Ginger Snort – Rangatire Q Theatre (Comedy Review)

Tonight’s performance by the Snort comedy crew really showed how far they’d come.  Since first starting in September 2013, they’ve developed a cult following with their Friday night improv shows at the Basement Theatre. Tonight they went large and put on a special ginger themed fundraiser at Q Theatre. They teamed up with sponsors All Good – who provided bottles of their Gingerella ginger ale, and as resident redhead, Nic Sampson was the obvious choice to host the show.  They managed to sell out Rangatira, Q’s main performance space, which seats 400 – that deserves applause in itself. Congratulations guys – you pulled it off, in a big theatre with flash lighting and even sound effects at one point (an eerie wind for a Polish tragedy scene).

For those not familiar with Snort comedy shows, a brief introduction:

Snort is improvisation based on a popular format used in New York. The host asks the audience for a word, then a cast member, or special guest, makes up a short monologue based on that word.

The cast listen to the monologue and use it to come up with a series of improvised scenes, tagging in and out, or sometimes running across to clear stage and start a new scene. This keeps things moving, with the aim being to fit in as many laughs as possible and end on a high. Each set of scenes lasts about 15 minutes, til it comes to some sort of conclusion. You can never tell where things might end up.

The best monologues will display the monologist’s skills of thinking on their feet, spinning good yarns, and exploring tangents. The challenge is then taken up by the cast to echo this with their skills of improvisation. The success of the show itself, and how funny it is, depends on a lot of quick thinking and teamwork.

Some of the funniest stuff I saw tonight was people quickly picking up on tangents and running with it, introducing random characters and naming them as they appeared on stage, with extra points for call-backs and bringing back a line or running joke to a satisfactory ending.

In just over an hour, we had four monologues and sets of scenes.  Player of the day awards go to Rose Matafeo, Joseph Moore, Guy Montgomery and Chris Parker, for his toothpaste monologue.

Those who entered a scene boldly did especially well. They look like they’re taking charge of a scene and leading it to where they want it to go – a few key players, such as Rose Matafeo, Joseph Moore, Laura Daniel, and Nic Sampson all did this especially well.

Special award for physical comedy goes to Guy Montgomery and Hamish Parkinson for their erotic dancing in the ‘bladder-pressure’ / ‘oh look it’s just people pissing into each other’s mouths’ scene.

Chris Parker did a great job of the first monologue on toothpaste.

“Toothpaste! Paste made from your teeth. Bet ya didn’t know that…” he quipped.

He admitted he’d had five coffees that day, which he said was two too many. Clearly it was having a great effect as he was on fire, riffing his way through his opening spiel. He soon veered towards the topic of being summoned to see the dental nurse at Primary School, which he used to dread.

There were two great monologues from special guest Jesse Griffin – who took on the first, and most random suggestions without hesitation – those words being: “colposcopy” and “bladder-pressure”. He handled both like a pro, especially the first.

“I once went to school with a boy called Kolposkopi. Polish boy, an excellent tiler from a young age. He sang songs about beetroot, and ate borscht.”

Guy Montogomery’s monologue was on popcorn. This also related somewhat to teeth, as the subject of flossing came up for the second time that night – regarding the kernels getting stuck in your teeth after eating popcorn at the movies. He somehow ended up on the brilliant invention of vegetable music -“Pop, a type of music. Corn, a vegetable. Vegetable music!”

There were many great scenes tonight. Here are a few highlights to give you a taste.

1. ‘Toothpaste’

Chris Parker kicked off the night with a highly entertaining monologue, inspiring much hilarity and, somehow, Joseph Moore playing an undercover cop posing as a five year-old boy in an extra-curricular reading class.

• Enter Donna Brookbanks as ‘Nancy the Snitch’, talking loudly and oversharing about her sex life with her husband, who only has one leg. (cue Guy Montgomery tucking up one leg and hopping awkwardly)
• Rose Matafeo, IDing a young customer who wants to buy toothpaste from her shop but doesn’t have the required “toothpaste licence”
• This leads to Nic Sampson whispering about selling ‘TP’ as an illegal drug
• Chris Parker and Laura Daniel as two parents sternly telling their daughter she’s not old enough to use toothpaste yet, “you just have to keep using coal til you’re 18”
• Cut to scene at the toothpaste party, when she’s finally allowed to go. A young guy brags saying “I brushed so hard last night”

 

2. ‘Colposcopy’

In Jesse Griffin’s expert handling of this difficult monologue, he began by remembering his childhood friend (a boy named ‘Kolposkopi’) then riffed on studying Russian literature, and ‘the art of not knowing’.

• Tom Sainsbury and Joseph Moore walk on giggling. “I’m gonna yell out some really funny stuff at the comedy show tonight” says Joseph. This all gets a bit meta and gets huge laughs as he directly takes the piss out of the person who yelled out ‘colposcopy’.
• “I can hear them, the voices! The voices who tell me yell out dumb stuff at gigs!” he says, sounding panicked, while the others yell out words from the sidelines.
• Rose Matafeo teaches a class on ‘The Art of Not Knowing’. She asks a student

“You! What’s your name?” The correct answer being, “I don’t know.”

 

3. ‘Popcorn’

After Guy Montgomery’s reference to Nesian Mystik re-forming to make “vegetable music” this is where the scenes started. Quite logical really.

• Laura Daniel and Chris Parker are discussing how to make this new kind of music, when Hamish Parkinson enters, miming to show the “big plate of eggs” he’s carrying. “Really big plate of eggs…” he says, cautiously cradling them as he rushes past. “I’m wearing a new suit..” he adds, as they fail to catch him a second time. I’m not sure why this was so hilarious, I think it was just the pure randomness.
• The movie theatre scene features the sharing of popcorn, and Nic Sampson and Donna Brookbanks awkwardly sharing a seat. While they get shushed constantly for talking during the movie, this gives Joseph Moore a chance to get in one of his classic call-backs – “No you shut up! Yelling stuff out at shows is cool!”

 

4. Bladder-pressure

(I added a hyphen there, as that’s usually two words but Nic Sampson asked the person who’d yelled out – “is it hyphenated?”) Jesse Griffin’s monologue included some gems such as “I only drank my own urine once. It had a nutty flavour.” He opened with a speech that somehow turned into an appeal for helping lost rugby balls, and also passed on advice about weeing into a rubber glove to cure warts on your hands.

• After the opening scene with the ‘COCKtail’ bar in Aotea Square, and Hamish and Guy’s hilarious erotic dance of gyrating and pissing on each other, they moved swiftly on.
• Donna Brookbanks became the crazy old doctor prescribing “three quarters of a teaspoon… mixed with some clay” for Laura Daniel’s lazy eye. It looked painful, but it worked.
• The All Blacks are lined up, all set for a game, and their coach has them recite the rules.

“No kissing” says one. “Always… kiss the grass” says another.  “Always kiss the ball, but not for too long” adds another.  Next thing you know Guy’s saying “It’s the balls, they’re growing sentient!” On the floor before them, a whole bunch of baby rugby balls start moving around, making smooching noises.

“I can’t kick them, they’re so cute!”, says Chris.

– The show ended with one baby ball (Joseph Moore) being dragged away, as sadly no-one wanted to adopt him. “Some balls, just can’t be loved,” says Guy, “I’m taking this one to the English changing room.”

Oooh, dark. What’s that supposed to mean, we’re left wondering. A strange, potentially grim ending for that scene. But there you go, that’s improv. There can’t always be a happy ending. But the real happy ending was that Snort are one step closer to getting to Melbourne Comedy Festival next year.  They get to share their brand of insane, inspired randomness in the land of Oz, amongst a stellar line-up of comedians from around the world. If this review has made you even vaguely curious, I suggest you go check them out.

– Dedee W.