Simon McKinney is a likeable guy; so likeable, in fact, that you don’t begrudge him the poo jokes (there are a few).

McKinney’s tightly scripted act traces his journey from being a film student in Dunedin, being offered the role of talking fish ‘Hamish’ on children’s TV show Squirt, to present day as an established stand-up comedian.

His uncanny ability to pin down the voices and accents of nearly everyone make him accessible – McKinney could be your grandma, your dad, your four-year-old niece or that stewardess you saw on an Air New Zealand flight. The rapid switching between these characters is also impressive.

McKinney’s theory on Bob Dylan’s song-writing is hilarious and definitely pegged as a highlight (I’ll never be able to listen to Dylan the same way again).

While the Garden Club is pretty cavernous as a venue with its high ceilings and the performer on quite a raised stage, McKinney doesn’t let that stop him from engaging with the audience.

With an hour of impressions and pretty funny yarns, McKinney’s show should definitely be on your ‘must-see’ comedy checklist.
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I am always prepared to like a comedian who has made a living from voicing a cartoon fish called Hamish. Simon McKinney didn’t disappoint me; the man is, in a word, cute. If he was a puppy, he would be a golden Labrador. Blonde, energetic, likeable, and would probably wee on your shoes.

He also defused any residual anxiety I might have felt about the dangers of front row positioning by explaining he is always very nice to his audiences. And, since McKinney’s a Dunedin boy, we then had a nice chat about whether the local crazy people were still around. Although this intimate approach could possibly have backfired on him, as there was a momentary danger that he would have problems in getting the audience to STOP talking.

I loved this show. McKinney’s comic routine consists of gently humorous stories based upon his observation of small incidents: visiting a school and watching deaf children ‘whisper’, by signing with their hands under their clothes; the dangers of ‘crazy eye’ in old people … Every story is acted out in front of us complete with the appropriate funny voices, which is hardly surprising given his previous job.

I obviously have an infantile sense of humour myself, as I found McKinney’s intimate anecdotes about the small embarrassments of sneezing and farting immensely satisfying. As was his yarn about an unfortunate female friend, a small piece of poo, and a room full of rugby watching men.

This is a man who loves to inspect the small details of modern culture: Kermit’s mid-career voice change, the dangers of mimicking the ‘funny’ accents of others – remember Jim Bolger? – or the inability of the Thunderbirds puppets to make contact with the dials in their space-ships. But, I have to say I was very offended by his tone here, and will probably not invite him over to play with my Thunderbirds Island model.

This discussion of puppetry allowed McKinney to a seamlessly segue into reminisces about his time with Squirt, a local children’s cartoon. This gave us the biggest laugh of the evening as he pondered the intersection of gay porn and children’s television caused by TVNZ’s decision to promote the show via a website Squirt.com.

Overall, McKinney is a warm, amusing performer who does trade on his likeability, but who delivers a well structured show. I was impressed by the lively physicality of his performance, and his obvious vocal skills. My only real quibble: showing your audience fan photos of yourself posing with various animated creations, such as B1 and B2, is only funny if the photos are either very good or really bad, otherwise it comes across as the family slide show that we all try to avoid.
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