11:05 PM 17/04/02 I had originally planned to see Kamakaze Standup and Sucker with someone tonight but when we got to the box office, the first show was sold out and Sucker was on a bit too late for the person I was with. ---- X, Wellington Wellington, X (N.B. this show has no connection to New Zealand) When I first saw X I thought that Toast had got his own show at the comedy festival, but it turns out that it was a Greek bloke from Tasmania. The show starts out with two blokes stranded on a desert island who are trying to find ways to keep themselves sane. There is quite a bit of falling down and some penguins are involved. The best scene I thought was the syncronised umpires. The penguins turned out to be a bit of a gimmick as they were hardly used in the show (only to get beaten up.) There was some audience interaction as X came and sat next to the person I was with. A good show over all, but not one of the best I've seen at the festival. ---- The 3 Canadians - Ben Hur Digitally Remasted "The Rotisere Chicken of Revenge!" These blokes have been out to the festival a few times, but I haven't seen them before. What they were attempting was very ambitious - to take a 10 hour Cecil B. Demile film and compress it into 70 minutes as well as making it funny. Their introduction was great and they also recruited a new cast member from the audience to play a Roman Soldier (who turned out to be great.) The costumes were great also, especially considering that they only had a couple of seconds to change between each scene. Special mention must go to the props as they managed to get some good audience particpation going with the fake brick throwing (although the roped-in cast member overdid it - it was funny though.) Although most of the jokes seemed to be visual and what you would normally think from this material, there was also some brainy stuff in there too (I know because the person I was there with is a librarian and laughed the most during those scenes.) The best joke I thought was the scene where Judah Ben Hur was arrested and the roman soldier was told to "Hold him like a Roman!" which caused everyone to piss themselves laughing. Another surreal moment was when they were preparing for the final scene and I heard this in the darkness : "Jesus' arms are loose!" "Then get the stapler!" Then I watched someone staple the puppet Jesus to the cross. As I have mostly seen straight stand-up during the festival it was good to see one really good staged production to compare with the other shows and also see a really good international act at the same time. Excellent show, look out for the 3 Canadians in the future. ---- It was a very good festival this year. I think I should save up for a few months next year so I can see more shows. Year of Festival No of shows I saw/will see 2001 3 2002 7 2003 16 (projected) Thanks.Back
Created on ... December 30, 2006