Five Thoughts on the New Zealand International Comedy Festival

Look, while I’m not a comedian in any way, shape or form, I am pretty familiar with the New Zealand International Comedy Festival (sponsored by Best Foods Mayo). In 2015, I had a play in the festival (which frankly had absolutely no business being there, as it was barely a comedy). I did a few gigs in Dope Joke Party in 2016, where you might have seen me lip-syncing to a mash-up of the score to Mad Max: Fury Road and Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take The Wheel”. 

Following that, I was the comedy co-editor at The Spinoff in 2017, writing about the festival for about three months ahead of the festival. In that time, I performed (poorly) at a RAW comedy night, I interviewed dozens of performers, reviewed well over 40 shows and also lost my mind. The following year I was deeply ill, but still ended up seeing 10 shows. I did not see a show between 2019 and 2023 because the thought of engaging with the festival again made me want to run screaming, not laughing, in the other direction.

Which is sad, because I genuinely love comedy and have a huge respect for the craft of stand-up. I’ve learned just as much about my playwriting craft from stand-up as I have from traditional theatre. I haven’t stopped watching stand-up, but I didn’t think I would be able to “do” comedy festival without seeing as many shows as possible.

This year, now that I’m freelance and can sleep in past 9am if I so choose, I engaged with the festival again, seeing 23 shows in total. These are my general thoughts on the festival in general, rather than any specific tea or shade (sorry, vultures!).