Romesh Ranganathan

British comedian Romesh Ranganathan’s “Hustle” currently touring New Zealand. He’s familiar to us from various games shows on the telly, Taskmaster, hosting The Weakest Link, as well as his own specials on Netflix. Why not go along?

The show didn’t start until 8:00pm, so we had time for a leisurely dinner beforehand. We decided to try the current hot spot for dining in Wellington, the newly-opened Bouillon Bel Air. From the name, you can probably deduce that there’s a French theme to this place, and you’d not be wrong. A bouillon is a type of French restaurant that became popular in the late 19^th – early 20^th century in Paris, selling inexpensive but hearty meals for the workers in the city. In modern Wellington, this means no mains over $30.

We’d booked early, and it was a good job we did so as the place was absolutely heaving by 7:00pm. Possibly as a result of people dining before going to the same show as us? Anyway, the service was leisurely, probably due to this, but even so it wasn’t glacial, and allowed us to eat at a reasonable pace. I had snails and bouillabaisse, Nicola had the terrine and fish du jour (made with real du jours). Classic French food. It’s not haute cuisine, but then, it’s not trying to be. And what with the cozzie livs, reasonably priced.

We walked along Tory Street to the Opera House, and waited for Romesh. Normally there’s nothing going on before the show, but he’s brought along a mate, who enlivened the crowd by testing their knowledge of old-school hip-hop, practising cheers etc.

Then Romesh came on. I’m not going to repeat all his jokes, but tell you that he is extremely funny, and comes up with such gems as telling an employee at Disneyland about Chessington World of Adventures. “Gee that sounds amazing!” replied the employee. “Wait until they find out it’s Chessington Village of Disappointment”. He discusses the difficulties of modern life, with anecdotes from his days at KFC and his teaching career – where he locked a kid in a cupboard once – and how to communicate using animal noises. It was all great fun, and I’d recommend his show to everyone.