Comedy Gala at the St James

By RUSSELL BAILLIE


What was awkwardly known for years as the Laugh! Festival has been officially and wisely now dubbed the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

Which was kind of funny (odd, not ha-ha) because on the stage at this opening night extravaganza were five giant illuminated letters spelling out the word LAUGH.

What once was a brand now seemed like an instruction and, if so, you might have worried whether there was enough space up there for the comedians if, suddenly, more giant illuminated letters were needed to make that other filmed-live-for-television command: APPLAUSE.

The second worry it generated though was if the set was recycled from previous years, what hope was there for the jokes?

Above them hung giant polystyrene circles representing the sponsor's lollies. One dropped to the floor during MC Greg Proops' routine, allowing him some improvisation of the sort he's best known for here by way of telly's Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Proops, who had solo shows in Auckland on Saturday and last night, was great.

In between dodging giant prop mints and just occasionally introducing the wrong act, the American was gleefully sarcastic on everything from Shrek the sheep (did we have to shear him on live TV the week a dozen foreign comedians are here?) to George W.

But other than being a telly show recording, the gala offered 20 or so acts, some of whom like Ewen Gilmour, Mike King and Jeremy Corbett need no introduction, in one highly entertaining show.

Some of the line-up were international award-winning comedians, some are local up'n'comers, some of whom have been nominated for the festival's Billy T awards. So we thought we would dish out our own prizes

Best entrance: Gilmour on a customised mini-motorbike. Not quite as smooth on exit when it failed to start first time. His routine revved along nicely, though.

Best impersonation of someone off the telly turning into something from a movie: Benjamin Crellin's Holmes-as-Gollum. Wonder if it will make final cut on the broadcast?

Best impersonation of someone off the telly (NZ): Cohen Holloway's John Campbell is spooky, though you do worry where his Playschool-inspired routine goes after that first three minutes .

Best impersonation of someone off the telly (foreign): Australian Charlie Pickering's metaphor-mangling BBC war correspondent suggests a master of media-skewering and a comedian of higher brow than most.

Best dance routine: Dai Henwood. The comedian formerly known as P-Funk Chainsaw is now John D'Bankteller in his show The Hot Steppa. He also wins Most Worrying Introduction with the line "I hope you dudes are into interpretative dance".

His physical assault on Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time had us in tears.

Best routine by a man who sometimes advertises meat products: No, not pork spokesman Mike King but English and sometime telly sausage pitch guy Andy Parsons.

Like Proops, he does withering sarcasm on a global scale and he has a really funny nasal voice, too.

Best you-had-to-be-there punchline: Lee Mack's "Sorry not chicken, Chechnyan". The English stand-up showed there's something perverse, surreal and rather black about his approach.

And he's witheringly rude to hecklers. Much recommended.

Best use of shoplifted prop: NZ-based Cuban Ezequil Balmori got quite a lot out of his system about capitalist idiocy by pondering a plastic toy version of a McDonald's happy meal he claimed to have swiped from the Warehouse.

Best reason to slip into something more comfortable: The consistently brilliant duo Flight of the Conchords offered yet another spot-on pop parody with a boudoir-funk number probably entitled Let's Get Down to Business.

If he was capable of rotation in such a tight space, Barry White would be rolling in his grave.

Best explanation of British accents: Danny Bhoy who, because of his Indian-Scots background, must get a lot of Billy Connolly-meets-The-Kumars comparisons. But he appears to be funny enough to deserve them.

Best sound effects: Aussie duo the Umbilical Brothers' physical comedy with vocally dubbed sound effects is like a cartoon come to life. They ended the night with a tap dance routine which displayed more energy than the other acts combined.