In what was a great experience, which few Australian comedians get to enjoy, I recently had the opportunity to perform in the Oddfellows New Zealand International Comedy festival in Auckland. The Comedy Festival in Auckland is quite like our festival in Melbourne, but with a few notable differences.
One of the major differences between the two festivals is that New Zealand’s is a lot smaller. Melbourne has one of the three biggest comedy festivals in the world, and I expected Auckland’s fest to be smaller, but I wasn’t expecting it to be SO small. Unlike Melbourne during comedy festival with its streets full of comedians fliering to punters, no comedians flier in Auckland. That’s because there’s no crowds to flier to. Most locals don’t know a comedy festival is on, so (unlike Melbourne) they don’t just come into town to see some shows. New Zealand comedians have to promote their show and sell tickets ahead of opening their show. This affects the way shows are staged in Auckland. Unlike Melbourne where most comedians perform in a small room for several weeks to lots of little crowds, in Auckland most comedians just do one or two really big shows to (hopefully) large crowds.
I did two nights of the festival in a 150-seat theatre. The first night we got a full house, second night was a little over half full (apparently it was the same night as the Rugby Super 14 grand final or something…). It was great performing to a large crowd like that, but without an extended run it was difficult to get into a flow and work out kinks in the show as you can in Melbourne.
In New Zealand live comedy is quite an unknown for people. During the festival I found that most Audience members had never been to a live comedy show before. I quite enjoyed this as you could tell the Audience didn’t know what to expect, and they were very polite and well behaved.
Another major difference you find in New Zealand is that, as an Australian, over there you’re an international! Sick of Danny Bhoy getting your crowds during Comedy festival? Then go to New Zealand. Like in Melbourne, punters assume that if you’ve traveled from overseas you must be at least half-decent (and I was, but they didn’t know that), so just being Australian is a selling point for your show.
A remarkable aspect of New Zealand comedy which differs once again to the situation in Australia is that they are protected by a guild. The tiny New Zealand comedy industry has got together and formed The New Zealand Comedy Guild which works as a sort of comedian’s Union. Every year comedians pay a small fee and for that the Guild represents them. The Guild puts on workshops and training, they intervene on behalf of the comedian in payment disputes, they keep the comedian updated about work opportunities and events, and they help stage a few shows in areas like Wellington that don’t have a regular comedy scene.
When in New Zealand I got to see a lot of the Guild’s work first hand. While over there I performed a gig in a pub with some local comedians. After the show the manager didn’t want to pay us the agreed amount. The local comedians were understandably upset and told him if he didn’t pay the full amount they’d report him to the Guild. Just the threat of taking some sort of union like action was enough, and we got paid the agreed fee. I had to wonder what I would’ve done if I was in a similar situation in Australia. I was also lucky enough whilst in New Zealand to attend a comedy writing workshop run by the Guild, with guest speakers Charlie Pickering and prominent New Zealand comedy writer Matt Elliot, giving emerging comedians like myself the opportunity to grab many useful tips and advice. The New Zealand Comedy Festival is set up for locals, with the aim of promoting New Zealand Comedy taking high priority. While they have international acts like Danny Bhoy, Stephen K Amos, Andy Parsons and Charlie Pickering, they seem to primarily have these acts to draw punters into town to the festival, with the hopes they’ll see a local comedian before/after the international’s show.
To perform a show in Auckland comedians have to apply to the Comedy Festival organisers. These organisers then assess each show proposal, the quality of the comedian’s act, when/where they want to perform, etc. and decide whether the comedian can have a show or not. Apparently for local comedians it’s quite easy, but for internationals it’s very difficult. I was amazed at how tough their selection process was for internationals. It’s almost as if they have a quarantine to keep international comedians out of the country.
One thing to consider when deciding whether or not to stage a show in New Zealand is that it can get quite expensive. Imagine the cost of staging a show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and then add to that airfares, accommodation, etc. I was lucky in two ways: Firstly I got sponsorship from my local Bendigo Bank, which covered most of my traveling costs. Secondly I was able to sleep on a friend’s couch, which saved me from staying in a hotel. This meant I turned a slight profit from the festival.
If I didn’t receive the grant I probably would have only broken even. However even if I had only broken even I still probably would’ve done the show. It would have essentially boiled down to a free trip to New Zealand and an opportunity to perform in a whole other county. Also compared with the cost of staging a show in Edinburgh or Montreal it’s quite affordable.
All up the festival was a fantastic experience. I greatly enjoyed performing there, and to any Aussie comedians thinking about attempting to put on a show in Auckland, I’d definitely recommend applying.
For more information on the festival visit the official New Zealand Comedy Festival website Check out the website if you would like to discover more about the New Zealand Comedy Guild