Cracker: LOL
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a gift beyond your comprehension"
A useful gift for someone with an audience, no?
Maybe "a gift not quite at your comprehension"
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What's is going on here?
Is this Denouncing NZ's Creative Industries week?
Should we make this a regular event, along with NZ Music Month and the festivals?
In the spirit of the week should we get in overseas experts to savage the nation's artists, musicians, and so on, far better than NZers could ever savage them?
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In all fairness Marcus, I don't think it's exactly uncommon around the world to hear locally-originated artists given bad reviews when they do something that people don't like. I'd tend to see the ability to do so as a sign of maturity in an arts scene, rather than having to be inclusive and love everybody because the scene is too damn small to survive anything else...
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Is this Denouncing NZ's Creative Industries week?
Hardly, I read it as a recommendation to see the guy, with some reservations if you've seen him before.
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Finn: I agree with what you say - critique is usually a good thing.
I guess I am just observing that this has largely been absent vis-a-vis the creatives in NZ, and now a lot of people (as fellow producers and consumers) suddenly seem willing to speak up critically against the general scene and (if somewhat less so) against particular artists.
After seven or so years of increasingly widespread NZ artistic nationalism, maybe a backlash has emerged against people and things riding too easily on the wave. This is, as I think you might agree, a good sign.
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I know a few guys who do stand up regularly in NZ and they are pretty much all just doing it on the side, so perhaps that could be reason why new material isn't as regular as we'd like. Besides, writing comedy material (admittedly not stand up) can take time.
Oh and Pickering is pretty good, definitely the highlight for me for 2006's season
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DC's criticism should be taken in the same spirit as that discussed in Graeme Reid's blog about Neil Finn's criticisms.
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Sue,
comics repeat stuff all the time, not just locals but internationals as well
especially the good stuff.
probably because there is nothing worse for a comic than the sound of nobody laughing. Also, word gets round super fast that a comedian is having a bad run, so it becomes a room of nobody at all.For someone like Brendhan Lovegrove who i think almost scrapes by on a living from comedy, every time he takes a risk with new material, he risks loosing the next audience.
the true genius types - and having seen enough of Brendhan's routines over the years, he is one of those - slowly add and tweak every time they appear, no 2 appearance are the same they are all slightly evolving with enough old stuff up their sleeve for emergency.
the other option, maybe he had a bad night, and that routine is his safety net.
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I recall Lenny Henry in his show doing a rave about a fanatical fan who followed him on tour and then complained/heckled that Henry repeated himself from show to show, he managed to spin the gag out for about 10 minutes
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comics repeat stuff all the time
yeaaaahhh..... buuuuuttt... i saw lovegrove back in 1997 in auckland. funny as all hell.
but. then i saw him last year at the well.com.fest.
and he ran some of the same material.
who says pot decreases memory? or maybe only short-term memory? which is why he can't remember the new material.
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I dunno. Comedy, like music, requires constant honing in performance to get really right - in fact more, I think. And there are some fans who do want to hear the same thing again and again. That's what an old favourite is.
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Sue,
material 10 years old is pushing it a bit.
I wonder if Ed Byrne will be pushing the same stuff from 10 years ago?Maybe Ewan Gilmore had it right when he went into semi retirement, likewise and Radar morphing into Te Radar.
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And there are some fans who do want to hear the same thing again and again. That's what an old favourite is.
Up to a point, Lord Copper. Since Damien brought up the Rolling Stones, they're released (by my count) six 'official' compilations and eight live albums. I own a couple of them myself, being the surperficial creature I am but you can't accuse The Stones of pretending it's anything more than old stuff in a new wrapper.
And sure, it's bloody hard writing comedy - that's why John Cleese and Connie Booth have declined some eye-watering offers to do more Fawlty Towers (which is, IMO, is a near perfect masterclass in the mechanics of how to write a situation comedy). It's why (blasphemy alert!) I thought the last series of Little Britain - entirely written by Matt Lucas and David Walliams - showed signs of *ahem* creative fatigue.
But if you're asking me to plonk down a good chunk of my discretionary income to watch you perform, please give me fair warning if I'm paying for a 'greatest hits' show rather than new material.
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I do standup and have a show next week in this year's festival (self advertising done now) and I can tell you that writing material for this malarkey is one of the hardest things I've done in the world. Try and write your own joke then tell it to your co-workers around the water cooler, see how funny it is.
I know Brendhan reasonably well and he always maintained that this show was basically a greatest hits with a few new bits added in (thus the ironic title of the Emperor's New Show). Also, the Gala is basically an advertisement for your own show to get as many people to come as possible (incidentally, wasn't Alex Hawley good? Yes he was AND he's in my show next week).
As a Wellington Comic we are heavily pressured to write new material regularly because our audience doesn't tend to vary much, up in Auckland they have a much higher turnover rate so polish the same joke until it's shiny and brilliant. -
A comedian should be trying to get new stuff in, they should be reacting to the world around them. Can't blame them for a certain amount of old stuff if it gets the people laughing. And frankly if they were good enough, I wouldn't care. If Bill Hicks was still alive, well I'd go to hear him read shopping lists.
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T.K., I was once dwarfed by Lenny Henry, waiting for our luggage at Wellington airport. We had miraculously survived one of those Wellington landings that leave permanent indents in the armrests and Henry was looking, well...pale.
Apparently he spent some time in his show that night discussing the wisdom of allowing epileptics to fly our planes.
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merc,
Dylan Moran last time he was here worked some piercingly good local stuff into his act virtually straight off the plane.
Black Books, best ever. -
I thought the last series of Little Britain - entirely written by Matt Lucas and David Walliams - showed signs of *ahem* creative fatigue.
The most recent series was co-written with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, so maybe it was *their* stuff which wasn't so flash.
(You don't know how hard I fought myself to start this reply with "Yeah but no but yeah but no but...")
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Dylan Moran last time he was here worked some piercingly good local stuff into his act virtually straight off the plane.
Although I'm told he used the same off-the-cuff insights again this time... Still, brilliant standup.
I've seen Ed Byrne almost every time he's been here, and while there a few familiar jokes, by and large the routine is new every time. (On his DVD, he uses the fact that Alanis Morissette re-released Jagged Little Pill to "re-release" his old favourite about "Ironic" not really being ironic). He also does some great improvisation when interacting with the audience.
Brendan Lovegrove is a funny bastard with great delivery, but yeah, he's the one I've noticed the most re-using old material. Especially material covering current events, which eventually aren't that current...
who says pot decreases memory? or maybe only short-term memory? which is why he can't remember the new material.
Or maybe the long-term memory, so he forgets that the old material is old...
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I have to add that as my memory ain't so good these days (my friends call me Dory), I will happily go and see Brendhan perform again in a few years' time, where even if the material isn't new, it will be for me :)
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The most recent series was co-written with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, so maybe it was *their* stuff which wasn't so flash
Hey. I'm all for sharing the blame around -- but am I the only person who thinks some of the stock characters who've been around since the radio show (Emily and Vicki and Daffyd The Most Annoying Gay In The Whole Boody Universe) are showing signs of serious wear-and-tear?
There is, I think, a reason why The Simpons staggers on with a writing staff, not Matt Groening and a mountain of legal pads.
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merc,
Dory? Because of Dorian Gray?
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even if the material isn't new, it will be for me
one of the joys of those of us whose memory sticks are full, up.
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am I the only person who thinks some of the stock characters who've been around since the radio show (Emily and Vicki and Daffyd The Most Annoying Gay In The Whole Boody Universe) are showing signs of serious wear-and-tear?
No, I thought they were getting a bit old, too. Especially the Lou and Andy sketches, which featured the exact same joke every time. On the other hand, the newer characters seemed a bit stale from the start -- am I wrong in thinking that the Ting Tong character was anything other than blatantly racist?
The sketches with Anthony Head as the PM were consistently great though, and Tom Baker voiceovers were never short of awesome.
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Sorry, no Dory as in the fish played by Ellen DeGeneres (sp) in Finding Nemo, who has the memory of, well, a fish.
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