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.
Monday 13 February. The classic. The lights go down. Boycie drops the lights and brings up the music introducing the MC for the night – Steve Wrigley. The room breaks into applause. Steve Wrigley comes on stage…
I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was the first night I’d ever been to see Raw Comedy. I’ve been to more Friday and Saturday gigs than I can remember. Even a fair number of Wednesday night gigs. I was excited to see some new faces perform. I have to admit, the sadist in me was looking to see a few colossal bombs, and I was hoping to see some mediocre gear.