Who: Jarred Fell - Dangerous Ideas, and Pani & Pani - Phat Chix In the Settee.
Where: Limelight Laugh Lounge and Herald Theatre, until Saturday.
Verdict: Devilishly rude magician and Samoan duo stir up laughter and mischief
"Hey blondie. Have we met before?" asks Jarred Fell of a women sitting in the front row at the beginning of his show.
"Yeah, at the Long Room, remember," she answers back.
The Long Room, in case you're wondering, is a popular place in Ponsonby to let your hair
down. The comic magician was a little taken aback by Anna the blonde's response, but was this cocky young Kiwi comedian going to let it throw him?
Not likely, and later in the show he even gets her to lubricate and disinfect his arm by spitting on it before his "needle through the arm" trick.
Fell, a 2010 Billy T. Award Nominee, is rude, suggestive and sex-crazed, asking the many audience members he uses during the show about their sex lives. Most of his comments are too rude to repeat here, but he manages to reveal embarrassing details about them with his ruthless trickery.
It might sound puerile and like common comedy fodder but Fell is naughty, mischievous and best of all, has no fear, which makes his Dangerous Ideas show an entertaining hoot in which you don't know whether to laugh or hide your face in shame.
His magic is - by his own admission - a little haphazard, but the way he combines his tricks with lewd yet witty humour and audience participation is devilishly clever.
Also a star is his beautifully surly assistant, Lindsey, ("Don't try talking to her. She's got the personality of a blow-up doll"), who spends half the time evilling him and the other half looking like she wants to kill him.
And Fell's finale, based on a disgustingly dirty disappearing card trick, beats the pants off anything master illusionist and his hero David Copperfield can do.
For something completely different and wholesome, hilarious Samoan "sisters" Pani & Pani's show Phat Chix In the Settee comes in the form of a Telethong (that's Samoan for Telethon) in which they raise money to help their gout-plagued granny.
Well, it is wholesome enough until supposed gout expert Dr Maxwell Avia (aka Robbie Magasiva) from Shortland Street saunters on in a cameo role to get it on with one of the sisters.
Speaking of cameos, Breakfast host Pippa Wetzel puts in an inspired performance.
Pani & Pani (real names Goretti Chadwick and Anapela Polataivao) put on an "action toe-jam packed" show, complete with singing and dancing (including a rousing version of Taylor Dayne's Tell It To My Heart).
The performance was a little loose at times, but Pani & Pani's lesson in what "gout is about" puts a delightful yet cheeky new spin on coconut humour.
