EARLY EVENING WITH WINSTON MACADAMIA-SMITH
Fringe Bar, 26-32 Allen St, Te Aro, Wellington
15/02/2017 - 19/02/2017
NZ Fringe Festival 2017 [reviewing supported by WCC]
Production Details
Join Winston Macadamia-Smith (from Late Night with Winston Macadamia-Smith) and his unruly panel for a crumpet and a cup of tea in the world’s first “early evening” talk show, which is the same rubbish as his late night show but in an earlier time-slot. Winston Macadamia-Smith, a self-styled “professor of life” who’s seen it all and isn’t afraid to let the truth bombs fly.
Early Evening with Winston is a surreal talk-show parody, the perfect vehicle for this grumpiest of old men to sit back and tell the world what he thinks of it. With a rotating guest line-up, and allusions to all the usual late-night talk show tropes, each show will be an unpredictable romp where nothing and no one is sacred.
Winston first came to life for a Shakespearean lecture series at Melbourne University in 2006. He’s since appeared sporadically in hosting duties, online sketches, and character comedy nights. Following a late-minute show cancellation at a comedy night in 2015, a late-night talk show with Winston as host was cobbled together, and the first ever “Late Night with Winston” was a chaotic success.
This new rendition represents a more intense, tightly-focused evolution of the show concept, playing to the strengths of Winston’s sharp tongue and wit, and the unpredictability of the revolving guest panel. With Bullock’s known love of surreal comedy, this will be no ordinary hour of late-night television! Especially since there aren’t any cameras.
Fringe Bar, 26 Allen St, Te Aro, Wellington 6011
15-19 Feb, 7pm.
BOOKINGS: fringe.co.nz
TICKETS: $18/$14/$10
Theatre , Spoken word , Improv ,
1 hr
Has potential but lacks a sense of purpose
Review by Simon Howard 16th Feb 2017
Be it Graham Norton, Jimmy Fallon or James Corden, talk shows are a hugely popular genre of television show which, when successful, not only entertain audiences but also allow guests to plug their latest projects. Elwood Social Club Productions, a young Melbourne-based comedy group headed up by Kieran Bullock, have crafted this early evening theatrical talk show hybrid for their appearance in the New Zealand Fringe Festival.
Billed as a surreal talk-show parody, Early Evening with Winston Macadamia Smith is an hour of Winston, played by Kieran Bullock, and his assistant Hobart discussing trivial matters whilst going through a series of segments they have come up with for the show. Be it guessing which song belongs to a certain one-hit-wonder band from the 90s or a Top 7 (he ran out before 10) about the new US president, the show moves along at a leisurely pace, with no real thread running through to tie it all together.
A bumbling British gentleman who longs for quality tea and talks of being vetted by royalty, Macadamia-Smith is a multifaceted character who Kieran Bullock fully realises. He engages well with his audience and displays an endearing nature. Macadamia-Smith possesses many stereotypical British upper-class qualities and does well to come off as believable, and not merely as a clichéd caricature. He also boasts a commendable knowledge of the changing local scene, with numerous references to departed establishments such as Pizza King and Electric Avenue.
Whether this is intentional or not is open to interpretation, but the show on the whole does come across as slightly undercooked. The performance slows down as Macadamia-Smith pauses to control technical aspects of the show and his assistant Hobart is frequently under-utilized. For the first half of the show, there is little to set the pulse racing. An opening conversation with the audience draws us in and promises a level of interaction and involvement that sadly never goes any further.
The show really comes to life and is at its most effective in the second half, when incorporating guests from other Fringe shows. On this opening night there are performances from Canadian cabaret singer Shirley Gnome and UK stand-up comedian Sameena Zehra. Adding variety and laughter to proceedings, both are accomplished performers whose five minute sets leave me wanting more.
Shirley’s unapologetically shameless song about sex is matched by a similarly funny story from Zehra. Sameena sticks around after her five minute set to be interviewed by Winston and Hobart, something which adds an extra dimension to proceedings.
This is a show with undoubted potential, but one which could be much more fluid. Some of the segments come across as unrehearsed and a sense of purpose to the show is lacking. This is a show which suits its early evening slot but not in a positive sense. Early Evening with Winston Macadamia-Smith meanders along at a lethargic pace for thirty minutes before an injection of energy is provided by the two guests later on. I leave wanting to see the guests given more time on stage to interact with Winston and Hobart and to take part in their segments and games, much like the best talk shows today do.
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Comments
Maryanne February 17th, 2017
As this is one of those shows which changes every night, I thought I would drop in that last night was hilarious. The first half was engaging and had the audience chuckling and laughing and interacting, the guests were great. It's always going to be the luck of the draw with these types of shows!