Rose Matafeo’s ‘unhinged manifesto’ leads Neon’s comedy comeback - Karl Puschmann

In On and On and On, local comedy heroine Rose Matafeo attacks her broken-hearted self with all the venom of a bitter ex. Photo / Neon

OPINION

Historically, Netflix has been the place to turn to for stand-up comedy specials. They make all the new specials from big-name superstars like Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Chris Rock and offer a steady flow of specials from popular comedians like Kevin Hart, Ali Wong and Pete Davidson.

But this week, there was no joking around on Netflix. The streaming behemoth was as bereft of LOLs as Chris Luxon’s Instagram.

Instead, it was our plucky local streamer Neon who had all the laughs. Over the past few years, Neon has quietly built up a quality library of stand-up specials from many comedic A-listers.

And, in a quirk of fate – or, perhaps, of programming – I saw that three new comedy specials from three of the world’s funniest comedians had all been released recently.

There was a lot of common ground between the three specials I watched this week. All three were deeply personal. All tackled the ups and downs of love and life and the challenge of negotiating those two things while adulting. But that’s where the similarities end. They may be variations on a theme, but the three comedians come at it from vastly different perspectives and lived experiences.

In On and On and On, local comedy heroine Rose Matafeo attacks her broken-hearted self with all the venom of a bitter ex. In Hecklers Welcome, James Acaster attempts to reconcile his childhood trauma and his hatred of being a stand-up comic. And in Dad Man Walking, Seth Meyers fills an hour with the exact kind of dad-joke energy befitting of that title.

Seth Meyers in Dad Man Walking. Photo / Neon

I started the week with Meyers. The host of Late Night with Seth Meyers and its hilarious satirical news segment A Closer Look injects a smidgen of politics into the special, but mostly zeroes in on the humorous struggles of parenthood in the modern age. He’s an extremely likeable chap with a plastered-on grin and a relaxed demeanour that softens the bite of a lot of his gags. He certainly wouldn’t get away with bits about taking satisfaction in yanking a jumper off his misbehaving child’s head, his comically Jewish in-laws or a few cultural impersonations if they weren’t delivered in exhausted sitcom dad fashion. Dad Man Walking is best described as the Casual Friday of comedy specials; it’s loose and comfortable but still operating professionally.

Acaster was up next. His three comedy-special comedy special Repertoire was nothing short of brilliant, and he deservedly went viral with the shouting mockery of fellow Brit comedian Ricky Gervais that opened his last special, Cold Lasagna Hate Myself 1999 – a show I saw him perform back in 2019 at the Aotearoa Comedy Fest.

While it’s clever and funny and sees him once again pushing at the confines of traditional stand-up, Hecklers Welcome doesn’t quite match the genius or hilarity of his past efforts. Here, he patrols the stage in a green tracksuit and dives into his childhood trauma to explain why he hates being a stand-up comedian, why he hates the audience (“It’s not you, it’s me”) and his anxious and neurotic tendencies.

James Acaster in Hecklers Welcome. Photo / Neon

Things never get as harrowing as Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Acaster himself calls his origin tales “low-stakes”, but will be relatable to anyone who’s ever been a child. The story behind his childhood dog’s name is wonderfully absurd and its final moments are genuinely touching. As for the welcomed hecklers, there are surprisingly few and they’re all mostly polite. “Kermit!” is about as offensive as it gets, yelled out because of Acaster’s green tracksuit. “I thought it looked cool,” he sighs in response.

Rose Matafeo in On and On and On. Photo / Neon

Last but not least in my week of comedy was the new special from our own superstar Matafeo.

The core premise of On and On and On revolves around an epic note she began writing in her phone’s Notes app after a particularly brutal breakup. The note began as a place for her innermost thoughts and feelings but soon spiralled out to include her entire life, from comedy ideas to shopping lists. All contained in one monster note of 16,000 words.

A year on, she’s wildly embarrassed by this digital journal, describing its content as an “unhinged manifesto”, before cherry-picking segments to read aloud and use as starting points to race off into the tragedy of her love life.

It’s a wild set that ricochets from emotional revelations to slapstick pratfalls, features vicious rants and quirky babbling, and references modern video game characters and actors from the golden age of cinema while dissecting the indignity and self-loathing that occurs when you’re dumped in your 30s.

On and On and On is as wonderfully sprawling and all over the show as the incredibly emo note that kickstarted the whole thing. However, unlike with her note, here Matafeo never loses the plot or her focus. This in itself is a noteworthy achievement.