Levin for Beginners is a line up style
(multiple comedians with an MC) show with a theme; every comic comes from one of New Zealands shit hole small towns, you know, the other Levins of greater New Zealand. The comics were to discuss the inconic stink town and/or their own stink one over the course of the hour. Entertainment wise, it was a largely successful show. There were pleanty of laughs and the packed audience was obviously having a good time. Admittedly there were a few awkward silences generated over the hour and Jez Brown in particular struggled to keep the rapidly exhausting audience laughing near the end of his set.
This is how you should create a festival show for comedians who don’t have a full hour of material yet. The bill was well structured, the theme was catchy and marketable, and the venue choice (the Katipo cafe) was goldilocks sized- just right. They also did something specialthat you wouldn’t see on a regular night, when Gareth Bradley presenting a physical slide show with (2010 Raw Comedy Finalist) Nathan Winter interjecting with some rather superb one liners.
The big successes of the night came from Gareth Bradley and Master of Ceremonies Brad Zimmerman. They rocked the joint. At one point Zimmerman heroicly saved the night from a show threatening confused silence with charm and amusing stories, so for someone who claims he’s not much of an MC he is learning very quickly. Zimmerman is high energy, compelling and actually fun, if I were you I’d check out his show Jetlagged in week three.
Now I singled out Bradley because his exacting wit was the highlight of the show. He spent the lions share of the night constructing and deconstructing the loaded images we have of Levin and Hamilton, trading energy with Winter, and actually made you feel okay for laughing at what could be a cruel premise. My dad has a farm a sneeze away from Levin, and everything he and Levin native Jez Brown said was accurate. Browns was so accurate to my experince it hurt.
Though Levin wouldn’t stand up against some of the international line up shows, it was a really tight show from some promising Wellingtonian comedians.
Levin for beginners: starring Brad Zimmerman, Nathan Winter, Jez Brown, Gareth Bradley, reviewed Saturday 9th May at the Katipo Cafe