TVNZ May 2011

By tvnz.co.nz's Darren Bevan Published: 10:31AM Wednesday May 04, 2011 Email this article Print this article Text size+- Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Related 12:40 Comedy Fest 2011 Review - Ben Hurley Comedy Fest 2011 Review - Danny McChrystal Read more Comedy Fest 2011 reviews Not even tornadoes could keep them away from the return of Jeremy Elwood last night.

In a packed out part of Auckland's Basement, the long haired comic took to the stage with little fanfare and gave the audience something to think about for an hour.

Politicians and the dumb things we humans do formed the basis of show uncommon sense - but it was a show nearly thwarted by world events.

Jeremy's hypothesis is that we all do stupid things but that source material was thrown into question by the fact over the last six months, we've been capable of some great humanity following natural disasters.

As he paced the stage extolling his admittedly cynical world view, there was a feeling some of it was lost on the audience who mainly sat there quietly.

And a couple of comments about Christchurch, balanced as they were with a lot of love for the city, skirted a little close to the audience's tolerance suggesting it's possibly still too raw in our minds.

But there was plenty to chew on mentally and some wonderful moments throughout.

I think this is one thing Jeremy's excelled at - he's always had an acidic and sharp intelligent humour which you have to keep up with. And that's no bad thing. I quite enjoyed some of the smarter lines about natural selection and how driving and texting would have naturally died out - there's something quite impressive about punchlines and thoughts which challenge you and play on your mind as the show goes on.

It's perhaps telling that when he took up his guitar at the end of the show and belted out a few numbers, the audience found their laughter a little easier to give.

For a thought provoking night, you can't go better than Mr Elwood - his sly smile as he delivers the crackling pinchlines belies a clever comic who really does deserve to be seen - he cuts through the usual comedy bluster with a wry stab of intelligence and it's very welcome.

Jeremy Elwood Thinks Too Much

Jeremy Elwood is a man. He is a man who feels he thinks too much. Tonight our comedian is wearing a white t-shirt and black trousers, teamed with black pointy shoes. I feel confident about his masculinity as he is drinking beer on stage and making jokes about Hamilton.

However, my initial prejudice proves totally confounded, as – apart from a minor struggle with his computer at the beginning – Elwood gives us a polished intelligent performance.

Unexpectedly, Elwood's show is an extended comic argument for the right of the individual to avoid categorisation, and to be seen as more than merely a demographic number. Ironically, it becomes apparent that I need to look beyond my initial judgment of him as a stereotypical male comedian, and recognise him as that truly individual thing: a comedian capable of transforming a meditation upon old age into an extended plea for the serious consideration of euthanasia.

I especially enjoy his warning about advertising companies who use patriotism as selling point. As he reminds us, New Zealand is still a fantastic country, but no place on earth is 100% pure.

Now, this is quite complex stuff for a late night comedy show, so to enable those confused (me) or drunk (the guy up the back) audience members to follow his thought processes, Elwood has augmented his show with audio-visual material. The power-point presentation has very helpful subtitles, but also reveals Elwood's enjoyably anarchic sense of the visual ridiculous, particularly in the photo montage highlighting the similarities between the Hollywood and Mosgiel city signage.

I hadn't realised until I came here tonight just how important it is not to sit at the front tables in a comedy show, as random audience members are quizzed as to their origins, and the answers are used as illustrations for racial punchlines. The gentleman who hails from England is thanked for the invention of alcohol, syphilis, and Gallipoli. While it always seems unfair to judge an individual based on their nationality, I think that these are quirky takes on the standard stereotypes. I am particularly impressed by the way that the location and occupations of the audience become part of a narrative.

Elwood asks different audience members a series of questions and weaves together, during his monologue, the answers to his questions: the equivalent of balancing the heavy ball of the central rehearsed comic routine in one hand, while at the same time juggling very fast a series of random balls thrown at him by strangers.

Elwood segues from the opinions of those people who write letters to the newspaper on the evolutionary struggles of stranded whales (I wish I could explain this reference to you, but as I lack the ability, you will just have to go to the show), into politics. Quick John Key bash, then on to extended take on religion, with particular reference to those “bat-shit crazy” American fundamentalists.

But Elwood constantly thwarts my attempts to anticipate and categorise his comedy. He sets up a topic, such as male hierarchy in the Catholic Church – you know, that organisation that discourages contraception, run by men who don't fuck – leading me to expect some post-feminist rant. However, the point he wants to make is that overpopulation is what is going to get us, betraying the environmentalist heart hidden behind the jokes. An easy target for stereotypical humour was glanced at, prodded at a bit, and then extended in an unexpected manner.

Elwood is a comedian who doesn't care what religion you believe in – if it makes you happy and feel good then go for it – but this doesn't mean you can fuck with someone else’s life. I learn something too: apparently Destiny Church opened in Dunedin and then closed immediately!

The show ends on a plea to take pride in yourself and Paul-the-policeman [see Irene Pink review] – still sitting close to the front – gets involved again, as an example of someone who can be proud of what he does. He obviously has a face that calls for audience participation (and there is a possibility neither he nor his wife will risk a live comedy show again).

Spoiler alert: Elwood skilfully collects all these seemingly unrelated strands into a summary proposing three very simple rules which would allow humanity to co-exist in peace. Firstly, allow failure. Secondly, question everything you are told: no-one is born homophobic, people are born open minded. Thirdly, take a step back and think before you react; don't loose it just because someone spills a drink on you. Alert ends.

Thank you Jeremy Elwood. I didn't get all your jokes particularly the one about the Welsh soul singer (?), but the show is full of energy, intelligent, and relevant, with a thematic complexity that I hadn't expected.

I recommend this show wholeheartedly. Elwood is an immensely skilled comic artist, and at the same time a very thoughtful humanist philosopher.

7 Days

September 5-11 2009 Vol 220 No 3617

It’s a gas

by Diana Wichtel

Comedy show __7 Days__ is shaping up to be a sort of emissions-trading scheme for political correctness.

What to do with comedians during a recession? TV3 has come up with 7 Days, something to keep them occupied as they wait to be rejected by TVNZ then given an Emmy-winning vehicle on HBO.

The idea is to take the news of the week and try to make it sound more absurd than it already does. Paul Holmes and Mike Hosking tried it on Prime’s largely comedy-free Out of the Question. National Radio used to have Off the Wire, but the show consistently breached Radio New Zealand’s stringent laugh-per-programme limit by being funny, and it had to go.

7 Days is brought to us by Down Low Concept, the production company that made Off the Wire. The first episode got off to a slow start – it seemed to take seven days to get to the first ad break. This was despite a studio audience prepared to all but ritually disembowel itself with uncontrollable mirth whenever anyone blinked. Which was pretty much all Team One’s Irene Pink did for most of the first half.

Fortunately, improv instincts overcame early awkwardness. Though even this experienced line-up – Ben Hurley, Brendhan Lovegrove, Paul Ego, etc, hosted by Jeremy Corbett – faced a challenging week on the news front. As Team One’s Jeremy Elwood pointed out, “Man robs store and leaves name and address” and “Man eats dog” were almost beyond satire, even by Kiwi current-affairs standards. “Oh, and don’t forget ‘Schoolboys have a fight’,” said Dai Henwood. The rugby brawl proved fertile ground, with Hurley declaring the lack of serious injury demonstrated that not only are we crap at rugby but we can’t fight, either. Corbett worried that during the Tua-Cameron fight, a game of rugby might break out.

When all else failed, there was always appalling bad taste to fall back on. When you weren’t laughing, you were groaning in genuine pain. Suffice to say any vein of toe-curling humour still left in such subjects as Tony Veitch, female body parts, David Bain or Tongans was rigorously mined. “In my opinion,” said Elwood after a bit of this, “television doesn’t have a racism watershed.”

In fact, this show is shaping up to be a sort of emissions-trading scheme for political correctness. Should there be an outbreak of PCness anywhere in the nation, it will be offset by jokes so disgusting (some quite funny) that I am unable to repeat them in a family magazine. This is possibly a public service in an era when National’s new, improved Supernanny State seems set on banishing to the naughty chair everything from the drinking age to taking Codral while texting. Jeremy Corbett: “Hardest hit will be the P addict with a cold.”

The show is organised around a series of games. Some are genuinely intellectually challenging, like the one where they have to guess what a taxi driver is talking about. Who hasn’t struggled with that? Dai Henwood didn’t have a clue. “I just wanted to go to Queen St, mate,” he moaned.

Then there’s “My Kid Could Draw That”, in which a schoolchild interprets one of the week’s events in art. One boy’s stick-figure masterpiece cut to the heart of the schoolboy brawl. “This guy is saying ‘Die!’ because he seems to be very angry, and this guy is saying ‘Oh God!’,” explained the little chap. It made more sense than most of the media commentary to date.

A little girl tackled the dog-in-the-umu scandal. “He looks more like your casual white dog cooker. You’ve got no defence if you’re just a honky dog cooker,” noted Dai, of the drawing. “Honky Dog Cooker,” observed Brendhan Lovegrove. “Now that’s a name for a band.”

Personal favourite: the game in which the teams supplied their own captions to pictures taken from the news of the day. Sample:

Comedian’s suggested caption: “I’m not too old for series five, says Candy Lane.”

Real caption: “Transvestite cult member dresses as Hindu love goddess.”

Well, I thought it was funny. Some of the jokes were as old as … Candy Lane. Many were as lame as we’ve come to expect from local comedy. And it is slightly depressing to realise that the level of debate in this country may actually be more intelligent when conducted on late-evening television by a bunch of professional idiots.

But I was still being ambushed by some of the show’s more random moments the next day – always a good sign. With luck, 7 Days will continue the admirable run TV3 has had with shows like bro’Town and Outrageous Fortune. They’re not high art but they demonstrate that we do indeed have a culture and it’s every bit as preposterous as anyone else’s.

All content ©2003-2009 APN Holdings NZ Ltd. All rights reserved.

7 Days

Best Medicine

His quick-witted, easy narrative is seasoned with plenty of funny cracks on a wide range of subjects, such as the New Zealand military, smoking, Christians, how we should remember how safe we are in our little remote country.

He's got nastier since I saw him a couple of years ago (thank Christ), and is letting his quirkiness run its course, which manifests itself in delightfully convoluted observations - the kind reached only by spending a lot of time with your own thoughts, over-analysing everything (a quality shared by many of my favourite comics).

Land Without Sundays

Land Without Sundays

at Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Auckland Until 2 Aug 2008

Reviewed by Hap Richardson, 24 Jul 2008 (From www.theatreview.org.nz)

The cast of characters in Donna Banicevich Gera's play Land Without Sundays feel so authentic, so convincingly three dimensional, that you could be forgiven for thinking that you walked into West Auckland vineyard in the 1930s.

The star of this play is the words; the language that Gera uses is incredibly sensual, evoking a strong image of this group of Croatian immigrants trying to make their way in what is a testing and sometime hostile environment.

The story centres on Lila, an 18 year old fresh to New Zealand having been betrothed to Miro, a 41 year old vineyard owner toiling on his land to build a life for himself and his family. Lila is played as spirited romantic by Alana Barber, her disappointment palatable that Miro looks somewhat older than his 41 years, and that Henderson has neither the welcoming village life of Croatia nor the modern comforts of the Auckland she experienced on first arrival.

Miro is lovingly (in a tough way) watched over by the spirit of his deceased mother Mara, always ready with her hard won wisdom. One of the many delights of this play is the way in which Darien Takle handles this Matriarch when in full flight, squeezing the juice from every word from Gera's wonderfully poetic wine making and the deeper mystery of life analogies.

Rosa the wildcat neighbor comes upon the scene singing, full of life. Her spirit is wonderfully infectious, she is widowed and was unusually married to an 'English' man. She is played with an intoxicating sexuality by Liz Tierney, as she takes it upon herself to help guide Lila through the many hardships that this new land can have in store for a newly arrived young girl.

Stephan Papps' Miro is a hardworking man, believably honest, endearing enough that it is not too distracting when the actor occasionally slips out of accent.

The juxtaposition with the slightly more established locals comes by way of Nick, the bother in law of Rosa and a worker for Miro, played by Jeremy Elwood. His language does not have the same passion. In contrast he comes across as vulgar; without the salty air of the Adriatic to remember, he has a totally different sense of things good and bad.

Director Cathy Downes has the cast bring the poetry of hardship alive, in a way that I found deeply effecting, finding myself caring enough to shed a tear in some of the more emotional moments.

Land without Sundays - the second in a trilogy that began with Anton's Women - is not an easy ride by any means, the struggle of immigration and settlement faithfully potrayed as it is, I am left remembering the world of Mara "...and love will come". _______________________________ For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News.

Orientation 2008

Orientation 2008

ORIENTATION 2008

The Comedy Night was pretty friggin’ sweet.

Steve Wrigley opened the night with straight-up fucking AWESOME offensive humour. I’m not normally a fan of this, but he does it so well, it doesn’t really matter. In addition, the “crazy drugged-up stories of Kiwis in Amsterdam” is a classic which never fails. Mrs Peacock provided a pretty decent follow up. A two-piece comedic musical outfit, they sung “the second most offensive song” from some award ceremony earlier this year. And made a hilarious indictment on emo music. Perhaps more importantly though, one song featured the word “asshole” sung back and forth in a call and response manner. I doubt the reader needs an explanation of why this is funny.

Cory Gonzalez was probably the weakest act of the night, and the crowd seemed to share my view. However, my somewhat drunken notes do include the line “I’m a rapist.” I do not remember the context. This meets with my approval.

Jeremy Elwood was the best of the night. Any comedian who refers to Kafka is going to do well in my books, but more importantly, he’s hit onto a very important observation: New Zealand culture is funny. I especially liked that he explained this with reference to various foreigners in the audience.

Anyway, the Comedy Night was awesome, and a great way to spend a drunken production night during O-Week. I’ve been to three of the four since I arrived at uni, and am yet to be disappointed (although a non-repeat of “I’ll give this DVD to whoever lets me put my sack on their head” was a little unfortunate ;) ). If you’re free next O-Week, you should totally go.

Comedy Convoy 2007

Christchurch is famous for being the final destination for long tours, be they comedy or music or any other form of entertainment, so that by the time they reach here the acts are either burnt out or fired up.

The performers in this year's Comedy Convoy have been on the road for between three months and three weeks, but quickly made it clear they were fired up for a big final night.

It is hard to say how much of this was because two of the acts were late homegrown replacements – stand-in stand-ups, as it were. One of these was MC Jeremy Elwood, standing in for Mike King who had been sidelined by heart problems. Elwood did a magnificent job. Good enough, indeed, to outshine a couple of the performers for whom he was supposed to be warming up the crowd. With just one other Kiwi on the five-person bill, he was able to tap into local knowledge, including his suggestion that Telecom's supposed broadband service meant New Zealand actively deterred wannabe terrorists setting up shop here because of the glacial upload times for threatening Osama Bin Laden videos.

Not that the first act, former Time Out stand-up comedian of the year Stephen K Amos, was a slouch. He started off with a combination of mincing mannerisms and a thick West Indian accent, only to out himself as hailing from sarff lun'n (south London).

Amos' compatriot, Yorkshireman Alun Cochrane, was a quieter brand of humour, prompting fewer roars from the audience but with a more restrained tone.

Michelle A'Court, the other token Kiwi brought in to boost the homegrown ranks and the other late-notice stand-in, pondered how, as a former women's rights officer from Victoria University in Wellington, she had managed to produce a 14-year-old daughter who was a cheerleader who required special underwear, by the brand name Spanky, to wear in that activity.

Finally there was South Australian Mickey D, who quickly demonstrated why he was the headline act. Whether it was explaining his various arrests in Australia and the United Kingdom, or explaining how Australians went nuts over the death of Steve Irwin, his timing was superb.

At the end of the show when punters were shuffling out of the theatre, D and Amos continued, with the former wobbling naked across the stage as the audience shuffled out.

"If anyone is reviewing this," they said as they continued the impromptu performance, "this didn't happen."

Corporate Feedback

Corporate Feedback

Corporate Feedback

On behalf of the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA), we wish to thank you for doing an outstanding job as MC for the annual national conference held in Auckland on 15-17 November, 2006. As you know, this was a significant event for our organisation and, as MC, you provided the continuity across the three days and four cities worth of presentations, field trips and social activities.

Time keeping and delivering key messages to the 200-plus delegates present were critical at this conference to ensure we were able to stick to our challenging programme. Your role in delivering these key messages was essential to the success of our conference and to the smooth running of what was a challenging programme.

We were thoroughly impressed with your ability to consistently handle last minute changes, stick to task and deliver messages with good humour, calmness and a high level of professionalism, even under significant pressure.

We would not hesitate to recommend you to others needing a professional MC or to engage your services again for future events.

We wish you all the best and thank again for assisting us with the NZRA annual national conference.

Yours sincerely

Brendon Ward Andrew White

Chief Executive Conference Convenor

Comedy Of Fear and Hatred

HE IS GOOD!

Show Review Jeremy Elwood – Rock plus Roll

Festival (Confidential)

Comedy Festival - the First Week

A week in I can  with much relief  say Wellington has been treated to heaps of the former and too little to worry about of the latter.

What a start  Michele A'Court looking at what it means to be a Kiwi  we're polite, don't like to show strong emotions, don't like to commit  the 'yeah-na' syndrome, just like to fit in. She's right on the button of course, and also mines the baby boomer generation research for some truly insightful, if disturbing, facts about us. For the premiere of her first solo show there were a few nerves, which were endearing, and a wickedly great opening prepared by her clearly gifted daughter, Holly. Free shoes or nose hair tweezers on offer as prizes, what more could you ask for?

Michele's partner in comedy, Jeremy Elwood, covered some of the same topical left-leaning territory in his show - pro Zaoui, anti Brash. He has a natural onstage charm which meant even his underpreparedness was endearing rather than annoying. He cleverly worked a disappointingly small  but perfectly formed - audience and created an intimate night of comedy. His satirical songs are a real strength in his routine. We could have done with more

Rock Plus Roll

With his easy-going vibe and laid back delivery, Jeremy Elwood could be with you down the pub, having a beer and a laugh. Instead he's one of New Zealand's best and brightest. Better than a lot of the big names in town, Elwood wasn't perturbed by the small opening crowd. Instead, he demonstrated a quick wit as he targeted the social and political climate without relying on one-liners. Through sex, relationships and love songs to Kiwi stereotypes and the "us versus them" mentality, Elwood is brilliant. The musical element proved he is multi- talented. Lauren McMenemy

Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

A favourite of slackers and outsiders, this retro basketball boot is a good indication of how silly the action is going to get and of how much these hardworking actors are going to leap and run about.

They have to be quick on their feet with the play's title promising all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 97 minutes. But this is less Mercury Theatre and more theatresports.

It's a primary-colour romp through pop culture with Shakespeare as just one influence on society. It is Shakespeare as reality television, as rap, as a competitive sport.

A place where "To be, or not to be?" is just one question jostling for space along with topical issues such as: Is Michael Jackson innocent? Is Lomu's return to world-class rugby a good idea? Are Unitec-trained actors any good?

Yep, there are no sacred cows in this comedy show, least of all William Shakespeare.

Like all good comedy, the actors also take potshots at their own personality quirks and foibles, too.

We have Elwood as the straight man trying to keep the show together while honouring the Bard and stealing as much of the limelight as he can.

He is fighting a losing battle against Driver and Adams, who play-up all the self-indulgence of out-of-control actors and dominate the stage with their funny and twisted competition to prove who is the most professional actor.

Driver has a commanding and charismatic presence and has already proved his chops as a serious actor in many shows. In this performance he shows he can deliver the funny stuff too, be it silly physical comedy or a more intelligent but downright dangerous and cutting wit.

Keith Adams was lumbered with Juliet, Ophelia and all the other female roles and uses these as an excuse to release his inner diva.

He could have strayed too far into drag-queen territory but cleverly avoids that by channelling Elizabeth Taylor and other screen queens and is all the more funny for it.

He also gets to strut his stuff in the only serious delivery of Shakespeare, the "What a piece of work is a man!" speech from Hamlet - a spine-tingling moment that had the audience silent and thoughtful until it was finished to thunderous applause.

I loved the laughs throughout. But for the theatre geek in me, this was my favourite bit. The answer to the question: Why go to the theatre in the first place?

* The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is at the Maidment Theatre until June 5

Music and Politics:The Preview

A Satisfying Combination

And with a trophy cabinet bulging like part of a Lord of the Rings display, its easy to understand their success. After a brief combined introduction, where they clear the air about their respective ages and their off-stage relationship, ACourt begins the night in earnest with some hilarious confessions about growing up Levin in a "normal dysfunctional family".

From here we delve into her communist roots, bring in the hikoi and poke fun at Don Brash.

Her seemingly effortless style suits her well as she flips between confessing shes not really a sporty type - except for a touch of athletes foot - to how shes still approached by people who remember her from her What Now days, to comparing a woman with a grudge to a Muslim issuing a fatwa.

In contrast, Elwood has a more rambunctious style. He feeds off the origins of audience members, marvels at how Paul Holmes managed to go one better than Saddam Hussein with his "cheeky darkie" comment, and cant wait for the day when GE takes hold so you can get steak flavoured tomatoes. No topic is taboo for this couple, and their combination of merging the everyday with current affairs, and assured professionalism, leaves you well satisfied.

No topic too taboo

A cozy, good-sized crowd welcomed both on stage for their first Dunedin show in 18 months on Thursday.

The TV careers of A'Court and Elwood are quite varied, During her set (it was a case of ladies before gents), A'Court reminded the audience of her time presenting the children's programme What Now? She quipped that not being a morning person and being in make-up at 6am, then on air live at 8.30am, was an effort, best aided by chemicals.

No topic was taboo for A'Court, from politics, including her Marxist roots, to poking fun at Don Brash and Winston Peters. If she had given her ex-husband anymore of a pasting, he would have resembled wallpaper.

The beauty myth, botox and liposuction got serves worthy of Pete Sampras.

Everybody laughed when she said she'd like to get her thighs liposuctioned and the fat put into Charlotte Dawson.

After the drinks break, A'Court's partner in life and comedy came out with all guns blazing.

Elwood slipped and tripped from subject to subject with the grace of a genetically engineered cross between a ballerina and a Thompson's gazelle.

He broke up the room with his spin on US President George W. Bush's life, saying Mr Bush is living out childhood fantasies: "He owned a baseball team, beat up someone who was mean to his dad and is now going to be an astronaut."

He, too, remembered his roots: first, his student days in Dunedin (where he discovered drinking and comedy) as he spent 10 years here, then he told the crowd about growing up in Canada.

Much of Elwood's material, and A'Court's for that matter, was just too funny to write down, and not suitable for publication.

Simply put, both were tummy-tuckingly funny and well worth a night out.

THE HORROR... THE HORROR

have to admit I was about ready to groan. Two Kiwi comedians - who are dating - supposedly trying to entertain us with their humour for one hour. It sounded like a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately with Jeremy Elwood and Michele A'Court at the helm, this potentially cringe-worthy hour, turned into an hour of highly satisfying hilarity.

With truly topical comedy, the couple gave their take on recent world events, mainly focusing on the recent events in Iraq.

Kicking off the night, A'Court instantly built up a rapport with the audience, ensuring all glasses were filled - even if it meant re-opening the bar.

After reassuring us all that drinking copious amounts of alcohol each day was not just ok, but wise, she poked fun at Botox, Australians, racism, politicians and an extreme diet she went on that failed to show results. "I tried eating everything lying down so I'd get taller."

Between the mix of A'Court and Elwood taking to the stage separately to do a bit of stand-up, they came together to bring in the laughs with a series of small skits. They offered insights into the home life of Satan, a film noir homage and a series of cheesy TV reporter style interviews.

To a hearty round of applause, Elwood bounded on stage to take us through a timeline of what would happen if smoking in bars were banned altogether, why we should just let smokers be, and what would happen if New Zealanders sung the blues or country songs.

It was a pleasant surprise to come across two Kiwi comedians who were able to be controversial, hard-hitting and hilarious, without being overly crass or resorting to potty-humour.

Together A'Court and Elwood put together a show that is cleverly topical, intelligent, and overall, very enjoyable.

Alice O'Connell

The Horror...The Horror is on at The Civic until May 17