THE F WORD = FUN |
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) Hot Pink Bits Penny Ashton at BATS, Wellington From 10 Feb 2007 to 14 Feb 2007 [1 hr] Reviewed by Michael Wray, 14 Feb 2007 |
Penny Ashton's show Hot Pink Bits is a whistle stop tour of life's seedier aspects. From the (not so surprising) revelation that Google returns almost four times as many hits for sex as for world peace, to history lessons they did not teach at school, little ground is left uncovered.
Between musical renditions of songs like 'Dirty Deeds' (Done Dirt Cheap), we hear how man has reduced all forms of media to methods of self-titillation with ever-increasing rapidity. Internet porn is not a new concept; it's just responds faster than older communication forms.
A pornographic pop quiz serves to entertain, not least when audience members resort to invention in response to tricky teasers. For the record, I won a $2 D-Vice voucher on one of the questions - a lucky guess... honest!
The show successfully treads the risqué line between what is funny and what could offend. Despite the adult themes, it is difficult to believe that anyone could take offence.
It's a show that would be just as home in the comedy festival, resembling a relaxed stand-up routine at various times. Audience participation is sought and freely given, if a little reluctantly from the selected victims who soon warm up. Ashton works in a serious aside on the double standards applied between men and women on sex and in particular the world's oldest profession, a point well made, but the focus of the show is definitely on the F word (fun, obviously).
See also reviews by:
Ewen Coleman (The Dominion Post);