Host Guy Montgomery enters with a broad grin and some cheeky banter to explain the concept of Snort to any first-timers present, like me.  Six accomplished local young performers from the Snort collective join him on stage, tonight being Nic Sampson, Laura Daniel, Edward Dever, Rose Matafeo, Joseph Moore and Brynley Stent. 

Essentially we’re talking classic improv here, with the distinction that each spontaneously invented narrative derives from a single word picked from the audience.  Said chosen word becomes the basis of an ad-libbed monologue by a titular ‘friend’, in this case by local and visiting comedians appearing this week elsewhere in the festival, in turn giving them the opportunity to plug their shows. 

The first guest, monologist (when Guy first said it I thought he said ‘yesmanologist, which seemed appropriate in the take-the-offer context of improv), is in fact cast member Joseph Moore, whose show 1989 is currently running at Montecristo.  Expounding his thoughts on selected word ‘meteor’, Moore’s two-to-three minute ramble is approximately 11% about meteors, more about astronauts and the solar system, and mainly about Eagleboys ‘Meateor’ meat-lovers pizza.

Utilising this tangential rave as a sort of dramaturgical treatment, the cast snaps into action to work up an intriguing story of a man taking an aptitude test for becoming an astronaut, which he passes by not being a woman and naming at least half of the nine planets.  Meanwhile the manager at Eagleboys Pizza is revealed to be an actual eagle, and the health-department inspector is disciplined for not declaring this in his report. 

All becomes as clear as one could reasonably expect when the graduated spaceman journeys through the solar system to the furthest planet ‘Plurrr’, where it turns out the strange avian-run fast-food industry story had been taking place all along.  Favourite line: “We have too much fuel to make it back to Earth!” 

Slightly more on-topic is the second piece ‘Sausage’; monologue supplied by British Indian comedian Nish Kumar (playing the Classic Studio next week).  It does however stray beyond Nish’s favourite breakfast food to other options, such as cereal with mushrooms, and French toast.  The ensuing tale involves a ravenous carnivore and his vegan girlfriend, more birds disguised as humans (not the last ones this evening either), and French spies pinching the cake-like toast recipe from housewives in Bombay, sorry: Mumbai.  

Third up, Canadian guest Jon Bennett – in Auckland this week and Wellington next week Pretending Things are a Cock – monologises about ‘Skunk’, his experiences both of the animal, and how he was told the cannabis strain was so named because it smells the same as the infamous animal.  This somehow leads into a play about prison showers, animal lovers unable to find a skunk dealer and a policewoman who harasses zookeepers because she’s scared of real criminals. You may or may not get the picture. 

Finally, local lad Jordan Blaikie of the Basement’s The Girl and the Gay  talks ‘Canary’, how they were used to detect gas in coal mines, how he never had pets after a childhood rabbit tragedy and how the word sounds a bit like ‘carney’, i.e. carnival worker.  Cue more birds in human-suits, which actually segue quite effectively from unwittingly oppressed mineworkers to circus sideshow freaks. 

The developing action frequently cracks up players waiting on the side, not to mention those performing it at the time, which is of course hilarious too.  It’s catching, this laughter stuff.  Among the many hits are various misses but morale is nonetheless high throughout.  The audience tends to enjoy seeing the actors face-plant almost as much as the glorious satisfaction of a successful play, and the rapidity of the format ensures we’re never stuck in a failing scenario for long. 

Wholly reliant on the inventive skill and natural humour of its cast, Snort With Friends is a pretty reliable bunch of late-nite laffs to be enjoyed either at the end of a respectable evening or the beginning of one less so.  Good loose fun. 

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