As far as I can tell, it’s been four years since Wayne Brady last made sh*t up onstage in New Zealand. Last time, he closed the show with a set of serious r&b songs from his new album. This time, he stuck to the comedy. The only serious music was Neil Diamond’s greatest hits playing as the capacity audience took its seats, which subsequently provided some great gags for Brady and his fellow performer, Jonathan Mangum. 

In a festival crammed with stand up comics, Wayne Brady is one of the few internationals to be doing something different. He opens the show with a rap that incorporates words that Mangum has elicited from the audience. These included pulchritudinous and xenophobic. Creating rhymes that make sense is one of his talents. As he admits in the show, he isn’t a doctor, he can’t save lives or cure people, but he can make sh*t up.

From the rap he moves to a series of improv sketches with Mangum and sometimes volunteers from the audience. Having been assured in advance that any volunteers will not be made to look stupid, the chosen few carry out the tasks given to them and are great sports in the process. In fact the only people to be at the wrong end of a joke all night are the aforementioned Neil Diamond, and a certain National MP who wondered if anyone knew who he was recently (turns out Wayne Brady did!).

The show closes with a set of Celebrity Idol, where Brady improvises hits with titles provided by the audience while impersonating Justin Bieber, Scott Stapp from Creed, Prince and MC Hammer among others.

Somewhere in the mists of time I was taught that improvisation is about being a Yes; to take the suggestions and the feedlines and run with them. To be a No shuts improv down. Perhaps this living in the Yes is why Wayne Brady is such a positive and enjoyable performer.

To see him live is to go home smiling and feeling good. And Mangum is no slouch either. For example, his Keith Richards is a hilarious accompaniment to Brad’s Mick Jagger impersonation.

And if a huge ovation from an enthusiastic audience can be interpreted as a Yes, then good on Brady and Mangum for running with it. The house lights were already on when they returned for an encore, which turned out to be a show highlight.

Because it is improv, no two shows will ever be alike. I suspect that Brady and Mangum have been working together so long they have plenty of tricks up their sleeves, but really what difference does it make in the end? What I mostly know is that as well as the rest of the sell out crowd at tonight’s show, I went home on a happy high that I am still experiencing.

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