BRENDON GREEN in EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT (*Citation Needed)
Basement Theatre Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
27/05/2013 - 04/05/2013
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
The surprise package of the 2012 NZ International Comedy Festival, Brendon Green is returning in 2013 with a brand new hour of comedy. Having sold out his debut run of shows and picking up the “2012 Best Newcomer Award” at last year’s Festival, Brendon Green is more than ready to take on the 2013 NZ International Comedy Festival.
The young (relatively speaking, come on, 28’s still young right?) stand-up comedian follows up his critically enjoyed debut show Everything Is Meaningless And Nothing Matters, LOL, with his slightly more upbeat sounding new hour, Everything Is Alright.
Mixing hilarious traditional stand-up and melodically great musical comedy, Green has accidentally found himself becoming one of the ‘nice guys’ of New Zealand comedy. Always ready to place the joke squarely on himself, Green brings a refreshing combination of self-deprecation and charm to his personal stories and songs. And yes, he feels very strange reading this about himself.
Splitting his time between writing and performing stand-up comedy, reviewing movies, and controlling the social media empire of Universal Music New Zealand, Brendon Green is very much plugged into the pop culture world we live in. He may have a tiny obsession with Taylor Swift, but that’s only part of his overarching belief in true love and deep set romantic idealism.
His dedication to creating original and clever comedy songs, (refusing to just strum two chords andrhyme naughty words), has seen him become one of the leading lights of musical comedy in NZ (of the musical comedians who live here, that is). And his commitment to stand-up comedy and storytelling has found him performing all around the country, appearing in AotearoHa’s Next Big Things and taking part in 7Days LIVE.
Everything Is Alright (*Citation Needed) is an hour long look into the mind of a self-proclaimed average New Zealand Twenty-Something who is finally realising that looking at the world pessimistically maybe isn’t the best way to be getting through life.
As part of the 2013 NZ International Comedy Festival
BRENDON GREEN IN EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT
AUCKLAND
Date: Sat 27 April, Wed 1 – Sat 4 May, 10 pm
Venue: The Basement Studio, Level 1, Lower Greys Ave
Tickets: $13 – $15 (booking fees may apply)
Bookings: 0800Ticketek www.ticketek.co.nz
For the sweetest deals and hottest comedy news throughout the Festival head to www.comedyfestival.co.nz
Citation happily offered
Review by Nik Smythe 02nd May 2013
Firstly, I’d like to say that in its quietly pathetic Wiki-geek way this show gets my vote for best title. So there’s a point scored before I’ve even clapped eyes on this young Green yobbo and heard his jokes. Plays a bit of music too apparently, so let’s see…
The title cleverly references the premise that loosely underpins the hour-long show of personal confessions and egocentric anecdotes: if your beliefs don’t get you what you want, just change them! And if you goals don’t work out as you’d planned, pretend they never were your goals!
Admittedly his name and the fact he sings had me unable to avoid recalling that paragon of nineties American teen-television Brian Austin Green. It turns out that while more blond and distinctly Kiwi, his chiselled features and preppy haircut aren’t a million miles from the mark.
His demeanour is youthful, cheeky and just a fraction awkward. His material is fairly sound – the frequent occasions where he laughs at his own jokes aren’t entirely unfounded. He can paint an entertaining picture defining life experiences, such as the time he fainted after giving blood (before a song about how we should all give blood).
If his perpetual grin is any indication, it seems to work. Clearly Brendan has a privileged background, free to indulge in Romcoms and Taylor Swift without harsh judgement from anyone that really matters to him. In fact (Spoiler Alert!), his deepest regret in life is that no-one does matter that much to him – he’s never been in love. Sad for a likeable young fellow who refers to just about every female he knows as ‘amazing!’ (Ends)
Musically, Brendan fuses astute, clever lyrics with confidently strummed and picked riffs and adequate vocal skills in the classic burgeoning Vedder/Tremonti wannabe style. The rockier numbers would benefit from some serious amplification and/or distortion. In a way it’s fairly brave of him to share his original songs with us, given his (current) belief that we shouldn’t judge anyone for anything, except their musical taste – and he has an audience game to highlight the assertion.
Having witnessed Green’s enjoyable light-hearted late-night comedy fest fare, I’ll be happy to provide the required citation.
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