Hal Cruttenden gives as a glimpse of his show to be presented in the 2017 Comedy Festival.

Romesh Ranganathan went from high school maths teacher to Bafta nominee.

Penny Ashton is swapping Jane Austen for Charles Dickens in her latest comic caper.

The home of Auckland's Classic Comedy Club has had a hard life. Matt Nippert reports.

The NZ Comedy Fest has dropped one of its most iconic venues and Kiwi comedians are not happy about it.

Natasha Hoyland used to be a homebody. Now she is forging a career as a stand-up comedian, a path she credits to YWCA's Future Leaders programme.

Mel Parsons is going on tour with the women behind hit comedy show The Bitches' Box.

When Sieni Leo'o Olo saw Massive Company perform for the first-time, she returned to drama classes at Aorere College and told her classmates "we're doing it all wrong, guys!"

Away from bright lights and big crowds, Joanna Mathers asks why lesser-known mortals would want to stand up and tell jokes to a bunch of hostile strangers.

Get off the beaten track and keep an emergency credit card safely hidden.

Comedian Paul Ego has passed on the gift of the gab to his boy Gabe. Father and son talk to Dionne Christian

Here are five new comedy festival acts you should be intrigued by.

We ended up at a hotel that had its glory days in the 70s, it was huge with practically no guests in it.

Last year, it staged 111 shows - 62 in its regular programme, 23 in the Fringe, 26 in the NZ Comedy Festival and more than 100 "other" events.

I entered an underground fight club on Phi Phi Island in Thailand a couple years ago. They put me up against an actual K1 fighter. Needless to say, the fight didn't last long.

Noel Fielding took to the stage and embraced the bare accoutrements of traditional stand-up comedy, writes Karl Puschmann.

It might be years since the end of The Mighty Boosh, but the local following that Noel Fielding earned from the surreal show will be welcoming him to this year's comedy festival.

I have never been a big fan of comedians who resort to crude, shock humour, riddled with curse words that would make a sailor proud. So it was refreshing to get along to Wash Your Mouth Out, at Vault at the Q Theatre, in Auckland.

21 comics over three-and-a-half hours became 'comedy as punishment' at last night's Comedy Gala.

With the New Zealand International Comedy Festival just around the corner, Sarah Ell caught up with comedian Jamie Bowen.

Rose Matafeo reveals what part of her Jono & Ben billboard is photoshopped, and explains why she is staging her own funeral at the NZ International Comedy Festival.

Rape may not be a joke, but comedian Adrienne Truscott pokes fun at the absurd issues around the subject - even stripping to make her point, writes Lydia Jenkin.

Is this the cheekiest act of the Comedy Festival? One-half of Aussie duo The Naked Magicians tells us about their accidental 'orgy' of comedy, magic and nudity.

He was a loudmouth vampire in What We Do in the Shadows, but comedian Cori Gonzalez-Macuer prefers dry understatement. He talks about tattoos, whisky, failure and success.

The line-up for the 2015 Comedy Festival is out today with a programme featuring everyone from returning international and local stars to provocative new acts.

Trygve Wakenshaw is from Auckland via performing and studying stints in Paris, London and Oslo.

Where have we seen you before?: TV3 Comedy Gala or the Classic Comedy Bar in Auckland.

Where have we seen you before? Either rummaging through a dumpster out the back of your favourite Chinese restaurant or you might have seen me on stage.

Where have we seen you before? I was a gynaecologist on Shortland St, a street comedienne in Power Rangers and a gossip on Good Morning.