Itay Dom – Itay Phone Home
BATS Theatre, Studio, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
06/05/2025 - 10/05/2025
The Classic Comedy Club, 321 Queen Street, Auckland
20/05/2025 - 24/05/2025
NZ International Comedy Festival 2025
Production Details
Created and performed by comedian: Itay Dom
What’s the wildest thing you’ve done to impress someone? For Itay Dom, it was attempting stand-up comedy.
Now, after a Billy T Award nomination and appearances on Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee and The Bachelorette, Itay brings you Itay Phone Home – a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud look at his life. From immigrating to New Zealand to navigating 20s dating disasters (plus an unexpected run-in with Valerie Adams’ dog), Itay takes you on the journey that led his 18-year-old self to grab a mic in a heroic bid to win over his crush.
Did it work? Was he funny? Is he still single?
Find out in a show packed with razor-sharp observations, laidback crowd work, and maybe one more questionable life decision.
WELLINGTON:
Venue: Bats Theatre – The Studio
Dates: 6 – 10 May
Times: 7.30PM
Prices: $20 – $25
AUCKLAND:
Venue: The Classic – Studio
Dates: 20 – 24 May
Times: 8.15pm
Prices: $25 – $28
Booking: https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/find-a-show/itay-dom-itay-phone-home/
Comedy , Theatre , Solo ,
50 minutes
Adept at tagging his tales with a twist
Review by John Smythe 07th May 2025
Itay Dom faces his audience of seven (plus operator Izzi Lao) in the tiny BATS Studio with light-hearted aplomb. In fact he makes a virtue of it, which warms us to his slightly bewildered charm. The intimacy also exposes each of us to his personal attention, to which most of us are happy to respond.
I had thought to title of his show – Itay Phone Home – might arise from playground taunts, given his family immigrated from the Middle East when he was younger. But it’s just a play on E.T. and maybe a hint on how to pronounce his name. Expect nothing more from his clever publicity image.
Itay’s show is about his response to the question, “What’s the wildest thing you’ve done to impress someone?” – specifically in order to score a date and maybe even a kiss. As his publicity reveals, his ‘wild’ response was giving stand-up comedy a go. But it takes him a while to get to that story and reveal its ongoing purpose.
Meanwhile we hear about the Billy T Award, for which he is nominated, what he did to earn a $200 Uber fine, why his parents chose to move to NZ, the issues he faced at an all-boys’ school, the limitations of the university course he chose, what he learned from modern art, how having no money affected his dating …
Attempts at dating and relationships permeate his set as muses on where North Islanders tell immigrants to go – and what they are told when they get there, the perils of being a fast reader, the value – or not – of having a dog, doing drugs, watching porn … And at last he shares the story of the exchange student from Denmark who set him on the course that finds him here.
Itay establishes a friendly relationship with his audience and is adept at tagging his tales with a twist – sometimes in such a throwaway style, we double-take before we laugh.
Post-show we are treated to his show reel, which reveals he’s a seasoned performer used to playing in larger space to bigger audiences. While that makes me feel sorry that Wellington has short-changed him, I also feel a tad disappointed that his ‘trying to get a date’ material traverses such well-trod territory.
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