Autumn Chats
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Hello again, hello!
How've you been? It is a late April, Sunday afternoon as I write to you -- bright blue sky with a brittle chill passing through. I'm listening to some power ambient by Kagami Smile called "Fading into the Brightest Light (Dream Yoga)", which is such a powerful title but kinda just sounds like (pleasant) noise. Which I think is what power ambient is supposed to be? Regardless, it is pleasant like a cup of tea and it's got me revved up to say hi and catch up with you!
hey hey how was the Fringe Show?
The Fringe show went great! To those who could come, and who also read this email: Thank you for coming! That was fun as hell!
The turnout far exceeded my wildest dreams which, to be honest, is a fortunate thing. My main dream about the show was that either no one attended, or just a handful of people did who would all start chatting 5 minutes into it about a better show down the block and walk out together, leaving just me and the bartender, who shakes his head and tells me "I guess you live here now" and hands me a contract I have to read and sign, but the words are shifting gibberish and the pen keeps bending in my hands.
Luckily, my stress dreams are not reality! Instead, we had sold out nights of incredibly warm crowds, with friends each night wanting to go to drinks after. I got an extremely nice review in a local blog and nominated for a couple of Fringe awards!
I was feeling pretty "high on the hog" in the days after the show. Then, I went to a party of mostly strangers, and entered a convo where one stranger said he knew me from a show I was in a year ago. He then pitched a bizarre joke to me about was how odd it would be for me to appear confident on stage, and then said "If you'll take a note: I thought your set was good, but you lost me." Seeing my confusion, he then called his wife over to confirm that this is what he said, after my set, a year ago, and she said, "yep! we thought you were alright, but you lost us." I said it was amazing their memory held that long, and he advised me that "you can go to space, but you have to take the slow route," before reaching over to pinch a mosquito that had landed on my hand. Sometimes, my dreams do match reality!
But hey, Fringe is long gone and I got new things to talk about...which is: more shows and wrestling!
More shows?!
I have a show this Friday for anyone local, the Autumn Laughs at Te Auaha. I'll be sharing a bill with my funny friend Sameena Zehra, and the phenomenal, Billy T. James award winning comic Gabby Anderson. And now that I've typed that out, the show seems too good and I'm getting a bit stressed?! I will have chill nerves by Friday and it should be a good show and I will not disappoint you! YOU WILL LAUGH IN A WAY THAT YOU WILL DESCRIBE AS AUTUMNAL! IT WILL BE FULL AND FROM THE BELLY LIKE A HARVESTED PUMPKIN BUT CARRY A SENSE OF MELANCHOLY, YOUR LAUGHTER FADING IN THE AIR LIKE THE SCENT OF FALLEN LEAVES!
It's gonna be great!
ALSO! In May, there's a couple of shows I heartily recommend, happening as part of the International Comedy Festival.
My friend and fringe show partner Sandy Burton is doing his solo show, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work. I saw a preview of this at Fringe and it is delightful. High-minded, sincere, bookish, and physical! Big recommend!
And ALSO! My other friend and fringe show partner Lesa Macleod-Whiting is putting on her hour show, On Brand and I'll be helping a bit (am directing the show). I've been real lucky to get to see this show develop. Consistently, no matter how analytical or directorly I try to listen to her jokes, her work consistently makes me laugh until my sides hurt and I feel like there's a gas leak. High praise!
Lastly, for now, I'll be doing a residency of sorts down in CHRISTCHURCH at the Good Times Comedy Club. I'll be doing shows from May 31st through June 3rd, including a performance of "Comedian of the Year 2069" on that Friday, June 2nd. I'll talk more of this as it comes up but I am exCITED.
Ah, man, enough of the comedy talk, now's time for a review.
REVIEW CORNER: WRESTLING?!?!?!
I've been trying to avoid talking about wrestling here, because I know once I let it in a little bit it is all I'll want to talk about. Sometime in the last year, after being introduced by a friend to AEW, Angelica and I got huge into the sport. For my birthday this year, we just had friends over to watch wrestling, and we gave this roving time window from 3pm-3am. Which meant, as the hosts of the party, we were watching wrestling we'd already seen for 12 hours straight and still, still!, I wanted more and watched wrestling during a hungover breakfast the next day.
Part of it is some sort of time/place thing, and that I've reached a wise enough and strong enough point in my life that I can fully appreciate wrestling for all that it is. The other part is just that wrestling is extremely good right now. All Elite Wrestling is a newer promotion that is an actual challenger to the boring, out-of-touch, and problematic WWE. AEW is delivering matches that feel, even as a new fan, legitimately special. It is exciting to watch something that you can tell is generationally important, seeing these newer wrestlers that you know will be household names and cultural touchstones in a few years time, and on a show that old wrestling fans seem blown away by how good it is.
But I don't wanna be just a shill for a tv show (though do check out AEW Dynamite, streaming in NZ on fite.tv every Thursday), local wrestling is phenomenal right now too! We went with friends this weekend to check out Valiant Pro Wrestling's latest event and it was incredible. Church chairs in the green room of a rugby club, exercise bikes and dumbbells pushed to one corner, a club bar with 5$ pints next door (in New Zealand, $5 beer is v. cheap), the ring in the center lit up by some really great dramatic lighting, all the more impressive cos they'd assembled the lighting rig from random machinery and literal spare tires. The show felt wonderfully minor-league and local, each match sponsored by a different small Hutt Valley business, the kids in the audience bringing an extra passion and shock at the loud hits cos it was their parents fighting in the ring. But even so, the wrestling was legitimately good, every opponent was jacked, and the matches all had high drama and incredible athletic feats.
I've gone on for too long, the song I set to soundtrack this email has repeated three times, and my cup of autumn mulled cider is getting cold. So I'll end it here, but check out AEW on tv and Valiant Pro in person, or your own local promotion wherever you may be (and honestly, please email me details about yr local promotion so I can start a map of penpalled wrestling rings). This is a chill newsletter from a chill friend wishing you a good spring/fall and I'll talk to you again soon!