April 18, 2011

LONDON FUNDRAISER FOR CHRISTCHURCH

The Lyric Theatre in London’s West End was the place. Raising as much money as possible was the aim. And it was achieved in stunning style.

Former Christchurch comedian, Jarred Christmas, hosted and organised the ‘gig’ last Tuesday with Mike Sengelow (Skitz), Janette Linden (Jarred’s agent at JBJ) and Emma Deakin from the rather appropriately named, Shaky Isles Theatre Company.

With the total raised currently sitting at $36,700 (£18,000), Jarred expects the final figure to be higher.

“Money is still coming in, it has been fantastic,” he says. “We raised the money from a combination of ticket sales, a raffle and an auction of Jemaine Clements’s (Flight of the Conchords) guitar, which went for £1345 – almost $3000 dollars.” Some of the prizes in the raffle included two return flights to NZ with Air New Zealand and one week on a round the world race yacht.

Christmas says the line up was world class, with Kiwi comedians mixing it up with a former All Black and well known British comics. 

“We played to a sold out crowd of 900; the atmosphere was amazing. Jimmy Carr (Distraction) was a surprise performer and big man, Anton Oliver, delivered a brilliant and emotional speech,” Jarred says. 

The line up for the evening included Andre King, Stewart Lee, Al Pitcher, Anton Oliver, Jimmy Carr, Javier Jarquin, Miles Jupp, Terry Alderton, Russell Howard and Jack Whitehall. 

“The Maori culture group based in London, Ngati Ranana, opened the show with a haka. It was incredibly emotional as the audience was mainly British and most of them had never experienced a live haka before. With 21 performing the haka, we all found it stirring.”

“It was really important to us that we got a large number of British in because so many fundraising events in London and the UK have been targeting the ex-pat NZ community and we did not want to ‘over do’ it,” says Jarred.

All the comics have performed in New Zealand or have a close Kiwi connection through friends or family. Jarred Christmas is preparing to head “home” for the International Comedy Festival, later this month.

Richard Curtis (NZ born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director – Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley) couldn’t attend but made a donation.