• theatre
  • features
  • glimpses
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • glimpses
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

Ray Shipley: All This Crying is Making Me Hungry

10/5/2019

0 Comments

 

Austin Harrison

Picture
This week, nestled on the top floor of BATS Theatre, Ray Shipley brings us what is possibly the best little comedy show in Wellington. Within two minutes of the show beginning, Shipley has an audience member literally snorting with laughter and acknowledges it by saying, “All laughs are welcome here”. This is very much the tone of the show. Shipley is mind-bogglingly comfortable in their own anxiety and somehow cripplingly and charmingly self-aware all at the same time.

​Shipley introduces the show as “a romcom in stand-up form for their girlfriend,” and what follows is a hilarious and honest sharing of titbits from Shipley’s life. The Billy T award nominee lives and breathes in the moment and leaves no action, reaction or punchline without comment. The Studio at BATS is a perfect venue for this comfortably intimate show with forty-ish audience members packed into a little white box, to share in an hour of unadulterated giggles. At the end of the show, Shipley amends their initial ‘romcom’ description, saying it “just wound up being a show about my Mum, and my relationship with shame,” which seems a fitting correction with the latter becoming a key feature of the show. There is something truly refreshing about a comic who is self-deprecating without being cruel to themself.


The tech for the show is very simple. Shipley is lit by soft pinks, holds a mic in one hand, and has one sound cue at the very conclusion of the show. That’s it. The simplicity of the tech (operated by Bekky Boyce) reflects the simplicity of the show. It’s a stand-up show which is warm, intimate and hilarious; never complicated. I can’t help but feel that any extravagant tech would only get in the way, as it often can in comedy shows, and I admire Shipley for having the confidence to strip it all back and just do what they are so very good at.

I am reluctant to give away too much of the content of the show because I sincerely hope that everyone comes to see it, but I will say that it contains the most hilarious road-cone based set I have ever heard, and I will never look at Christchurch airport the same way again. I leave the theatre after what feels like only a few minutes, as an hour of top-draw comedy has flown by, and march directly across the road to BK. All this laughter has made me hungry.

All This Crying is Making Me Hungry is on a BATS 9-11 May. Grab your tickets on the BATS site, or for more information on other shows in NZ International Comedy Fest, visit the NZICF website.

​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Storytelling
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights