The Pajama Men in VERSUS VS VERSUS
The Transmission Room, Auckland
05/05/2009 - 09/05/2009
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
Hold on tight! The Pajama Men are landing for the NZ International Comedy Fesival with their outrageously fast-paced comedy show versus vs. versus.
Done in their trademark style of sketch comedy & standup woven into the wonderful, jazz-like world of improvisation, this new show has had audiences in hysterics the world over with it’s hilarious, sometimes filthy and manic antics!
Live at the Transmission Room for 5 nights only, this will be one of the funniest shows you’ll ever see – as one critic said, it’s wet-your-pants, laugh out loud comedic theatre.
In a world where nothing is as you expect and characters change by the minute, Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez will introduce you to chess-playing bats, time-travelling camels, great Roman warriors, and a ballad-singing love-maker who offers less-than-wise sex tips. Meanwhile, an earnest dad named Dad is desperately trying to save his daughter, from her would-be rescuers.
Simply be dazzled and amused—as the Pajama Men hysterically untangle themselves from an enduringly odd and devastatingly funny plot.
"Pure joy … One of the most dazzling displays of comedy theatre I’ve ever seen. (Five stars!)" London Times.
"Whip-smart and able to turn on the thinnest of dimes, Allen and Chavez are improvisers’ improvisers. Actors’ actors. Comedians’ comedians." Chicago Tribune.
AUCKLAND
Dates: Tuesday 5 – Saturday 9th May, 7pm.
Venue: The Transmission Room, CNR mayoral dr and queen street Auckland.
Tickets: $26/21 previews $21
Bookings: 0800 TICKETEK (0800 842 5385) www.ticketek.co.nz
Baffled and bedazzled into incredulous/uncontrollable laughter
Review by Sian Robertson 06th May 2009
The Pajama Men are a force to be reckoned with. Their fast and furious one hour show is made up of absurdist sketches, loosely linking several story threads, together with a scattering of delightfully random scenarios. Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez switch between their dozen or more bizarre and vivid characters at no notice, from deadpan newsreader to vengeance-seeking timing-travelling Middle Eastern king to chess-playing bat.
The effect is quite surreal as they jump from newsroom, where they report totally irrelevant and/or nonsensical news, to ‘slices of life’ where they employ various movie genre styles to introduce us to some bizarre and hilarious characters.
They also introduce us to a talking horse, a married couple called ‘Husband’ and ‘Audrey’ in noir scenes of domestic tension, ‘Jennifer’ and ‘Dad’ on the run from the time-travelling king and his sidekick, a shifty grave digger, a surly, knitting black Southern woman (one of my favourites), an old man recounting a harmless childhood anecdote with nail-biting horror-movie suspense…
These guys are a riot, in turns baffling and bedazzling the audience, who spent a lot of the time in fits of incredulous/uncontrollable laughter (I was reduced to embarrassing snorting/drooling a couple of times). Not only are they seriously good comic actors, they can also sing and do a large array of convincing voices, accents, impersonations and sublime physical comedy.
I’d also like to mention their soundman, who does a great job – on stage without drawing attention to himself – of augmenting the frenetic action with well-timed electric guitar sound effects.
Versus vs Versus is very strange, very entertaining, very clever.
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[Note: ‘Pajama’ is the spelling on all this show’s billing. I cannot find a dictionary that knows it and I take it from the image they mean ‘pyjama’. Am I missing a gag here? – ED]
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Comments
John Smythe May 6th, 2009
That's what I thought, Michele - and now I probe deeper I see you are right in terms of usage, But I still cannot find and online dictionary to validate it, except as an alernative spelling (below).
So educational, eh.
paijama
Pyjama Py*ja"ma, n. [Hind. p[=a]e-j[=a]ma, literally, leg clothing.] In India and Persia, thin loose trowsers or drawers; in Europe and America, drawers worn at night, or a kind of nightdress with legs. Usually used in the plural. See {pajamas}. [Written also {paijama} {pajama}.] [Chiefly British variant of {pajama}.] [1913 Webster +PJC]
Michele ACourt May 6th, 2009
Not a gag, a cultural difference: "Pajama" is the North American spelling.