A hushed crowd, hot spotlight and the challenge to make people laugh - the scene could be like something from a nightmare, but for Tom Furniss, it's the stuff of dreams.
The former Mount Maunganui College student is one of the performers in this year's International Comedy Festival in Auckland. It
will be the second comedy competition the self-confessed "rookie" will take part in. The 22-year-old never thought of stand-up comedy as a career path when he left school but now "it kind of makes sense".
"For me, I've always been a bit of a show pony I guess," he said. "I was always a cheeky kid, a bit of a class clown."
Furniss left Mount Maunganui College having done well in sport and academia. He scored a scholarship to study media and film in Santa Barbara, United States, which helped him gain an internship on the Auckland set of Legend of the Seeker.
It was there he stumbled across stand-up. "I got really bored. I didn't really know anyone there, so I went to a bar in Auckland where they had a comedy competition. The guy that ran it was really good and encouraging."
Furniss has been doing regular gigs since and looked up to Kiwi comedy identities Brendhan Lovegrove and Steve Wrigley. "I saw some amazing comedians in America but they still weren't as good as Brendhan Lovegrove.
"New Zealand [comedy] is understated, I think."
Furniss said he is not afraid of the stage, although he has experienced a couple of hecklers.
"I once got heckled and I just looked down and said 'nice pony tail', because it was a guy. Then I realised he was a gang member all patched up. That was traumatic. I made a pretty quick exit after."
Furniss has not given up his day job - working as a producer's assistant on television show Spartacus.
His mother Freda Annan is proud of her boy. "It's quite an achievement I think, it takes a hell of a lot of courage," she said.
Ms Annan will be travelling to Auckland to watch her son's Cold Duck and Tamagotchis performance, in which he pairs up with comedian John Carr.
The International Comedy Festival starts this weekend. Anyone interested in watching Furniss in action can see information on his show at www.coldduck.co.nz.
