Guy van Egmond ‘When one buys a ticket to a First Nations show, one expects to be gently and respectfully reminded that indigenous people deserve to exist.’ This line came from the end of A Nightime Travesty, in an aside where the performers took the piss out of snooty, white critics. But it was a useful line, because it summed up everything that the show was not.
Jack McGee  Teaching cycle skills at a primary school the other day, I asked a 10-year-old to define integrity for me. She said that “integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching.” This is one of her school values and, as a teacher coming in just for a day, it’s a relief to hear. I can turn my back.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin When the email came in inviting us to review the Heath Franklin’s Chopper, whom I used to watch on Seven Days as a teenager, I became jittery. Oh my god, I thought, doesn’t this guy make low-key problematic jokes? This Boomer-Bogan persona makes me nervous in this day and age. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time voting Green in woke Wellington that I’m afraid of revisiting an icon. They say you should never meet your heroes… and the chance of finding something disappointing when revisiting old male comedians has never been greater.
Jack McGee  Bonetown opens with host Brynley Stent giving an extensive explanation of what it means to conceptually fuck something. This is a show about picking the things you want to fuck the most, but, as Stent points out, that doesn’t mean you should be trying to figure out if you could fit your dick in it. Instead, it’s all about a more profound satisfaction, a sense of catharsis and release. It takes a while to break this all down, but we don’t mind. None of us have got over the absurdity of Stent’s leather devil suit.
Austin Harrison Shoshana McCallum’s Merely Beloved pitches itself as a “compassionate interrogation…of where love goes when we die” written and performed by a kiwi who has literally won an Emmy. Having recently watched and enjoyed TV Three’s Madam and noted McCallum as a co-creator, I was all too eager to see her in action. The show that met me was not what I expected.
Alia Marshall  The chaos fuelled fever dream that is EPIC WAY! I'm Gay? Oui oui faguette™ I LOVE KIM HILL (1999 version) has returned to BATS for the International Comedy Festival after two sellout seasons and several award nominations from the Fringe Festival. Liv Ward and their trusty sidekick, the Lobster, are once again taking us on a journey we shall never forget, led by the effervescent Kim Hill (radio NZ host and certified Lesbiana).
Jack McGee  There’s two Hoani Hotene jokes I want to celebrate straight out the gate. The first, is the title to his show; It’s Getting Hot-ene so Tell Me All Your Jokes. Billy T awards aside, Hotene should be walking home with a joint-win for title of the year (shared with Liv Ward of course). The second joke, is this one. I needn’t describe it, except to say that this one joke proves the necessity of local art.
Jack McGee  Early on in Rebellina, Lesa MacLeod-Whiting professes that the “the vibe tonight, is silly.” She’s not lying. MacLeod-Whiting moves from joke to joke with manic enthusiasm. She swerves from embodying a “petulant Spanish prince-ling”, into jokes about the need for better representation of women keeping secret families, “how can she be it, if she can’t see it?”. She’s so light on her feet that she’s no longer touching the ground.
Guy van Egmond As we sink into the cold and early darkness of winter in Wellington, it’s easy to forget how revitalising a good show is. I wouldn’t so much say that Inverted Citizen’s Revel was a pick-me-up, more like a bolstering, golden elixir that settled, warm and sparkling, long after the final bows.
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin Barnie Duncan’s title of his newest body of work refers to an old term that isn’t in circulation much anymore. His mother would use it to describe things of male-adjacent grubbiness: untrustworthy or inappropriate men, gross mens bathrooms, etc.
Austin Harrison Old Mate is the latest offering from the iconic Josh Thomson. You probably recognise Thomson from The Office Australia, Taskmaster NZ, The Project or, most memorably for me personally, for his extended rants about insignificant subject matter on 7 Days. This is my first time seeing him live, and I am surprised in all the right ways with what I find.
Alia Marshall  After a successful run in the Fringe Festival a few months ago, comedian and award-winning burlesque performer Lily Catastrophe is bringing back her hit variety show Bottom Surgery, which promises to reveal everything we wish to know about The Surgery. Bottom Surgery - a really funny show reminder to have in my calendar - is a mixture of burlesque, stand up comedy, spoken word, and even a little bit of clowning. I was gutted to miss it during Fringe, so I feel super lucky to have the chance to see it this time round and yap about it.
Jack McGee  One of the standout stories of last year's Skuxx Deluxe, was how Keegan Thomas started a fight club as a high schooler. It’s the kind of story you’d overhear at a party and get enraptured by, the perfect blend of self depreciation and unfortunate - yet fully believable - progressions.
|
