April 29, 2024

The Comedy Festival is a smorgasbord. Come along and sample.

Margaret Needsanewjob April 25th, 2024
2024Margaret, this is the strangest and most unsatisfactory review I’ve seen in a very long time. I think it’s time to retire and let a reviewer who actually listens to the material take over.

Margaret Needsanewjob April 26th, 2024
I’ve slept on it and I’m still thinking of how dreadful this “review” is. It’s a summary, which any moron can give after being present at a show. No actual reviewing has been done. Nothing to service how well the comedians or the show actually went. This was truly a disservice to those performers and the work and talent they put in. They deserve better and readers deserve better. You’re horrible at your job, Margaret.

John Smythe April 26th, 2024
Thank you for comment Margaret Needsanewjob. What a shame you choose to be anonymous, unlike any of our reviewers. I will respond because although you may have a valid point, your tone is unnecessarily abusive. Margaret Austin stood in for me at the last moment on this because I’m a close contact of someone with Covid. As we understand it, the Preview Show offers snippets of full length shows that are coming up in the NZ Comedy Festival. I asked her to give us a sense of the nature of each act so people might glean which shows they might book for without giving their shows away, so to speak. The show was a trailer and so is her review. A comprehensive critique of 11 separate and disparate acts is a big ask under the circumstances. So blame me for the shortcomings you perceive.

John Smythe April 27th, 2024
I too have slept on this and now feel the need to make a couple more points: Critics are certainly not above criticism and we welcome constructive responses. And if a review was offered that was as abusive to artists as the comments below, it would not be published until the editor had given the reviewer feedback and asked for a rewrite. The Comments section can be used to add audience responses to the show being reviewed and it’s a shame this commentator didn’t avail themselves of that opportunity.

John Smythe April 29th, 2024
We take on board that stand-up comedians would like the qualities of their writing, delivery and the audience response to be included in reviews. That is a reasonable expectation for full-length shows. That said, critics are not directors, teachers or mentors. They have no prior knowledge of the work being presented and may or may not have seen the performer’s previous work. Their job is to respond, reflect and record as a representative of the audience – and in the process they will inevitably reveal themselves and their own tastes and proclivities, just as the comedians do.