Classic Late & Live is the sort of late night gig in the tradition of those I’ve been to in Edinburgh with a lineup of comedians showcasing their material to a rowdy crowd and who better to host than Phil Nichol. A filthy, shameless exhibitionist, he seemed constantly on the edge of getting naked, saying things like “lets get naked for Anzac Day!” I was surprised that he didn’t. There were five other acts on which is pretty good value. I won’t spend too much time on the two acts who made up the second half of this show as they were on the Five Star Preview line up I reviewed earlier. I will mention though that Carey Marx’s material was considerably more ‘Adult’ with his big finale being an unnatural assault on a very cute teddy and that Andrew O’Neill began to go into a routine about his transvestitism, but noting the turn against him by the aggressive yobbo element in the crowd he neatly pulled out his notebook and took off in another direction.
I was interested to see Marcel Lacont, being a fan of faux French musical comedy duo Priorite a Gauche and having recently enjoyed real French expat comedian Bertie Cadhilac. Unfortunately I wasn’t terribly taken with Marcel. I can’t help but wonder what the point is with his French persona, as he just does pretty much standard material in a fake French accent., He did some boring brazilian material, and the usual mocking of Adelaide that nearly got him decked by a drunk South Australian though he impressively never lost his cool. He was obviously a very experienced performer and he was able to maintain his low key relaxed persona in a pretty rowdy atmosphere. He also rather impressively ended up being filthier than Phil Nichol had been. Phil was keen to rectify this pretty quickly.
The next act, Ursula Catson stood out in the line up of the evening, not because she was a woman, or South African or Gay, but because her material was considerably less polished. She was very confident and cheerfully acknowledged that her jokes about being fat were dying. The crowd perked up a bit when she went into her lesbian material, which was better but she still came across as very inexperienced and got a pretty luke warm send off to her set. I really think she just wasn’t up to performing along side the calibre of the other performers.
Miles Jupp from the UK finished the first half of the evening, it was like watching Hugh Grant doing standup. Most of his material revolved around him being posh and having a posh accent. Although it is a fairly new angle for comedy, hugely popular UK comic Michael Mcntyre has been making it his trademark for a few years now. He was very smooth, witty & clever and it was interesting to see that his very English class based humour went down pretty well with a New Zealand audience.
This was my fourth show in New Zealand and something I’ve noticed that differs markedly from Melbourne audiences is how vocal the Kiwis are. Apart from the drunks up the back (who are so extremely drunk I wonder that they might not enjoy the evening equally at home or in a locked cupboard), there is a real sense that most of the audience come to comedy expecting to engage with the performer. It was mostly good natured though and pretty much everyone had a good time. There are probably different line-ups and whoever is on you are bound to get good value for your money.
Visit the NZ Comedy Festival website for booking details.