The pre-show ‘music’ at The Fringe Bar is of the genre that layers everything over everything else so that what one assumes are lyrics, possibly well crafted (who would know?), are obliterated by the melange of noise that emanates from devices that, in another context, might fairly be called musical instruments. Its immediate effect is to have friends shouting at each other over their drinks in their vain attempts to converse. Maybe the real purpose is to make us intuitively welcome the coherent sound of one unencumbered voice at the stand up mic.

Meanwhile, for visual interest, we see a projected montage of ‘promo girls’ in various locations and poses, as background to the title: Promo Girls Aren’t Models. Not that Cori Gonzales Maceur acknowledges it in arrival.

His opening shtick is mostly about what an awkward human being he is, proved by a series of anecdotes. Then it’s growing up in Chile and our cultural differences when it comes to weapons of protection and NZ rugby v Sth American football fan behaviour. A good intro. 

Promo Girls Aren’t Models turns out to be a metaphor for people who think they are cool but are not, and later, via some day-in-the-life mockumentary footage – involving the Rock FM crew and his flatmate Jared – Maceur includes himself in that category: a legend in his own showreel.

His Promo Girls rant is apparently provoked by a three-month relationship with one. Here he gets to say stuff about women – well this woman, anyway – that justifies and/or answers the anti-male stuff Melody Nixon mentions in her Comedy Divas review. And the good thing is the women in the audience laugh as long and loud as anyone; not least a group that could well be Promo Girls themselves.

Fame is another theme, allowing him to discuss – with PowerPoint backup – people who don’t want to be famous but are, and NZ’s Top Five Falls From Grace.

Maceur’s self-effacing manner and his graphically illustrated assessment of his own erratic trajectory conceal a cunning comic who delivers substance by stealth in that downbeat way many Kiwi comedians seem to favour nowadays.
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