Posts tagged Creative Sidekick

Last night a packed Comedy Chamber witnessed the last but one of The Axis of Awesome’s show in Auckland.

I have heard and read a lot about this comedy rock trio during the first week of the festival but have avoided youtubing so as not to spoil the surprise, and I knew enough to know they sounded rocking.

My expectations were met, and some as they were, well awesome.

The group came on to the stage apologising for the lack of pyrotechnics, lights and animatronic dinosaurs and began thier hour set of comedic songs and clever musical comedy.

They are phenomenal musicians and applause comes as much for their musical prowess as their comedy.  Their banter is sharp, sometimes within songs and  sometimes in between, but always hilarious. Their keyboardist takes the brunt of the on stage ribbing due to him being a little shorter than the others.

The show makes fun of all our favourite pop and rock clichés expertly imitating styles and well known songs.

Probably their most famous song is the Youtube hit ‘4 Chords’ which gets a huge reaction from the crowd.

This show was great fun and they are definitely at the top of their game in this genre of entertainment, it’s no surprise they have had such huge worldwide success.

I would happily have watched the whole show again so it’s a good thing you can buy a CD after the show, something to play in the car on the way home ;).

The Axis Of Awesome play their final show Sat 5 May!

Ben Hurley presented a night of new talent from New Zealand last night at the Loft at Q Theatre.

Unfortunately the room was not full but those of us that were there were up for a laugh, and for supporting up and coming comedy.

Ben Hurley is a seasoned performer so he is at ease both on the stage, and with chatting to the audience, which included a chat with with me! After a short warm up he introduced the first new act of the night.

There were four comedians on, the first of which was Sanjay Patel whose dead pan delivery had everyone giggling. Unfortunately as a newbie to NZ I missed some of the pop culture references but I enjoyed his on stage persona and slightly surreal subject matter. Sanjay has a show at the festival called At Last The 2011 Show on until 5 May at Brooklyn Bar.

Next up was the youngest comedian I think I have ever seen, just turned 18 Lewis Dean was confident and had some good material and stage demeanour. I am sure he will go from stretch to strength and get over the stigma of being a comedian who likes Hamilton. 

Following Lewis was Pax, a naturally comedic  person who used his body movements and physicalities in his act to make us laugh which included some tips on how to get out of a fight by looking a bit ‘rapey’.

Finally Guy Williams, our last comedian, was on stage. He worked his slightly geeky image well and was my favourite of the night. I found him to be clever and original mixing excellently delivered jokes with more random visual ones.

He is confident on stage and of his material, which came effortlessly from his lacklustre attempt at audience interaction, comments on moving to Auckland and understanding the global financial crises through the extortionate price of cheese. I definitely wanted to see more from him.

Luckily for me, and everyone else, Guy also has his own show at the festival called On the Verge of Nothing 14 - 19 May at The Classic.

Ben Hurley will be presenting another New Faces on Sat 5 May and will also be performing in a show with 7 Days co-star Steve Wrigley - Live & Unleashed 15 - 19 May at Q Theatre.

This show was part of the NZ International Comedy Festival.

Where do I even start talking about last night’s Jason Byrne stand up show People’s Puppeteer at the Q Theatre in Auckland .

It was a chaotic, rampant laughter fest which fell in to disarray and resulted in pure comedic genius and aching sides.

Entering the stage as a huge puppeteer Jason Byrne proceeded to  Irish dance across the stage as the merry crowd wooped, cheered and clapped almost all the way through!

I don’t think I have ever been to a comedy show when I wasn’t sure what just happened, almost an hour and a half passed where I laughed from start to finish at various absurdities, the likes of which New Zealand was seeing for the first time.

The aptly titled show People’s Pupperteer saw the Irish comedian man handle some of his fellow Irishman and use three audience members as a human xylophone ( I won’t tell you where his struck his batons!).

He interacted and joked with his audience who became part of the show both on and off the stage. What Jason found particularly peculiar during this inaugural New Zealand performance was to be  asked to share his drink with a thirsty audience member for the first time in his performing career.

He was grunted and moaned at by various nationalities and appeared truly mystified  at the apparent inability of an Irishman to communicate with Kiwi after various miscommunication and what he called the ‘unnecessary’ noises that came out the people’s mouths.

The breaking point at which he may of thought we were all playing a joke on him was the when a man shouts out ‘Umbrella’ believing it to be slang for condoms.

Through all this he does manage to also tell some hilarious and raw anecdotes covering such personal topics as an ‘itchy bum’ and having sex while wearing an eye patch. He  jumps and leaps about the stage often laughing and giggling at his own crazy creations.

He is an infectious force with provocative material and an innate ability to puppeteer his audience like no comedian I have ever seen.

Jason Byrne is performing as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival at the Q Theatre until 5 May.

BOOKINGS: 093099772