The Comedy Cure: Word on the Street
06/05/2009 - 09/05/2009
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
PURE, UNCUT COMEDY
Four of Wellington’s hottest comedians bring to the stage a high energy blend of stand up, musical comedy, stage sketches and film. The show runs the comedy gamut from satire to surreal. The Comedy Cure will blow you away.
In Word on the Street, The Comedy Cure will reveal to you those gritty truths that they have gleaned from the mean streets of Brooklyn (our Brooklyn – which is actually grittier than New York’s Brooklyn) and Johnsonville. The Comedy Cure are gonna stick it to the man – and when they stick it, it stays stuck.
The Comedy Cure played sold out seasons in the 2007 and 2008 New Zealand International Comedy Festivals. Their 2008 show featured an interpretive dance retelling of the movie ‘Top Gun’ that many consider to be better than the film itself.
The performers:
Cameron "Pinchey" Murray is a Comedy Cure veteran and the National 2008 RAW Comedy Quest Winner.
TJ McDonald is a regular performer and MC at the Wellington Comedy Club. He recently performed in the 2009 New Zealand Fringe Festival show Hot Drinks and Spoken Words.
Jim Stanton has performed across New Zealand, from Dunedin to Auckland. She recently performed in the 2009 New Zealand Fringe Festival show The Comediettes.
Sarah Harpur (also of The Comediettes) is a hugely successful comic and member of The Improvisors.
Word on the Street will keep you in hysterics from start to finish. This show is an experience you will never forget.
"These four comics have done much to ensure the audience will remember them" –THEATREVIEW
WELLINGTON
Dates: Wednesday 6th May – Saturday 9th May, 8pm
Venue: BATS Theatre, Kent Terrace
Tickets: $15 Adults / $12 Concession, Groups 8+
Bookings: BATS Theatre, 04 802 4175, Or email book@bats.co.nz
1hr, no interval
Potential hijacked by technology
Review by John Smythe 07th May 2009
No-one knows better that the Comedy Cure quartet that their opening show as BATS was a disaster but ‘word on the street’ is it can only improve. Far from deliver a show apologetically predicted to be "so good that the rest of your life will pale into insignificance", Wednesday’s Word On The Street almost cured its audience of any further appetite for comedy.
To be fair it was technology that let them down – non-functioning remote buttons failing to activate the data show on cue – and their valiant attempts to acknowledge, cover and fill in the gaps did score ripples of empathy. Apparently it all worked well at their tech and dress rehearsals and the theory is its the presence of an audience itself that somehow interferes with the signals. [Any thoughts, folks?]
Some of the screen imagery is excellent while others … might work when delivered with the intended timing. The four performers variously interact with the screen (or not), deliver short standup sets at microphones (which are redundant at Bats, especially when the mode of delivery us upbeat and loud) and play out short sketches at a water cooler.
I assume it was the technical problems that robbed other parts of good energy, flow and timing, and led to about five deadly pauses before the next bit got under way. We felt their pain, I assure you. And there was enough evidence to suggest that when it all runs as planned, it will be a good show.
Each performer has a distinct comic persona and most of their material is … valid. Not the word they’d want to see applied to what is supposed to be a madcamp romp through whimsy, absurdity and a touch of darkness.
Jim Stanton gets good mileage from having a male name and bounces well between bright and depressed. Sarah Harpur brings an infectious and slightly clownish glee to her roles and her witty original songs.
T J McDonald brings an authoritative yet friendly strength to his work. Cameron "Pinchey" Murray does a nice line in deadpan monotone delivery, his minimalist physicality interestingly counterpointed on opening night when he was obliged to leap up the ramped aisle to the bio box to punch the laptop …
They’ll remember last night and laugh about it one day – especially if the rest of their season reaches its clear potential.
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Comments
Jim Stanton May 7th, 2009
No laughter in hindsight as yet but a lot of determination to make our show the "fast-paced comedy flurry" that we set out for it to be. Technology be dammed - Its the Comedy Festival!