Comedy therapy: festival now on!
Home » Blog » Annabel McAleer » Comedy therapy: festival now on!Depressed about the environment? Head along to the 2010 NZ International Comedy Festival. Here's my picks.
I love this time of year. Sure, I've got a massive cold and winter's about to set in for the long haul … but who can be depressed about all that when the Comedy Festival is in town?
I caught Maeve Higgins on Saturday night, who delivers fact-filled 'informative comedy' with a lovely Irish lilt in a likeably shambolic style.
Maeve Higgins: Auckland (Tue 27 April–Sat 1 May), Wellington (Tue 4–Sat 8 May)
And I'm really looking forward to Josie Long's Be Honourable! show in a couple of weeks. I loved her Trying is Good show last year (clip below): earnest, sweet and heartfelt—not usually the kind of attributes associated with stand-up comedians—she's also completely silly and utterly hilarious.
Josie Long: Wellington (Tue 4–Sat 8 May), Auckland (Wed 12–Sat 15 May)
In Trying is Good, she talked about turning weaknesses into strengths and celebrating them—like the polycycstic ovaries that make it hard for her to lose weight. Then she lifted up her t-shirt to reveal a detailed ocean scene drawn on her belly with marker pens, with the word 'marvellous' scrawled over the top. How could you not love her?
This year, she's been doing one thing every day for 100 days in a bid to generally make things better—and she managed to rope 900 other people in for the challenge. Be Honourable is a show about the challenges of trying to make the world just a little bit lovelier:
Josie Long is unashamedly idealistic but totally confused as to how to try and change the world. This is a show about how what you do each day matters. It's also about talking to strangers, grassroots political activism and finding modern heroes. It also quite prominently features a sort-of lecture about a man who takes photographs of his breakfast each morning. There will be all kinds of silly things. Are you up for that? Of course you are, you're a cool looking bunch of dudes, come along!
From New Zealand, Te Radar's one-night-only show Eating the Dog also looks like a goodie:
Te Radar celebrates the history that history tried to forget: the bumblers and near-do-wells who personify New Zealand's "she'll be right" spirit. This show is an irreverent look at some of the more notable characters and events from New Zealand's past. With a visual presentation rich with photographs, maps, and film, it's a hilarious romp through our untold history.
Then there's Raybon Kan, Mike King's Night of the Nutters and a few dozen more acts that ought to delay the winter blues for another few weeks.
