"He's quite possibly one of the funniest people I've ever met. He lives in Melbourne but Whanganui's like his second home."
Cavey is one of quite a few people who have encouraged Neil to take his comedy to the next stage ... or any stage. For a long time, Neil wasn't keen ... "Because it's a really scary thing to do."
Neil made his comedy debut this year at Porridge Watson in Whanganui. It was filmed and Neil immediately sent a link to Cavey. "I've done it."
That was enough for Cavey to ask him to join him and Chris Franklin in November. Neil decided to have a go.
"It's exciting yet like going to the dentist at the same time."
He says his first time out in front of the microphone "was a massive blur". That was with Hello Comedy people at Porridge Watson.
"They were so supportive."
Before the show he kept to himself and talked to no one. He didn't tell any of his mates except a good friend called Michelle who came along and supported him.
"She left me alone and said there would be a whisky ready for me when I'd done."
Neil is in his element when he's hanging out by Eyal Ben-Ezra's coffee cart making people laugh.
"That's my ideal audience, really, when I'm just prattin' about. Ooh, someone's laughing, which just encourages me to do it more: 'cause I'm a child."
For his second performance, he told people, so he had friends in the audience. "I was amazed that they turned up."
Even with the stage lights in his face, before Neil began his routine, he looked out and could see his best mate Trevor in the audience. "That threw me."
By his third performance, things were different.
"I enjoyed it, because I was starting to play with it a little bit. It was a much smaller audience so you didn't get that ripple effect. With a bigger set of people, you say a joke and different people get it at different times."
Neil steers away from base comedy, keeping swearing and sexual innuendo to a minimum.
"I'll flick around the logic on things."
He says the basis of his comedy is his confusion with the world. "It's a weird place so we have to laugh at it. If you don't laugh, it's a scary place."
In the Crossing the Ditch tour, Neil's routine lasts about seven minutes, which is a really long time, he says.
He is learning from other comedians and often attends their performances, not for the jokes, but to get a sense of their timing and their use of pauses.
"Comedy is about what you say, how you say it and how you react to it. If I'm making myself laugh, then why not?"
His appearance is a constant, with pretty much the same clothes every time — jeans, a white shirt and a jacket — except for the shoes. Neil has a shoe collection to rival Imelda Marcos, and each pair is a performance. "I dress as me."
Neil has been a regular participant in Small Talks, where people address a subject on stage with the use of Powerpoint slides and a limited time to speak about each one. In seven years, he has only missed a couple.
"That was my blue touch paper ... it started fizzling. I enjoy making people laugh. I enjoy the challenge of making someone laugh."
He is still surprised that people come to hear him perform.
"Mental health is a big thing for me: that's why I'm doing Friday's Stand Up For a Mate, which is a stand-up comedy show at the Globe in Palmerston North."
It is to raise funds for I Am Hope, the mental health organisation. Neil takes medication for depression and anxiety and has done for years. He says he gets feelings of insecurity and self-doubt, even after a good performance, but he soon comes back from it and carries on.
"I am very self-critical, and I am that with everything." He calls himself a recovering perfectionist, and laughs about it. Well, someone has to.
