24DaysOfGiggles.com -

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:

The show-Count is now at 39
Saw Rhys Darby’s This Way To Spaceship
Met Rhys Darby (probing photos below)
Went to the classic. Met many comics and got over a dozen signatures on the Poster For Charity. Tequila was involved. There was Cider. And a late night walk home
Tried to sneak in the door at 1.45am, dropped the poster tube on the tile floor, attempt failed
Friday I rapped with Des Bishop (You have no idea how much I wish that was an exaggeration)
Saw Gordon Southern
Tried to wait for the late show at the basement, but stumbled home exhausted
SLEEP
Woke Saturday afternoon
Almost turned up late to Class Comedians
Went home, cooked dinner
Saw Cal Wilson’s final show
Saw Brendhan Lovegrove
Stalked out the Apocalypse Party at The Classic. Cheap Cider (no idea how that happened - no complaints)
Late show at the basement. Shots. Girly vodka drinks.
Home. Sleep.
Raw Comedy Quest Final.

Now that the highlights have been covered, let me cover off some of the finer details:

Getting probed with (not by) Rhys Darby:

Rhys Darby’s show This Way To Spaceship is freakin awesome. The show, brings Darby’s classic sense of comedy, and sound effects, opened by the wonderful Steve Hughes had everything a Darby show has expected of it. A great laugh was had by all, especially the people four rows in front of me who WOULD NOT SHUT UP with “DO THE ROBOT” and cheering with the conclusion of every second line, whether it was a punchline or not. God loves your enthusiasm, but save it for church.

Rapping with Des Bishop
Justto clarify, I became the Hype Man at Des Bishop’s show, “Des Bishop likes to bang”. A great show that covers a lot of topics, from the importance of male-self-examination, to the awkwardness of the room when the word “WET” is used. I got to be the unnecessary guy yelling out the random words alongside Rap MC Mix Master Des Bishop.
But I wasn’t the only on-stage extra, someone from Christchurch chose to sing Pokarekare Ana what was basically described as “To be the Chorus from a well known song that everyone can sing along to.” I only had two small issues with this:

I lived in Christchurch for two years, it’s not known for it’s acceptance of racial diversity - I’m fairly confident she didn’t learn that song at school, and in fact learned it from THIS Air New Zealand ad from the 90s.
Anyone who has ever heard a single rap song in their life knows that Pokarekare Ana does not fit into the standard 4/4 beat required for this to work.

After putting my excessive-caucasian-ness on display by having to use the phrase “All the aunties in the crowd say OH YEAH!” I slunk back to my seat to get my poster and head down to the Basement, where I saw:

Gordon Southern’s History of History…

… was an hour of sticker giving fun. I never thought history would provide such great comedic material, and when it didn’t, Gordon’s sampler provided the right track to get a giggle.

The one thing this show needed was a Remote Control for the laptop with the presentation, Gordon. I’ll try to get you one before you leave NZ. I rate it 3.75 Lightyears.

CLASS COMEDIANS SHOWCASE!
The Class Comedians concept is something that’s held my interest since Rhys Mathewson introduced me to it months ago. Now, it would have been inappropriate for me to have gone to the workshops, considering I’m neither a student nor a comedian, and I don’t like handcuffs or restraining orders. So I had to wait until the showcase.

It was worth the wait, because twelve budding comedians came on stage and bought their best to their first ever gig. Congratulations to all twelve who graduated, and to Ravi who won the Nailed It On The Night award. Well done. Well earned.

Cal Wilson is All Ears!

Now, I reviewed this show earlier in the week, and decided immediately afterwards that I simply must see it again. So I did. The upside to seeing 9 shows between both screenings meant I had forgotten most of the punchlines. The downside to seeing 8 shows between both screenings meant that I’d forgotten how the NRI bit had made me gag at the first show. It worked just as well at the last show. I gagged. But had all the pleasure of knowing it was coming.

The downside to this show was there was no exhibit of Cal getting felt up by the sound guy trying to fix a “loose connection”.

Brendhan Lovegrove…

…got his wish: I think he’ll be Buried Happy (his show was called Bury Me Happy - there is no ill-plotting going on). His final show of this season was a sell-out. Mostly new material was bought to the stage, except for the material that was explicitly requested by an audience member. That and PARTY LINES! - You had to be there.

It was an awesome show, though in the stairwell down from the Loft at Q I heard a woman say - I know I shouldn’t have been laughing at some of the stuff - it wasn’t very ladylike. All I can say to that is “LADY! IT’S A BRENDHAN LOVEGROVE SHOW! What else can you expect?”

Late Laughs with Justine Smith

Well. I thought I’d seen Jussi in full form at a late show in the past. Turns out I was dreadfully wrong. This show contained Justine Smith doing shots of Jager, Anil Desai’s impressions, TJ McDonald tearing a wannabe heckler enough metaphorical new ones, that he’s going to have to have metaphorical stitches to use less than a roll of bog-roll per movement. And Jamie Bowen making love to a cable reel. I think that’s enough context.

I can’t recommend late shows enough. The comedians are hilarious, they’ve been chosen for the lineup for a reason. And they do not hold back. And when the hecklers keep going up, they get paired back like a trekkie at a Star Trek Movie Marathon.

Raw Comedy Final

The Raw Comedy final was tonight. I’m going to write a full blog tomorrow, when I have had a chance to collect my thoughts fully, but I do wish full congratulations to Jamaine Ross for winning this year’s Raw Comedy Quest, with his kick-ass performance, and his awesome beard.

Goodnight.

A Short (HA!) summation of my weekend