If you headed over to Welles Street on Friday night, you would have been greeted by a woman dressed as a man in a bright red suit singing his own rendition of ‘Let Me Entertain You’. Georgie Sivier’s alter ego Tony Chestnut was a perfect opener for the launch night of the fourth Comedy Carnival, which will run until September 21. Fourteen comedians took to the stage to deliver laughs and they did not disappoint.

If Tony Chestnut didn’t set the scene, next act on stage was Stephen Lefebvre, who wandered around the crowd, shaking everyone’s hand, greeting them with “Hi, great to see you” – and that was his entire act. ‘Your Dad’ found his long-lost son in the audience, who proceeded to join him on stage, sit on his knee and listen to some words of wisdom. Jim Smalls captivated the audience as he told the story of adopting his latest cat, leaving them with one simple question – when he adopted the cat, did it have stripes? If not, how did the stripes come about? To discover the answers, you’ll have to check out his solo show.

Nathan Hedley brought a different message as he shed light on his struggle with depression, while still having the audience giggle along – he will donate 20% of the profits from his show to charities near and dear to him. Event organiser Snap had everyone chuckling as he spoke about rabbits, while Jo Ghastly demonstrated she was a hip mum and down with the lingo as she rapped. Jonty Bennett shared stories from his time living in Timaru, and Mackenzie Mckenzie proved why she is an icon as she complained about how hard life is for an upper middle class white woman. Ashton Brown delved into his childhood, telling stories about getting told off by his mother for playing with his poo, and Craig Westenberg discussed his acting debut – which resulted in him flashing the audience. Tatjana T sang about failed Tinder dates, and Corey Humm offered some more political and cutting wit as well as sharing some of his own dating escapades.

A gem of the local comedy scene, Drop D closed the night and brought the house down, leaving everyone thinking to themselves ‘What on earth have we just witnessed?’ He described himself as looking like a 40-year-old Panic! At The Disco fan, which was about the only PG joke in his act. Shay Horay was MC and tied the diverse acts together seamlessly while sharing some anecdotes of his own.

The night was packed full of laughs and was a great taster of what to expect in the next two weeks. With such a variety of comedy on offer, we really are spoilt for choice. All the comedians at the launch show have solo shows coming up, and if you want to get your fix of funnies, this bunch will deliver.

The Comedy Carnival runs from September 7 – 21.

comedycarnival.co.nz

 

Photo credit: Markus Bennett