Careyness is back for its second New Zealand International Comedy Festival – by popular demand. Before I go any further it is worth noting that this show ended with the first, ever, encore performance I have ever seen at live stand-up comedy. This may be saying more about my show-going inexperience than about the performance itself but there is something rather unequivocal about people yelling, “more, more, more!” when the comic has departed from the stage.  

Carey Marx delivers a veritable Ready to Roll of Oh-No-He-Didn’ts as he takes us on a journey both through the top 10 most taboo subjects that a Comedian can ever broach on stage as well as through his career as a stand-up performer.

The very essential key to this show, that sets it apart from other shows which could be deemed offensive, is that Carey Marx endears himself to the audience from the beginning; he genuinely seems like a really nice guy. He is our guide as he shares with us the subjects that if talked about in a comedy set will get complaints and ultimately make an entire room go silent.

This happens at least twice.

Yet, although he illustrates each section with jokes of his own creation and although he gives us that sideways look that I suppose could be interpreted as, “I’ve been bad, haven’t I?” it is so equally disarming that no one gets a chance to be offended before patters of laughter turn into waves.

This is Carey’s take on offensiveness and it never goes too far. The show takes you to the brink and you may even gasp with shock when you think it might have reached the point where it could really go over the line but then, somehow, it doesn’t happen.

The key difference with people who get up on a stage and genuinely offend is the intent and the context. In this case Carey’s intent is to make us laugh and the context is more like a cheeky lecture than anything else. He has just done some research – some very, very funny research – on what shocks people and he is presenting it to us like a good, kind friend would.

Again, first encore performance I have ever seen and what he provides here is lighter and more personal, showcasing just a little more of the versatility that has built his popularity here and which highly recommends his additional brand-new show to this year’s festival: Doom Gloom Boom.

Careyness is truly a must-see. 

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