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

Reviews

Tui Christie: Gifted

23/5/2019

Comments

 

Kate Norquay

Tui Christie is an eighteen year old comedian with a lot of energy and even more talent. Gifted is her debut solo comedy show. Performed in front of a small audience in the Studio at BATS, Christie delights us with jokes about her family, becoming an adult, and the meaninglessness of life itself.
A lot of Christie’s jokes centre around her age. She is only 18, which gives her a unique perspective. Christie talks about teenage angst and the existential dread of growing older with a mix of self deprecation and sincerity that forms her style.

Two of Christie’s strengths are charisma and energy. She makes you smile as soon as she walks onstage, and she banters effortlessly with the audience. The show I saw featured the cutest audience interaction I’ve seen all Comedy Fest, with Christie’s mum making sure she noticed her cousins were sitting in the back.

From the show’s marketing, I was expecting a more coherent storyline throughout her set. The tagline is, ‘In her life as a gifted student, Tui Lou Christie has been to approximately 436 history lessons and exactly 0 self-help seminars.’ I was excited for this theme, ready for jokes about the expectations or pressures of growing up gifted, or our failing education system. Most of all, as a fan of Christie’s work, I was keen to see her challenge herself to work within a narrative.

Instead, Christie jokes that another name for her show could have been ‘Every Joke I Have’, and acknowledged there was going to be some repeated material. There are still enough fresh jokes to keep the loyal fans entertained, but I was disappointed to hear quite a few jokes I had heard from her performances in ensemble shows.

However, Christie does play a lot with comic form in Gifted. She performs comedic monologues in character, reads to us from an adult colouring book, and invites an audience member up onstage to perform a skit. The colouring book is a particular highlight. Christie has created her own illustrations based on the struggles of adult life, such as shower mould, repressed homosexuality, overpriced coffee that we drink to get through our soul crushing jobs. This was such a unique twist on Christie’s ‘adult life sucks’ shtick and very entertaining.Christie has the charisma and creativity to pull off any type of set and I’d love to see her do more new material and mix up her style.

Opener, Sowmya Hiremath warms up the audience with jokes about her experiences dating and looking for housing in Wellington. Hiremath has great energy and sets the tone for the rest of the show. She could enunciate and emphasise her punchlines with more vigour to make sure the audience hears every word, as she is very funny.  

Tui Christie’s Gifted is such a fun show, and a truly fantastic debut. Christie has the audience in hysterics throughout. My boyfriend, who traditionally is unimpressed by the shows I take him to, described Christie as ‘funny as fuck’: an unprecedented endorsement. If you’ve never seen Christie perform, and you want to check out the up-and-coming talent in Wellington, get yourself to her show.

Gifted is playing at Bats Theatre until Saturday 25th of May. You can find tickets here. ​
Picture
Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

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

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    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
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory