Liv Ward, winner of the 2024 Wellington Raw Comedy Quest and National Raw Quest Finalist, has presented their new debut comedy show EPIC WAY! I’m Gay? Oui oui faguette^TM I LOVE KIM HILL at Te Auaha as part of the NZ Fringe Festival 2025.

We are straight off introduced to Ward’s clowning talents when an endearing pale-legged lobster arises from under its cosy bed and blanket on stage.  Tapere Iti (the smaller of the two theatres at Te Auaha) is an intimate, cosy theatre space which was an ideal habitat for this particular crustacean.  Within minutes Ward has the audience in side-splitting laughter with their delightful depiction of a typical Lobster morning routine which involves a few token ab-crunches, some crooner lobster dance moves, but nothing too strenuous at this hour of the morning. 

It is very difficult not to giggle at Ward’s $5 lobster costume which exposes a lot more leg than the average crustacean.  Above all, this lobster’s prerogative is to get highly caffeinated as they pace back and forth to chug it back like only a lobster could.  Ward’s physicality as this merry lobster is an absolute riot, very unpredictable, thoroughly entertaining.  Before any words are spoken we are already feeling the active presence of our abdominals.  

It feels a bit like we have all been personally invited to this infamous celebrity lobster’s TV show. The large TV screen on stage right is quite prominent for the Tapere Iti stage but once the lo-fi slideshow commences we are impatient to be introduced to the next live special guest as each distorted celebrity face reveals crucial information in the search for the apparently missing Liv Ward. There is a lot of hilarity in observing the lobster’s interactions with different celebrities like Joan Rivers (ex host of Fashion Police) or Kim Hill who freezes abruptly whenever she isn’t talking. 

Ward cleverly delivers some reprieve from the show`s long title through a personal quiz hour with relatively straight-forward questions like “What are Liv Ward’s pro-nouns?” and “Is Liv Ward a faguette?” that cause both Ward and the audience to look around and deliberate. This is ultimately Ward’s mission, to explore gender identity through humour – to quote the programme notes, it is: “a journey to learn about queerness and transness”`”. 

Spoiler alert : once the lobster identifies the missing Liv Ward who was in fact stuck inside a GAYTM machine all along, the mood of the show shifts. Here is Ward’s opportunity to discuss less humorous topics such as the problematic issue of banks capitalising on diversity with the creation of GAYTMs during pride celebrations.  We finally begin to see the real Liv Ward without the guise of the lobster.  

Time for some context. How about Ward’s family life? How about their tumultuous relationship with a homophobic father and why it might just stunt one’s journey to queerness and transness when you grow up in rural Aotearoa NZ, or to be more precise, “the southern Necropolis of Temuka”?  Despite the seriousness of the topic, Ward flawlessly warms up the crowd once again at Temuka’s expense with a story about a lobster reaching out to the local Temuka facebook page and hilarity ensues.  Are we sensing a bit of closure ? 

Ward shows us a lo-fi video of the now infamous lobster fitting in with the Temuka locals and showing us around. The video is a cathartic, light, humorous and positive part of Ward’s journey. Design elements are well incorporated – sound engineer and lighting designer Marshall Rankin and animations Ben Fernando.

Even ex mayor of the Timaru district, Janie Annear, pipes in live on TV to give her personal praise of Ward. At this point we have made sense of the show’s long title and we have understood that it’s been a hell of a voyage.  There is just one tragic flaw in the title where Ward themselves takes a moment to reflect on whether Kim Hill is actually straight or not.  Big chuckles. Oh the deception. 

Ward gives the audience a great finale pulling out some fundamental vogue femme moves like catwalk and duckwalk to pumping beats, and the crowd cheers in elation. The audience leaves the theatre on a big high.  

A thoroughly entertaining and informative solo show for everyone regardless of how you identify, with elements of stand-up, clown, music and dance.  A reclamation of gender through theatre, illuminating human experience and telling a unique story of small town isolation to self-acceptance aka UTOPIAN FAGUETTEDOM™.

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