Dara Ó Briain

It’s raining comedy in New Zealand! Hot on the heels of Bill Bailey comes Ireland’s finest, Dara Ó Briain. As you can tell from the picture, his tour is ending in New Zealand, not beginning.

Dinner first: we booked The Old Quarter, a modern Asian place on Dixon Street. They specialise in Vietnamese food; they also specialise in serving you quickly and turning over tables. We made a rookie mistake of ordering our drinks and food at the same time, and the food started arriving before our cocktails were ready! Next time, we’ll order cocktails and not do the food until they’ve arrived. All of it was delicious, however, and we even had time for a dessert.

It’s just up the road from St James Theatre, so in a matter of moments we were in the foyer with time on our hands. On this occasion we had eschewed the cheap seats and booked into the dress circle (there’s also a grand circle), and settled in for Dara to begin.

When Dara Ó Briain does stand-up, he doesn’t have anything on the stage, except a stand with some water on it. This, we found out later, has its drawbacks. Much of his show is stream of consciousness, and he disappears off on to wild tangents before dragging himself back to the story he was telling. He also did some audience interaction, meeting people in the front row and basically taking the piss out of their jobs (there was a hypnotherapist, an animal experimenter, and a civil servant, amongst others).

Anyway, he’s pleased to be back in Wellingon, if only because the Cable Car is working now. On his first visit in 2019 it was out of action, being repaired. “But don’t worry, there’s a replacement bus service”, said the attendant. Dara then explains “I don’t have a meeting at the top of the Cable Car that I have to get to, I just wanted a go on the Cable Car.” But now he’s happy.

The second half of the show takes a different tack. After first regaling us about the joys of visiting a theme park, with rollercoasters and the like, mere days after undergoing knee surgery, he realised he’d missed out a bit of his show. He ran off stage to collect his exercise book, and started leafing through it, eventually pulling out a swathe of papers. He then proceeded, for around half an hour, to give us a harrowing tale of the privations suffered under Irish law, by anyone who was adopted. And why they were adopted. This all came from having watched a film called Philomena, which he heartily recommends, as do I. Because (spoiler alert), it turns out Dara is adopted, and he detailed the Kafkaesque Irish bureaucracy involved in getting information about the woman who “gave you up” for adoption. Like many Irish phrases, “giving up for adoption” is a euphemism that disguises the horrendous truth (cf. “The Troubles”) that these women had their babies taken from them forcibly, and often sold to Americans. Yes, sold. This was in the latter part of the 20^th century. It’s a very moving story, and fortunately one with a happy ending, which is not the usual outcome.

But it’s all a bit of a downer. This is supposed to be a comedy show! So Dara then brings us back with an upbeat, uplifting story about an audience member in Canada, to cheer us all up! And then he leaves the stage, before coming back for an inevitable encore about how he was asked for a seven-minute segment to trail his show, and how this was impossible, because it takes him an hour just to say “hello”.

Bill Bailey: Thoughtifier

That old card Bill Bailey has gotten into the habit of starting his tours in New Zealand. It’s a sad fact of life that many acts, both comedians and music, will start off their tours in Europe & America, and don’t get to New Zealand until (sometimes) several years later. Not so Mr. Bailey, though…in fact, at one point during his show, as he railed against the incompetencies of UK politicians, someone heckled him “Emigrate!”, and he shared his serious thoughts on how he’d considered moving to New Zealand at one point. He loves New Zealand!

But I digress. Obviously, you want to know where we went for dinner beforehand? We went to Mr. Go’s, a perennial favourite, who have now relocated to larger premises on Eva Street. The food, however, has remained to the same high standard, and we had my favourite, Korean chicken wings, along with broccolini, dumplings, and “typhoon shelter” prawns – because they’re like a typhoon for the taste buds!

Bill (we’re mates) was on at the Michael Fowler Centre, which has a bigger capacity than St James Theatre...and also, crucially, more comfortable seats! Nevertheless, he’d had to book an additional night – we were on the second show of the two, on Monday night. I’ve since spoken to some people who went on the previous night, and there were definitely elements of our show that weren’t in theirs – a testament to his ability to ad-lib and concoct hilarious moments without needing to just stick to a script. Many of his quips were tailored specifically for a New Zealand audience, including constant digs at Palmerston North, and always referring to this gig as being in “Wellington and the surrounding areas”.

As ever, the show involves a lot of music, and this time round he’d come equipped with MIDI balls. These are bouncy balls, wirelessly connected to a computer, which play a sound whenever they are bounced or hit. He distributed some of these to the audience (in the front row, natch), to play the drum line, whilst he played the guitars on another pair of balls himself. Obviously, there's a comedy moment to be had about playing with one 's balls. Another instrument he introduced was the laser harp – a series of laser beams are the strings, and he plays it by “plucking” them – a note is played when he interrupts the beam. He also plays more traditional instruments, including walking around the house and doing everything in the death metal style. Also, a madrigal interlude based on Henry VIII’s meeting with Anne of Cleves – clearly a comedy goldmine! And a rendition of Habenera from Carmen, with subtitles which he felt more accurately reflected the content of the aria; with the assistance of Deborah Wai Kapohe.

Another area he explored in some detail was the emergence of AI. He has built some AI clones of himself and asked them questions, and also deals with some ChatGPT live on a screen. He’s unconvinced by the idea that AI will be taking over the world soon, and demonstrates why.

As ever, two hours of howlingly funny, intelligent comedy. If you can get to it, do – he’s playing the UK and Ireland from February next year.

 

 

Dracula’s: The Resurrection

What is Dracula’s? According to its website, it was “born in a dark, dingy Melbourne laneway in 1980, and four decades later has sold over five million tickets…leaps like a feathered zombie show girl - from the crypt!” In Australia, it has a fixed venue on the Gold Coast, with a dinner and a show. For the tour, there’s no dinner – although their signature cocktails were available, served in blood bags. It’s best described as a comedy gothic cabaret show. What’s not to like?

It’s on at St James Theatre for three nights and a matinee, and has also toured the rest of New Zealand. Before the show, two of the cast are patrolling the foyer in full makeup and costume, interacting with the audience. The show started with a bang, and a rendition of Sympathy For The Devil. The show contains “strobe lighting, haze, fog/smoke effects, simulated pyrotechnics, strong language, partial nudity, and adult themes”. As well as the cabaret elements, there was a circus-style act with aerial silk, and a lot of singing and dancing. The performers are all very technically accomplished. The more comedic acts included one with two men and two bath towels…and nothing more. The first half ended on the song When I Was A Sperm.

The second half continued in the same theme, and finished with a musical medley, beginning with a puppet version of Bohemian Rhapsody, then live versions of Let’s Go Crazy and Let’s Dance. All jolly good fun, and we emerged blinking into the afternoon sun.

The Importance Of Being Earnest

The classic Oscar Wilde tale has been on at Circa Theatre for the last few weeks. Nicola got the ushering gig for its pre-penultimate night, so I went along too. 

It’s not a short play, so the start time was brought forward to 6:30pm. This limited our dining options somewhat, so we decided to dine off the new Circa restaurant menu. I’d been disappointed with their fush’n’chups the last time I was there, so this time opted for the chicken burger. It’s not brilliant.

When you tackle a classic like this, you’ve got to add a twist. The last version of this I saw was with Judi Dench, who tackled the famous “a handbag?” line with quiet restraint instead of the usual histrionics…so that’s been done. The quirk added by this production is in the casting: Algernon is played by Isobel Mackinnon, and Gwendolen by Ryan Carter. The part of John Worthing was played by Andrew Paterson, who we know as a member of A Slightly Isolated Dog as well as other roles, and has been a regular at Circa over a number of years. Also departing from most other productions is the maid Merriman’s rendition of Life On Mars, which I don’t remember being in the original.

It’s all splendidly done, and everything works out in the end. Sorry, should’ve said “spoiler alert” there.