May 2012
29 posts
Monkey Business
This was certainly one of the most memorable shows of the festival, because I never knew what was coming next. This show was an hour-long that let you know that when “you unleash the monkey within…anything is possible”. This show performed by two independently brilliant comedians bought me close to some of the biggest laughs of the festival. Quite a feat considering I’d...
Tom Furniss' Free Ice Cream Show (@TomFurnissNZ)
So, Tom Furniss is another of this year’s Billy T Nomninees. This deceptively charismatic young man manages to express his talents for making people laugh, generally with a blindsiding punchline.
Going into this show I had two things on my mind:
Is he going to be funny
Will there be free ice cream, as the title suggests.
OK, so maybe not in that order. But that’s the order in...
The link to the Poster For Charity Auction →
Final Show Count
For those who asked, the final show count was 56. Don’t forget to check out the Poster For Charity.
25 April:
Big Wednesday at The Classic
26 April:
5 Star Comedy Preview
27 April:
The Gala
28 April:
Steve Wrigley and Cyan Corwine – Kevin the Musical
Terry Frisby – The Great Frisby Experiment
29 April:
RAW SemiFinal 1
30 April:
Dead Cat Bounce
1 May
Stephen K...
A Small Summary of My Festival
So it’s over. What does this mean? Where do we go from here?
Well, for punters like me, we start getting back to normal with our lives, and wait for the next big thing.
For the awesome Festival Team, including, but far from limited to the wonderful Kylie Aitchison, Lauren Whitney, Spencer Dowson, Debs McKeen, and Kate McGee. These were the five main people I talked to, negotiated with,...
(@NZComedyFest) A Pre-Culmination Note of Love
All,
First of all, thank you to everyone who has supported my goal of the last 23 days. It’s been an awesome ride, and I plan to do a lot of shoutouts in my wrap up blog. Which I do hope will be syndicated on the Comedy Festival website.
Tonight was awesome. I had a blast. Tears pouring down my face, my sides hurt, it was an awesome late show.
I know I’m about 6 blogs behind in...
Clayton Carrick-Leslie's Written about what he...
Clayton Carrick-Leslie has long since been one of my favourite kiwi comedians. In a court of law one might call that Bias, but I call it “Recognising great talent”. This is the third festival show I’ve seen of Clayton’s and once again I was not disappointed.
Clayton’s sense of humour takes the audience on a long satirical ride of impressions, observations, detective...
I want an Encore to Vance Fontaine's career!
I went into this show, honestly not knowing what to expect. I was greeted by a Four Piece band and one of the most impressive beards I’ve ever seen on a drummer (how he didn’t get his brushes caught, I’m not sure).
This show shows the completely improvised career of Vance Fontaine. A kiwi legend who’s done all sorts of interesting things in my life. Some of the things...
Private Dick - An Improvised Film Noir Mystery
It’s really hard to review and rate an improvised show, I’ve come to realise during this festival. But what I have realised is I very much like improv, and virtually anything put on by the Covert Improv group and produced by the delightful Wade Jackson is generally brilliant, because the Covert Improv group are well conditioned to go for anything put in front of them.
The premise of...
Dumped - A Five Star Performance
Of a Tuesday Night, I wouldn’t normally be found in a theatre waiting to see a play. This kind of stage amusement is something new to me, outside of the requisite school productions (I was only ever in one, and I proudly played a tomato - where’s my role on Go Girls?), and the couple of Ballets I saw performed because my cousin was it it.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect,...
Rose Matafeo - Scout's Honour (@Rose_Matafeo)
Rose Matafeo’s show started off with a twist I’ve not seen before. I’ve never seen a performer of a comedy show on stage as the audience comes in (unless the audience is late, of course). I even got a cute badge with an adorable kitty!
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In theme with the name of the show I was quite impressed with the “Bling” us brave ones in the front row got to take home,...
Fundraiser for charity - @ChildCancerNZ
You may have read in my guest-blog on the comedy festival website that I have a gigantic A0 Comedy Festival poster which I’m going to get signed by as many performers in the festival, and then I shall run an auction on TradeMe for the poster’s sale.
The charity I have chosen is the Child Cancer Foundation. Not only are cancer charities very worthy of the support they can get, they are one of the...
Guy Williams is On The Verge of Nothing...
… Except possibly a very bright career in comedy. This comedian, also nominated for the Billy T award. Doing his own intro, Williams managed to do his own introduction, in which he quoted a review, which I probably would have agreed with at the time it was written.
Williams managed to easily pull off the best awkward low energy show I’ve seen since Hannah Gadsby, deliberately slowing...
Knock Knock! Who's there? Tevita Manukia!
The first night of a season is always hard for a comedian. Especially if they’re up for a Billy T award. And I can imagine it’s doubly hard if they haven’t been able to pre-run their season in Wellington .
An interesting performance from Tevita who won the Most Improved award at the Comedy Guild Awards last year, in a show that only lasted about 40 minutes, a surprising turn...
A Short (HA!) summation of my weekend
Evening all,
Sorry this is a tremendously late blog, I realise I’ve not blogged about a show since thursday night when I blogged about Wednesday’s shows.
Thursday night was weird, got home about 2am friday, and had to do my day job (I have one). Here’s what I’ve been up to since we last spoke:
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The show-Count is now at 39
Saw Rhys Darby’s This Way To...
@JeremyElwood's Political Animal Volume 1
Thanks to Jeremy Elwood I have two signed copies of Jeremy’s Book, which are some of his selected blogs from his Political Commentary between 2009 and 2010.
If you’d like to be in to win, email me at contest@24daysofgiggles.com with the subject line “Political Animal”, before midday monday!
@BrendonGreen - Everything Is Meaningless And...
I’m not sure what to say about a 28 year old man with an excessive affinity for Taylor Swift except possibly “Steve Wrigley Junior - With a guitar”.
An interesting hour with some of the most creative lyricisms I’ve seen for quite a while, I could possibly see this show being somewhat like if Jimmy left Dead Cat Bounce to pursue a solo career.
An excellent hour in a...
Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers
The opening night of this show with three fantastic NZ Comedians, introduced by the musical stylings of one Gabriel Page (forgive me, and correct me if I spelled that name wrong).
It was a show I’d been looking forward to for a while, having seen Boycie and Jamie perform in the past. I’d never seen Tim Batt perform before, but had heard many good things, so I assumed I was on a good...
@JussiSmith and @IreneCPink in The Pitch
After interviewing both Irene Pink and Justine Smith earlier this year I wasn’t sure what to expect, but knowing these two ladies and how they perform, I was very interested to see them slammed together at high speed with a script in the middle, and seeing what came out of that creative explosion.
I was giggling from the get-go, at one point doubled-over in the most painful silent laugh...
Cal Wilson is All Ears! (@Calbo)
Last night Cal Wilson opened her first NZ International Comedy Festival show in over ten years at The Basement. Wilson’s typical effervescence was on display from the second she peeked around the curtain, and she immediately had the crowd in the palm of her hands.
Technical problems aside (Yarr That’ll teach you to deviate from the standard talking stick!) this show had an awesome...
Terry Alderton in Review - (@TerryAlderton)
Wow! What an awesome Scratch-and-sniff extravaganza.
A show I was almost late for, thanks to a technical misunderstanding thinking the show started at 8pm instead of 7, had me turn up with two minutes to go, and slide into a fifth-row seat for a world renowned comic that I had been looking forward to seeing for the last two years, but I couldn’t afford to go last year. It was worth the wait.
A...
Mr Boon's Fairytales - Not just for kids...
It was 11am. I’ve just woken up and arrived at the Q Theatre - at an hour I haven’t seen since this 24 Day project started. Though the walk in music was amusing, the fact that the same song repeated until the show started led me to want to penetrate my eardrum with a sharp object.
My feelings toward the opening music aside, I had seen more than a few kids dancing away, while Mr Boon...
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Letter from a lawyer
Good Afternoon,
Today when I checked my post box, I noted I’d received a letter from a Lawyer.
Concerned, I opened it up.
And inside were two double-passes to Clayton Carrick-Leslie’s Auckland showcase of “Write about what you know” on the 16th of May!
If you want to be in to win, here’s how you can:
TWITTER: If you’re on twitter, tweet @24daysofgiggles...
Munfred Bernstein's Cabinet of Wonder (@MunfredB)
Last night’s performance from Munfred Bernstein (that’s Jamie Bowen) was a most interesting tale from what, in the real world, would usually be referred to as “an old kook”, and in this instance I’m not sure that label would be entirely inappropriate. But I can honestly say I loved it.
This show combined some of the best traits around: Audience interaction, Rocking...
3 Shows, One Review (@UrzilaCarlson)
Last night I went to shows Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen of the festival for me. I’ve spent most of the day once I woke up trying to work out how to review them. I’ve decided that it’s very difficult to review two of the shows for the following reasons:
Improv shows are different every night, so the show I review is not going to be the show you see
Ben Hurley’s New...
Billy T Nominee - TJ McDonald (@TJ_McDonald)
TJ McDonald is a 28 year old who has made a lot of mistakes in his time. I can relate. I’m a 23 year old, who’s also made a lot of mistakes. The difference is, while mine can cause me to fall into a death spiral of depression and tim tams, TJ McDonald has turned his into a Billy T Award nominated show that garners big laughs from the crowd.
The only show I know of without an actual...
Jan Maree - Hairy Today, Gone Tomorrow...
Jan Maree’s show Hairy Today Gone Tomorrow is the journey of one woman, through lots of different challenges. Be they getting out of New Zealand for the World Cup, going to a country where you don’t speak the language, and trying to find parts of your history - and almost missing your flights, or discovering that, in fact, other people CAN see your moustache.
This is a surprisingly...
Jeremy Elwood's Time Bomb (@JeremyElwood)
A fantastic night was continued by going to see political animal Jeremy Elwood and hear his feelings and views on the alleged impending doom that is December 21, 2012. Differing extensively from your stock-standard Stand-Up show on many levels, Elwood managed to bring dozens of different concepts and ideas and condense them into one hour of hilarity, without the agenda of trying to offend...
Stephen K Amos
Stephen K Amos’ agenda is simple. Its to make people laugh. Something he has been doing very successfully for many many years. This magnificent example of the best UK Comedy has to offer, welcomed us to his audience and looked more than a little concerned when he spotted a 16 - and then a 10 year old in the audience. Poor Ben. I can guarantee he learned some things that night, and I...
