in Rockhampton.'
At the age of 8, she made the move to Australia with her single Muslim mother. The only thing she knew about Australia was Steve Irwin, she says.
'I expected that everyone was going to be rich and I thought the minute that I landed in Australia I would have $1 million in my bank account. Like that's what I thought would happen.
'And no, that obviously wasn't the case, but I was still in awe of everything like the roads were perfectly smooth. So many McDonald's.
'When I got here, the kangaroos looked a lot sadder than they did on TV... The koalas looked about the same because they're just expressionless.'
In her set, she recounts the story of seeing a redhead for the first time at her primary school. But the feelings didn't appear to be reciprocated, she says.
'I'd never seen someone with freckles. I'd never seen someone with bright orange hair. I was so mesmerised by him, so I couldn't stop staring at him. I also think that it was, I guess, an introduction into Australian life because he was not so happy to see me, but I was very happy to see him and learning to navigate that relationship.'
It was through those challenges and bizarre incidents that she managed to find humour 'to survive and to stay sane'.
'Like I remember we were at Woolworths and my mum was telling the lady in the line that there's no Africans in this town whatsoever and the lady was like, 'yes, there is, my son goes to school with a black boy, there he is'.
'And then we turned around and my brother comes walking up. Yeah, you just have to laugh. So I think it made me funny and humour is the way that I deal with life.'
Nandaula has been nominated for best newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and will perform three Auckland shows for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival during May.
Although her show is called You Can't Say That, audiences can expect she 'will be saying all the things in the funniest way possible'.
'I guess an example for me is I went to school in Australia and teachers would always come up to me and say 'no hat, no play'. I was like, 'I'm black, go away', and I'm pretty sure I can say that.'
She recently quit her job at a bank, which she says she's happy to have done because she can now make jokes about her experiences there.
'It was a very difficult choice to make. I remember talking to my manager and my manager was like, 'yeah, you should quit' [but] I just could not pull the plug.
'It took so long, and I was very lucky to get the TV show Taskmaster and then my manager was like you'd be crazy to keep staying in your job. So yeah, it was a lot of fear.'
Previously, she had another creative job, working as a poet but she shifted from that about six years ago when work dwindled during the pandemic. She thought she would give comedy a crack – transforming the same material about race and identity into comedy gold.
'I think it's just the ability to make people feel joy. It's such a powerful and special feeling. It's really unexplainable to say something that will instantly change someone's mood and make them feel joyful.
'The comedy club is like a space of escapism for me, for the audience, it's beautiful.'