Who Am I? I'm Yvan. A.K.A. Dave, because it's hard to explain quickly to someone on stage how to pronounce my first name. You'll see me around some comedy gigs every few days. I'll be doing giveaways through the Facebook and Twitter pages up to, and during the festival.
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“Sale Street!” RAW Heat 2 – 12 March -
A late-arriving crowd managed to pack out the main room at the classic this Monday. A big juicy lineup of 11 acts, MC’d by the well-versed Rhys Mathewson. I have started to recognise a few faces in the crowd, some of regular audience members, and some performers, not so subtly checking out the competition. The evening kicked off well. An interesting front row led the MC to get gently brainwashed, before receiving the revelation that he’s no sexual threat. We learnt some interesting things about Invercargill, and there was a little bit of flashing-talk.
Our opening act was a bit of a cold-starter, though it was evident he wasn’t a fan of the tardiness of the audience. He delivered a good speech, which the final third of the audience, who tried to sneak in well after the lights went down, could do with hearing. It’s a shame he was on first, and most of them missed it.
Our next act was the worst attempt at being racist I’ve ever seen. Possibly for comedic offence, this act who may do well as a creative product designer for sanitary products, managed to somehow lose my respect for an aircraft, and I’d not recommend him for a PR job at Air New Zealand.
The next person managed to start off to a cold room as well, though I’m not sure how much of that was as a result of the previous act. The room didn’t warm much, as this act stated he was specifically trying to offend every person in the room. Not the best idea, when you’re trying to win a competition. Unless it’s for “New Zealand’s Next Top Broadcaster”. He did mention the ultimate rejection, but by then my brain had fallen asleep.
Racist Gandalf (see blog 1) made his second appearance, bringing out a level of smut that I’d not expected, but at least this time he wasn’t deliberately trying to offend everyone, perhaps he received some feedback last time. No laptop this evening but verbatim script on printed paper. I do wonder what’s next for him, but I look forward to hearing of the email to the wonderful Scott Blanks asking for a TelePrompTer to be installed. Fuck me senseless, he did manage to bring up the topic of masturbation very early in the set though.
Our next act was brilliant. Not as fantastic as his first show, he still blew me away with his confidence and performance. The sleeping tips for married men were filed away for my future, and he revealed just how nice it feels to be missed by loved ones. I was very impressed by the fact that this comedian managed to get in come religion based material out, without pointing out the fact that some people weren’t going to like it. I liked that. After introducing some fantastic new advertising campaigns for a particular government department and giving me a new mindset around drink spiking, he left the stage with the biggest applause of the night thus far.
The last act of the first half did do some of the best cat impressions since I got a balloon stuck in my vacuum cleaner. He managed to walk a very fine line comparing particular species of animal, to his beloved, and the only advice I can give, is make sure she’s not in the room before you pull out this material. I’m wondering if comedy doesn’t work out, if he could pimp out his promiscuous kitty, but perhaps in a neighbourhood where the animals don’t sound like weed whackers. A very tight set.
After the break we were greeted with rural based jokes, and geek jokes that might just rival a particular Dr S Hawking. They did get a little technical, but it might be important to remember that after a few drinks, the audience might not pick up on a forty syllable five word punch-line. There were a few zoological jokes that fell flatter than a cow pat on a high speed treadmill, but I think the super science orgy might have bought this act into the favour of the geeks in the crowd.
Some global comedy from Number seven, who broke out the best Ringo Starr impression I’ve heard in years. This comic made the audience think of exactly what they would wish on the people they didn’t like. After a remake of a popular children’s TV program, this comedian left the stage with great rapport with the audience, and some great impressions made.
The next act who claimed it was his first time on stage, blew me away. With his music reviewing skills ranging from Minaj to Mars, I’m a little bit disappointed that Toto weren’t covered, but overall very impressed with this comic who had a couple of flops but navigated them superbly in an overall very tight, very impressive set.
There was one particular act who asked the MC to introduce him (not inaccurately) as an arsehole. The spastic-esque twitching that followed this act leaping onto the stage (in his impersonation of an arsehole) made me wonder if the owner of said orifice wasn’t sure if it was OK to sneeze. An interesting act who left the impression that his goal-setting for the day was at least originally, accurate. I might suggest this person’s superpower could be knowing when to leave the stage.
A brilliantly placed person, in the perfect career for generating funny stories managed to pull out the perfect ratio of fart jokes. He also managed to relate that relief teaching is much like performing standup, because you get to stand in front of a room of people and try to keep their attention. A lot of potential, but I feel sorry for this comedian’s first heckler. I’m a little disappointed that nobody in the audience got asked “Are you chewing?!”
The last act of the evening could certainly find a good career in prop-comedy of stand-up doesn’t work out so well. A comedian who managed to dip his toes over the line with a bit of pedo-comedy (a very dangerous and fine line), after his material covering all fetishes from inverse bestiality to necrophilia, I might hire him as the entertainment for my next orgy, from behind a splash guard.
In summary it was a very interesting, and in some cases, very polarised night of comedy. I was a little hurt when someone reading out the Bio for Rhys Mathewson’s show “Rhys Mathewson vs The World”, playing at the Basement Studio 8:45pm in week two, could possibly be the best promotion he’s going to get, so this whole paragraph are links to his show. BUY TICKETS TO HIS SHOW!
Some lessons learned from this week:
- Timeliness of the audience is important. The comedian standing on stage might not be able to see you, but they can sure hear you squealing and giggling at your friends when you first meet them in the auditorium. It’s not TV. They can hear you.
- It turns out that we had a TJ McDonald fan in the lineup, since a near-verbatim joke popped out from someone.
- Last week’s blog didn’t get posted. I scheduled it to post, and didn’t save it, and it didn’t go up. I’m sorry :(. But if you want feedback, by all means, email me on yvan@24daysofgiggles.com and I’ll consult my notes.
- It’s important to learn the difference between controversial material, and deliberately trying to piss everyone off. When you’re a comedian, you’re begging for the praise of the room. Turning them against you will get you nowhere, fast.
- I need to find out how to get in on Comedy Bingo.
- Don’t be afraid to walk off a minute ahead of your time. Because if the audience are sensing you’ve run out of gear, they will turn on you. Work hard. Make it look effortless. And leave on a high – where possible.
