Arj Barker: NEW AND IMPROVED (USA)
Crunchie Comedy Chamber, Town Hall, Auckland
23/04/2008 - 26/04/2008
San Francisco Bathhouse, 171 Cuba St, Wellington
27/04/2008 - 28/04/2008
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
DAVE FROM FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS COMES TO NZ
Arj Barker crosses the pond to debut in New Zealand; after a sell out season at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Melbourne Comedy Festival 2008. Armed with some new classics and some classic classics, Barker takes over the Crunchie Comedy Chamber and San Francisco Bathhouse to present one funny hour.
Barker, who won the coveted Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 1997, has firmly established himself as one of the golden boys on the international comedy circuit. For years, he has been honing his craft at comedy festivals and clubs all around the world. He has made numerous appearances on late night talk shows, including David Letterman and Conan O’Brian alongside starring in his own half hour special on the HBO produced by Comedy Central.
Arj is also a regular favorite on Australian and New Zealand screens too, appearing regularly on "Thank God You’re Here", "The Glass House", "Rove" and, of course, the Grammy Award winning "Flight of the Conchords."
Arj has performed numerous seasons at Edinburgh Fringe plus starred in Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival and Amsterdam’s English Speaking Comedy Festival and followed this up with the six month Off Broadway season of ‘The Marijuana-Logues’, a show he wrote with fellow comedians Doug Benson and Tony Camin.
If you don’t laugh your ass off, there’s something wrong with you! (In other words, don’t ask for your money back.)
Get it quick as this is world-class comedy. He will certainly sell out, so come see him while he still has integrity!
Visit www.arjbarker.com to submerge yourself into his world beforehand.
‘Genius‘ – Beat Magazine
Arj Barker performs:
WELLINGTON
Dates: Sat 19 April, 7pm & Mon 21 April, 7pm & Sun 27 – Mon 28 April, 7pm
Venue: The San Francisco Bathhouse, 171 Cuba Street
Tickets: Adults $32 / Conc. $29 / Groups 10+ $29 (service fees may apply)
Bookings: 0800 TICKETEK (0800 842 5385)
AUCKLAND
Wednesday April 23rd – Saturday April 26th, 7pm
Crunchie Comedy Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE®
Tickets: Adults $32, Concessions $29, Groups of 6+ $29 (service fees may apply)
Booking now from TICKETEK: 0800 TICKETEK (0800 245 5385)
Show Duration: 1 hour
1 hr, no interval
Plays us like a drum kit
Review by Sian Robertson 23rd Apr 2008
Known to most of us as Dave from Flight of the Conchords, some of you are going to be disappointed to learn that Arj Barker’s Auckland shows are completely sold out – for good reason.
Covering topics such as global warming, astronomy ("You know what, I’m not educated enough to finish this piece"), religion, shoe shopping, air travel, America, and parental pride, his style is classic stoner guy stand up. He pretends to hate being pigeonholed thus.
Arj lurches hilariously from so laid back he’s almost horizontal, to heated indignation, to high pitched incredulity, man, and back again. Then he tells us he decided not to worry about planning out the show, and thought he’d just sort of take it as it comes. There are times when he doesn’t so much drop the ball as start dribbling it for a while… just until he can be bothered picking it up again and booting it into the audience.
He spends a while pontificating about bullshit no one’s really interested in, but we don’t care because we trust him to come back with a good one when he’s good and ready. "I’m just making conversation till I think of my next joke." At one point he even stops to reach into a pocket for a notebook to remind him of the "other one about buying shoes".
Whether talking about the global perception of America, WWII simulation games, or mattress shopping, Barker is a master of understatement and prone to wild exaggeration in equal measures.
He’s great at getting his audience fired up, and has no trouble getting the laughs per minute, and he plays us like his own personal living drum kit.
A sure test of good comedy is if it has you giggling to yourself on the way back to the car, and then chuckling some more when you’re sitting down to write about it! Arj Barker passes the test.
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