Griff Rhys Jones WHERE WAS I?
02/11/2018 - 02/11/2018
Production Details
BRINGING HIS LIVE SHOW ADVENTURE “WHERE WAS I?” TO NEW ZEALAND
GRIFF RHYS JONES, UK comedy great, actor and star of the iconic Not the Nine O’Clock News, is bringing his hilarious live show of stories, anecdotes and stand-up, Where Was I?, to New Zealand this November.
Griff will deliver an evening of laughter from forty years of travelling – through family, manhood and the world itself. He has been down rivers and up mountains – literally into Africa, out of India and across oceans in Three Men and A Boat, Mountains, Rivers and other adventures. But he has also crossed the arid wastes of the BBC. He’s navigated being sixty. He’s explored the jungles of indignity. He’s turned downhill without a mapin to a career. And along the way, he will address the nature of travel itself, making travel television and the truth about wanderlust and cruises.
Tickets for all shows go on sale at 3pm this Friday, August 3.
My Live Nation members can be among the first to secure tickets during the pre-sale commencing at 1pm Wednesday, August 1.
For complete tour and ticketing information, visit: livenation.co.nz
Outside of Not the Nine O’Clock News, Griff Rhys Jones worked alongside Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith. The duo Alas Smith and Jones, with his now departed partner Mel Smith, were one of the seminal comedy acts of their time. Griff went on to establish himself as a presenter in various television shows such as Three Men in a Boat, It’ll Be Alright on the Night, and Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones and founded the production company Talkback Productions, which produced comedy series including Da Ali G Show, I’m Alan Partridge and Smack the Pony.
Where Was I? uses Griff’s personal jaunts from the last fifteen years to explore universal themes like how to use the self-check in and why we need to get out while we still can. He has sailed a boat to St Petersburg and around the Med. He has travelled in Morocco, the Galapagos, India and Australia. But mostly he has ventured forth to work for TV, making Greatest Cities, A Slow Train to Africa, In Search of the Black Rhino, Burma and The Forgotten Army, several series of Three Men In A Boat and programs on mountains, rivers, lost routes and tribal art.
He’ll dive in to those “making of” snippets for the real truth about TV travel. He has wandered from the Torres Strait Islands to Mali, from Moscow to Dar es Salaam, ridden “the train of death”, jumped from a burning boat in the Galapagos, sat with tribal elders and been ordered off their island. He has unwillingly climbed up mountains and abseiled down waterfalls, gone window cleaning on New York skyscrapers without a safety rope and clambered through Manchester’s most demanding sewers. He has a few words to say about budget airlines too.
Where Was I? promises to be a riotous ride around the world. And all without the help of Bear Grylls.
★★★★ ‘great comedy’ The Telegraph
‘jokes at his own expense come faster than the rapids on the River Tay’ The Guardian
TSB Theatre – TSB Showplace, 92 Devon St West, New Plymouth, Taranaki
Friday 2 November 2018
7:30pm – 10:30pm
Buy Tickets – 0800842538
Additional fees may apply
Q Theatre, Auckland: Sunday November 4
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch: Wednesday November 7
About Live Nation Entertainment
Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, Live Nation Advertising & Sponsorship and Artist Nation Management. For additional information visit www.livenationentertainment.com.
Theatre , Solo , Comedy ,
A bouncy romp through self-deprecation, genuine terror and quirky characters
Review by Lisa Simpson 02nd Nov 2018
We have been fortunate in New Plymouth to have had several well-known British comedians darken (or should that be lighten?) our doors including Bill Bailey, Alan Davies and Jimmy Carr. The latest is Griff Rhys Jones, of Alas Smith and Jones and Not the Nine O’Clock News fame with his show, Where Was I?
The show tonight is billed as an evening of stories and stand-up. And this is exactly what is delivered. Since the early 2000s, Griff Rhys Jones has been gigging for the BBC, presenting a range of travel programmes exploring mountains, rivers and little-known bits of the world. Delightfully, we come to hear that yes, even in a remote location in dire circumstances, there will be a boatload of New Zealanders to lend a hand.
The first half takes us behind the scenes on some of these adventures – climbing up an impressively phallic Nape’s Needle in the Lake District, down an equally impressive waterfall in Kinlochleven, Scotland and a stint as a window washer on a 30 storey skyscraper in New York City. Jones’ self-deprecating humour and genuine terror at being engaged to commit these feats are well received by the audience. These stories are peppered with images and clips from the documentaries themselves. If you have a fear of heights you may not find some of these funny.
The second half of the show treads the well-known path of stand-up comedy, wound around the theme of journeys. He sends up travel on budget airlines, the difficulties of getting into a hotel room with a swipe card and the pitfalls of navigating social media as an ageing celeb where you run the risk of having fewer followers than a dewy-eyed dachshund.
Jones is seasoned performer; he uses topical events and tried-and-true inter-provincial rivalry to warm us up. He impresses with his vivacity, dynamic facial expressions, and ability to capture accents and characters with skill. The humour is not cutting edge; the shtick is that of a slightly forgetful, muddled man who gently ridicules the perils of getting older. The ‘where was I?’ of the title is as much about the aging process as his travels.
His stamina is also impressive – it is a full 2-hour show, which is no mean feat for a guy on his own on stage. There is no post-modern angst, little swearing and the jokes are mostly at his own expense, which makes it a gentle romp in a world of tortured stand-up comedians trotting out their wares of anxiety. Even Jones’ 94-year-old mother would approve.
The audience is responsive, with genuine belly laughs at times. Jones moves on quickly when a line falls flat with bouncy good humour and warmth. He has obviously been to some interesting places, and the show works best for me when he tells the stories of the quirky characters he has met.
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