Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Comedian Ray O’Leary to headline his hometown of Whanganui for the first time

Mike Tweed
By Mike Tweed
Multimedia Journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·
16 Jan, 2023 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Ray O'Leary has never played a solo show in his hometown.

Ray O'Leary has never played a solo show in his hometown.

Whanganui ex-pat Ray O’Leary has spent the last few years making waves in New Zealand’s comedy scene.

However, he has never performed a headline show in the city he grew up in.

That’s all set to change in March, when O’Leary brings his Everything Funny All the Time Always to the Repertory Theatre.

“Basically, it’s an hour of new jokes that I’ve never toured before,” he said.

“It’s a bunch of stuff I think is really funny. There’s some observational comedy, dark comedy, and meta comedy.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I reckon 30 or 40 per cent of it might be good.”

O’Leary attended Cullinane College before leaving for university in Wellington in 2010.

Becoming a comedian wasn’t on his radar back in his Cullinane College days.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“At high school, I was always quite shy,” O’Leary said.

“When we had to do speeches for NCEA, I was too afraid to speak in front of the class. I had to do it at interval in front of only the teacher.”

When he did crack a joke in class, his mates would yell it out and get all the laughs.

“I would just sit there furious that my joke had been stolen,” O’Leary said.

“It hasn’t happened [as a working comedian], and that’s quite insulting, now I think about it. No-one is bothering.

“Hopefully it’s a sign that they’re so perfectly honed to my voice, no-one could possibly rip them off. They wouldn’t dare.”

O’Leary started doing stand-up in 2015, and won Best Newcomer at the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards the following year.

He is now a regular on Have You Been Paying Attention? and 7 Days.

Across the ditch, he appears on The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention? - Australia.

Last year, he ticked over 600 live gigs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Performing comedy was a very daunting prospect, with most people being put off because of the fear of public speaking, O’Leary said.

“That goes pretty quickly though - that’s the easiest thing to get over. The tricky part is being funny while you’re up there.

“It looks like Whanganui has developed a really great, supportive [comedy] community. That’s all happened since I left, so it’s hard not to take it personally.”

Despite having so many shows under his belt, the proposition of playing in Whanganui was “quite terrifying”.

“I have a lot of friends and family there, and it’s scary to think they might all come to the show.

“Hopefully, I can put on a good show for them and for all the other fine people of The River City.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His time in Wellington resulted in a Master’s degree in philosophy.

“Obviously, I’ve put that to great practical use,” O’Leary said.

“I think studying it was important to how I think now, and being able to analyse things and break them apart.”

He said one of the Platonic ideals of comedy was pointing out absurdities in everyday life.

“I love a comic by the name of Norm MacDonald, and he’s got a great line - ‘ID’ is a strange abbreviation, because the I is short for ‘I’, and the D is short for ‘dentification’.”

“It’s something you never think about, but when you hear it you’re like, ‘Of course’.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

O’Leary said MacDonald wanted his comedy to be timeless, something he also worried about.

Jokes about politics or the news could become outdated fast.

“You want to be original, and avoiding the low-hanging fruit helps you stand out.

“Before he even became the presidential nominee, I remember thinking there were too many jokes about Donald Trump.

“Unless you can think of a really original take on him, it’s best to avoid it.”

The one-hour Whanganui show is part of a national tour of dates before O’Leary heads to comedy festivals in Australia.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He will be at the Repertory Theatre on March 17.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM

Volcanic tremor remains low; Mt Ruapehu is at Volcanic Alert Level 1.

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM
'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

08 Jul 09:03 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP