Jan Maree: Eat Me Too, Wellington!
19/05/2009 - 23/05/2009
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
COMEDY YOU CAN REALLY TASTE
New ideas for old rice, a quick idea for cheap chicken and the best way to demolish a packet of gingernuts, it’s the tastiest laugh you will have this year. New Zealand’s only Cook-Up Comedian, Jan Maree returns to the Wellington leg of the festival with an evening of culinary comedy!
Originally from the Hutt Valley’s foreshore paradise Petone, 2001 Billy T Award winning comedian Jan Maree has gone on to carve an unusual niche with her stand-up/cooking hybrid, she has become known as the drinking man’s Nigella Lawson. In 2007, she regaled capacity crowds with Eat Me: tales from the apron strings of my Gran’s kitchen, earning a nomination for Best Local Show at the NZICF Awards.
In 2009, Jan is here to entertain Wellington’s avid foodies and laughers alike, showing that the way to a man’s stomach isn’t necessarily through his heart…or his kidneys. Eat Me Too, Wellington centres on life in the country side. Living in a caravan with no running water, only a generator for power and a humble gas camp stove Jan had to learn to ‘cook’ all over again.
Food stories, fun, learning, laughter and a great meal. Your dining pleasure achieved by Pot Luck Restaurant @ Sandwiches’ Head Chef Terry who presents three courses from the very recipe book in which Jan Maree notes her firebrand cooking.
Coming from a staunchly Anglican background Jan wanted to use this show as an opportunity to give something back to the church and to those for whom a nightly meal is a luxury. WIN-WIN Situation!!! Bring a can of food* and cross your fingers for the nightly prize draw: a grown-up’s grab bag of goodies…for no man (nor woman) can exist happily on food alone!
* One can of food = One entry. Unlimited number of entries per person…that’s right, the more cans you bring, the more chances you have to win!
New Zealand has been waiting for a new culinary hero, that hero has come. Her name is Jan Maree and she wants you to EAT ME!
WARNING: R 18. Not a show for P freaks (they have no appetite)
WELLINGTON
Dates: Tuesday 19 – Saturday 23 May 2009
Venue: Pot Luck Restaurant @ Sandwiches, cnr Majoribanks St and Kent Terrace
Tickets: $55 / $50 GROUPS 8+
Bookings: 0800 TICKETEK (0800 842 5385) www.ticketek.co.nz
Cookomedy that sates and uplifts
Review by Priyanka Bhonsule (Hutt News) 20th May 2009
Having only been to Sandwiches when it was crowded with alcohol-fuelled dance maniacs, it was a welcome change to see it so warm and inviting for Jan Maree’s cooking-cum-comedy show.
The hostess with the most is behind the bar already, busy preparing things for the show while guests of her dinner party (audience seems like an awkward word) are taken care of by the courteous wait staff.
A programme tells us about the conception of this show along with the importance food holds in Maree’s and all our lives (along with fornication, but that gets covered in detail later).
There are also recipes of what she will be cooking so it’s a little preview of what to expect. I hadn’t eaten anything since (a light) lunch so I was prepared to be sated.
Maree did not disappoint, neither on the food nor on the comedy as the show cracked on at a good pace without either element taking over completely.
It would have been quite difficult to laugh with a mouthful of food and the host/performer understood that, regaling us with funny tales while she cooked and then allowing us to savour the meal without interruptions.
The whole show has an air of a casual dinner party with good friends who have stories of their lives to share with each other, demonstrated by Maree’s great rapport with those sitting in the front, who were soon swapping recipes for good mac ‘n’ cheese and telling Maree about their son’s curious eating habits.
It’s clear Maree likes talking and she’s been through enough in her 35 years to spin a good yarn.
It’s not great big belly laughs, which in hindsight, probably would have been painful on a stomach full of food, but more continuous chuckles as we hear stories of Maree living in a caravan for a couple of years, her husband’s illness which came on during that time and her hairy heritage.
She also has a serious message about the importance of life and loved ones but, thankfully, this does not come across as preaching because Maree has made friends with us.
The food may not all be to your liking but the honest comedy will send you off feeling sated and uplifted – just like a good meal should.
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