By Al Ronberg

I never knew... how could it have been over all this time, that I never realised Rhys Darby is from Pakuranga!?!? No longer will it just be the suburb I kinda have to drive through to get anywhere else from Howick! It will now be the memory trigger for an AWESOME night out at The Civic!!!

As I wrote previously, I was REALLY excited about this event. From the very outset I was in stitches. Brendon Lovegrove was charged with warming up the crowd and it has to be said, there were some absolutely classic moments whilst he did so... I won't be able to keep a straight face in the event I meet someone who has the name Mahanama! (Doo do do do do). Once the crowd was considerably warm, it was time for Chris Brain to share some anecdotes. I have to be honest... the Standup comedy cliche of Drugs, Sex, gratuitous use of swear words and mocking religion was disappointing to more than just me. Looking around to the crowd around us, you could see a collective Meh in their eyes. I will leave it at that because I wasn't there to review Chris Brain! I will say though it was a bit like having the Howick Under 7 Rugby squad playing the curtain raiser at the world cup final...

After the break, Brendon Lovegrove came out to warm us up again and, it seemed, to rip the shreds out of Whitianga... I appreciated the ad-lib crowd warming styles and so did my Plus One.

Rhys Darby is nothing short of a genius. Right from the outset his understated, yet incredibly sharp presentation just hits you! It must be hard to keep fresh when so much of what you do is on youtube, or in major hollywood movies - but Rhy had the crowd on task right from the first sentence! There are many highlights and the stand-out would have to be the routine about Transformers - I was honestly blown away by the mix of physical humour with extremely well-timed dialogue. His sound effects are also well up there with the best and if they ever do remakes of the Police Academy movies, the Michael Winslow character is going to have an awesome Ginger Coiffe!
You could say from small beginnings, I am now quite happily a total Rhys Darby fan. In saying that, I am now clever enough to know NOT to stalk him, cos there is no way I am wanting to end up as a character on the next incredibly awesome Rhys Darby tour. So when I am walking through Pakuranga Plaza, wondering whether to have Oporto or BK for lunch... I know that if I bump into Rhys that I will give him a "Cher Bro" nod of the head and he will know that I care.

The show is going to come out on DVD at some stage in the near future, and I would highly recommend you get it for the Transformer skit alone!!! I also heard rumours of a TV spot for the show as well, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks a bunch
AL