Flight of the Conchords, Auckland, 29/6/12

Singing about epileptic dogs with some 10,000+ other people is not something many would get to do on their birthday, but thanks to the shear brilliance that is Flight of the Conchords, I was lucky enough to experience this last Friday at Vector Arena (I also found out I share said birthday with lead singer Bret McKenzie, so yay me!).

The nearly-3 hour show kicked off with some crowd-warming stand-up from Arj Barker, a nice little set with a good range of material and lots of laughs from the audience, most of it I had heard before from TV appearances I had seen, but still very funny and a great lead-in for the headline act.

After a 20 minute interval, the main event arrived with Jemaine and Bret taking to the stage in silver jackets and cardboard 'helmets', diving straight into the high energy and electro sounds of Too Many Dicks (on the Dance Floor), the crowd was into it almost immediately. Despite taking time for a costume change (spinning their helmets around), the boys kept the energy and laughs coming with Robots, a look at the distant future, the year 2000 (they wrote it a while ago...)



The hits kept rolling, but being a comedy show and concert, we were also treated to some excellent between-song banter, including wild tour stories about complimentary muffins and getting stuck in a lift. This stuff was almost as funny as the songs, especially in the hands of such seasoned, and comfortable-with-each-other campaigners. Their delivery of quips, requests for the lighting to be 'more medieval' or 'more depressed', and of course pitch-perfect lyrics remind you just how incredibly clever these guys are.

I first saw FOTC in the early 00's at the Classic, where we were sitting close enough to literally touch them. This time I had to settle for a stadium with 10,000 others, but I can easily saw with no exaggeration whatsoever that this second time round was one of the funniest shows I have seen. A good mix of age-old favourites and new material kept me and the rest of the crowd laughing for 2 hours plus, doubled over a lot of the time.

Do yourself a favour and experience FOTC any way you can, be it a download of their BBC radio show, DVD of their HBO TV show, Grammy-award winning album, or a live performance if you find yourself across the ditch in Australia, where they tour until the 20th of July; looking on their site shows there are selling fast too.

All in all, not bad for two guys from little old Wellington, singing songs about rapping mammals and epileptic dogs.

Full Set List

Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor 

Robots 

The Most Beautiful Girl

Fuck on the Ceiling 

Albi the Racist Dragon 

Jenny 

Hurt Feelings 

Think About It 

The Summer of 1353 

Inner City Pressure 

Song for Epileptic Dogs 

I'm Not Crying 

Bus Driver's Song 

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros 

Business Time 

Bowie 

Demon Woman 

Encore:

Back On The Road 

We're Both in Love With a Sexy Lady 

Sugalumps

Cal Wilson is All Ears, Auckland, 10/5/12

An interesting premise, coupled with some very good reviews (here and here if you want to read real ones) saw us head along to the Basement Theatre tonight to see Cal Wilson perform her first Comedy Festival show in almost 10 years. Despite a small, initially reluctant crowd her bubbly enthusiasm and effortless story-telling provided for a great hour of comedy.

The concept for the show is quite a simple, but also original one; rather than relying on jokes she asks us if we would prefer to hear real stories, before getting members of the audience to share some of theirs for the rest of the crowd. Sprinkled in amongst the audience input, Cal of course has tales of her own to tell but it is her interaction with the group, in an intimate setting where this show comes into its own. Conversing with folk as if they have been friends for years, Cal shows genuine interest and joy in the tales told and, given her unbridled enthusiasm, we all do to.

This isn't the kind of show that will have you doubled over in laughter, gasping for air (depends on the stories I suppose), it is instead something quite different, quite imaginative. It is a risky idea that could go bad in the wrong hands - in Cal Wilson's though, you can't imagine it ever will.

Cal Wilson is All Ears at the Basement Theatre until Saturday May 12th. A friendly 7pm timeslot and some excellent storytelling await.

Jason Byrne, Auckland, 5/5/12

Following his chaotic brilliance at the Gala, it was with great anticipation that I sat and waited for Jason Byrne's show top kick off at the most excellent Rangatira at Q, and I have to say he fell just short of that anticipation in an extended hour of still very good comedy. The biggest surprise, going on the aforementioned Gala performance and other televised bits I have seen, was how much conventional stand up there was. I was expecting bit after bit of audience members being pulled, pushed and generally manipulated into all sorts of things.

Not a bad point on the show, just an observation; I actually thought Jason was at his best chatting with mic in hand, especially when he showed a good level of local 'knowledge'(a well-researched international is always a plus in my book) mocking our rivalry with Australia, their national airline and such. He was equally enjoyable when mocking his own, another trait I like in comedians.

Call me a prude, but there were bits about sex that dragged longer than they needed to, and his percussion on audience members 'nether regions' seemed meaner than it did funny, riotous laughs from those around me, however, showed he hit the mark more than missed (pardon the pun).

Flat patches aside, Jason Byrne as the 'People's Puppeteer' gave me more than just a chuckle, and seeing him unplanned on something of a whim was definitely a good end to a great night at the NZ International Comedy Festival.

Milton Jones, Auckland, 5/5/12

"My sister was told to stop eating wheat. She ignored that advice and was run over by the combine harvester." That is what we at the Classic were faced with last night - line after line of non-sequiter and pun, delivered in the most charming and original way. You'd think an hour of it would be too much; for me it was barely 10 minutes before I descended into the hardest, and longest-lasting laughs I have experienced in my life.

The concept is painfully simple, but in Milton Jones' hands also outrageously funny. From the point you give in to the whimsy, and trust me you will, the laughs keep coming and just when you think you have it all worked out, he ducks in another direction; you do best to just hang on for the hilarious ride.

The show starts with Milton's grandpa (one of many apparently) strolling out to the mike, complete with walker, flat-cap and coat, and from there you are not safe. The jokes are fired so quickly that you do well to keep up, and sometimes you don't - at one point Grandpa starts his routine again and trust me if you are still resisting at this point, good on you because it won't last much longer.

After Grandpa's do-over, Milton joins us and the hour flies by, absurdity and silliness abound. There's a good sprinkling of audience-banter and an OHP (yes, you read that right) to go along with the corny, but it is Milton's pitch-perfect timing where the brilliance lies. Sometimes you know the punchline before it hits, and sometimes you don't, either way it is best to just sit back and enjoy the madness.

I have seen quite a bit of comedy in my time, and while I am a terrible reviewer because I tend to gush about most of what I see, in this case though, it is definitely justified. Do your self a favour and go and see Milton Jones, one of the true masters of the art. He plays the Classic until Saturday the 12th of May.

My Top 5 from the Comedy Gala

I am probably cheating here by reporting on the televised version of the NZ Comedy Gala (see here if you want a real review of the live show) but here are my top 5 from what I saw last night.

Proving that he is much more than just Murray from Flight of the Conchords (as all us NZers are well aware), Rhys Darby did a wonderful job recounting festivals of old, (including his impression of a robot that gets me every time) before a large dose of the excellent physical comedy he has long been known for.

The Boy with Tape on His Face gave us a superbly heartfelt routine complete with audience participation and ballet, some of the most imaginative comedy I have seen. A smoke machine, clown horn, bell and tutu, need I say more.

Heavy-Metaller turned comic Steve Hughes provided me with almost the best laughs of my 2 hours in front of the box, his droll observations on a wide range of topics perfectly timed and delivered.

Ambling, no in fact doddling, out to the mic, Milton Jones did what I love best, delivering pun after pun in the most absurd yet engaging way. I am very much looking forward to seeing him this weekend, not sure how I will survive a whole hour.

The highlight for me though, and who I can award the made-me-cry medal to, is Ireland's Jason Byrne. His mad attempt at magic, involving not 1 but 3 unsuspecting "volunteers” was as painfully funny as it was frenzied. Definitely a must see if you can get to it.

So there you have it, my whirlwind tour of the best of the Gala. In amongst the others not a lot of misses to be honest, get out and see as much of the Festival as you can.

The Axis of Awesome, Auckland, 28/4/2012

I firmly believe that watching live comedy is just about the most fun a person can have while sitting down in public so April and May, when the NZ International Comedy Festival rolls into town, has always been an annual highlight for me entertainment-wise. However, a combination of being out of the country for 4 years and life as new parent getting in the way means we haven't been able to see anything for a quite while, so this year I was (and still am) extra keen to take in the delights that the next 3 weeks have to offer. 

Getting in early, a parent-friendly timeslot and length (7pm-8pm), coupled with a very hilarious & well-watched Youtube clip, steered me to Australian musical comedy trio Jordan, Benny and Lee, better known as The Axis of Awesome. 

On their first trip to New Zealand I have to be lazy and say they were indeed awesome; a good mix of original songs, re-scripted covers and between-song banter making for an excellent hour of comedy. No mean feat given the pedigree of Australian musical comedy acts before them & of course our own, arguably world-beating, "folk" sensation Flight of the Conchords. 

The show kicked off with typical introductions from the trio, including quick identification of piano-playing Benny as the one to be picked on and then they moved into their first number, The Glorious Epic of Three Men Who are Awesome, complete with frontman Jordan attempting to recreate the "stalking dinosaur, pyrontechnics and fighter jets" that usually dominate their "sold-out stadium shows".

What followed was a well-rehearsed set of songs, banter and general tom-foolery that had me, and not me alone, in hysterics for the majority of the show. From boy-band style pointers on how to write a love song, to an excellent rework Five for Fighting's Superman describing a Birdplane and compelling evidence that any hit song can be reproduced using the 4 same chords, the Axis opened the Town Hall Comedy Chamber in fine style. 

Encoring with Lee's desperate-to-play-for-the-entire-show Ode to KFC was brilliant and far too much for one guest of our party, reduced to tears by the Beastie Boy-Intergalactic inspired notion that they like their "food served in bucket, eat the chick then take the bone and suck it."

Two days in, and with the hopes of bribing baby-sitters so I can see more shows, it is far too early to say The Axis of Awesome is the hit of the festival, but for our first time 'back in the saddle' in quite a few years, we could have done a lot, lot worse, and so could you.


The Axis of Awesome play the Auckland Town Hall Comedy Chamber until Saturday May 5th, well worth the ticket price in my humble opinion.

The first post

For no particular reason, I have decided to give this blogging thing a go, going to try and write about stuff that I experience and enjoy -  music, movies, live shows that sort of thing.

We shall see how we go.