“I can’t understand why no-one finds kidney disease as funny as I do!” This is dark folks, at least you might assume so, but Callum Wagstaff delivers this line along with many other killers and receives a room full of laughter.

It is a tough environment. The Cavern Club is small and the stand-up space is positioned on the long side of the room, so the nineteen-strong crowd is close. Wagstaff can see all our faces clearly. After about five minutes, I am thinking this guy should be in front of a thousand people.

Wagstaff is fantasising about how his morning gag of playing dead as his girlfriend wakes beside him may turn out to be the real thing one day. Her ungentle attempts to rouse him finally become impossible, trapping her digit in an unfortunate place, causing her to end up with a ring clamped on her finger that she was not really expecting.

It is difficult to understand how Wagstaff spins his personal tragedy into comedy gold in this one-hour stand-up. A lot of it must be the man himself. He is cheeky, perverse, and shameless, reminding me at times of (UK comedians) Joe Wilkinson or Harry Hill. But I can also feel he is nervous. This is risky material for a comedy show. It could easily be milked for sympathy and he is clearly trying to avoid that. He succeeds but I feel his delivery would be more powerful with the confidence to pause after those killer lines. Some of them need it for the audience to catch up with the gag.

The relatively fast pace is the only sign of nerves, and it does not distract. The audience is with Wagstaff even if he does not fully perceive that. The fact that he is winning in such an intimate environment says to me that this could work in a much bigger room. Not only can he see us all clearly, we can clearly see each other, which can, by itself, inhibit most New Zealand audiences from fully expressing their appreciation. In a large group I can imagine the audience responding with less inhibition, which in this case would mean big laughs – especially with a slower pace.

I know Wagstaff prefers the intimacy of this type of space, so he can gauge the response to the dark side of the material, allowing him to ensure he has the balance right. However, since emerging as a newcomer in 2021, he has won more than his fair share of awards and nominations. Audiences and reviewers support him. I would love a producer to put him in front of more people, and I hope he builds his confidence, because he has great comedic sense.

I also hope he gets a kidney. After at least two blunders in his care from our chronically underfunded health system, he deserves it more than most, if such a thing can be said. At its heart, this show is political – in the least obnoxious way possible. Things need to change in our health system and donor system, in particular. I support his plea to respect the wishes of your family members who have chosen to be organ donors. In New Zealand families have the choice of vetoing their loved ones’ decision when they die. If you have the power to save lives, please open your mind and your heart, and use it.

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