Comedy fest review: Tessa Waters in Over Promises

What an utter fucking delight. Such a joyous wonderful, feel-good, bizarre funny show. This is a show I’ve been struggling to think of how to review. Because to reveal too much would be to spoil it.

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Comedy fest review: Tony Woods

I was nervous about this show. I’d heard that Tony’s performance in the gala had gone to places that I’d probably not be a fan of and so I approached it with some trepidation. I left with a feeling of delight and joy.

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Comedy fest review: Gordon Southern in Long Story Short

Gordon Southern is a polished, slick comic. His show, Long Story Short, is a rollicking hour of puns, raps, gags, stories, frenetic energy, sound and light and one of the most delightfully likeable comics I’ve seen.

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Comedy fest review: Joel Hansby & Josh Davies in Dorkward

There’s awkward comedy where we cringe because of the awfulness. Think Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm or Ricky Gervais in his entire life

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Comedy fest review: Paco Erhard in 5 Step Guide to being German

Some friends and I were discussing what we would expect to see from Paco Erhard’s show “5 Step Guide to being German”.

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Comedy fest review: Brendon Green in Best Friends

I saw Brendon Green in the 2014 Comedy Festival in Some More Mr Nice Guy, and it was one of the most well written shows I had ever seen. Brendon danced us backwards and forwards, weaving call-backs and flash-forwards with a deftness far exceeding his age as a comic.

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Reverend Horton Heat: Effortless brilliance

The Rev is a band I have wanted to see for, I dunno, 10 years now?

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Comedy Festival Review: Red Bastard

Whew. This is going to be tricky. And possibly a bit of a wanky review. So for that I apologise.

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Comedy fest review: Angela Barnes in Come As You Are

Angela Barnes has, in her promo material, the sentence “The best mainstream female comedian I’ve seen since Sarah Millican” and the word mainstream makes me pause.

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Comedy Fest review: James Acaster in Reset – world premiere

James Acaster is going to be a very expensive comic to see next time he comes back to New Zealand. I fully expect him to be at the Opera House charging like $50 to see him. And he’d be worth it. Because this was one of the best comedy festival shows I’ve had the fortune of seeing.

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Comedy Fest review: Rose Matafeo in Finally Dead

When we settle ourselves in for Rose’s show there’s an organist playing, it’s the soundtrack of just about every funeral you’ve ever been to and is a nice touch to what is an entertaining, funny, yet somewhat frustrating hour of comedy.

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Comedy fest review: Jeremy Elwood in Three night stand

Jeremy Elwood is basically Mr New Zealand comedy at this point in his career. He is so polished, so professional that investing in his show is practically a sure thing, and Three Night Stand doesn’t disappoint.

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Comedy fest review: Laura Daniel in Pressure makes diamonds

Laura Daniel is probably the most likable comic I’ve seen on stage in some time. It’s a personality characteristic that is often neglected by comics, but for Laura I’m pretty sure it’s natural and just down to a charismatic, charming and funny persona.

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Comedy fest review: Neel Kolhatkar in Neel before me

“Don’t let his internet celebrity deceive” says part of Neel’s promo material, and I have to confess I didn’t actually know who Neel was before I went and saw his show.

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Comedy fest review: Lords of Strut in Chaos

I cannot emphasise enough how the marketing for Lords of Strut does not capture what you will see.

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Comedy fest review: Beth Vyse in Funny as Cancer

Write what you know. That’s what they tell you when you start doing comedy. Beth Vyse got breast cancer, so she’s written about that. And it’s funny as hell.

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Comedy fest review: Marcel Lucont’s Whine List

Marcel Lucont’s was one of the shows I was most looking forward to this festival. He’s won a tonne of awards recently and everyone raved about him at his most recent trip here a couple of years ago.

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Comedy Fest Review: Arj Barker in Get in my head

I saw Arj Barker for the one and only time in a gala show a few years ago. I wasn’t that impressed with his ‘surf rock’ comedy then, but the thing with gala shows is that you get a 5 minute slice of a comedian’s repetoire.

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