Spooky Times at the Manchester Ranch is an intimate blend of cabaret showcase and house party. We’re invited into a home – a pretty central city villa – for drinks, comedy and storytelling. In true Christchurch fashion the weather has turned foul, so the performance is in the front room rather than the cute tree-lined courtyard outside, but this gives it the sense of an after dinner parlour performance.

Opening the show is Katie Cowan, done up in ghoulish Halloween makeup, who delivers ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’. She has a lovely, resonant voice and a presence that fills the room to bursting.

Next up is El Jaguar, a retired yet enthusiastic luchador (masked Mexican wrestler) rocking a red spandex suit, a wistful sense of regret and some deep seated daddy issues. We have been asked to write our deepest fears on little bits of paper, as well as the names of passed loved ones who we would like to honour on the Day of the Dead, and he draws them one by one from a clay pot. Amidst the banter some are woven into broader stories, and El Jaguar helps an audience member address her fear – being stuck underground – by directing her and another member of the audience through a skit inspired by Joseph Campbell’s outline of the hero’s journey. As it turns out, paralysing claustrophobia can be addressed by repeatedly whacking a geologist wearing a black judge’s robe with a foam noodle.

Following this is Wellington stand up comedian James Nokise, whose set covers growing up in Lower Hutt, social justice, his Samoan family and some very good Morgan Freeman impersonations. The high point is a so-weird-it-has-to-be-true anecdote about a gig earlier in the week and an unlikely connection with an enormous African American boxer. He has a wonderful conversational style that meanders and loops yet always has a sense of purpose.

After a short break, and another song from Katie Cowan (‘Last Midnight’ from Into the Woods) we are treated to a story from the Unicorn, a bitchy queen of a lounge lizard who has an enormous chip on his shoulder about anyone who is happily in love. Bourbon in hand, he tells us a nasty Halloween story about a spooky house and the untimely demise of its inhabitants. It features a carnivorous plant, a disgruntled elderly couple who tend to their beige roses, a ritual flaying and a phalanx of misbehaving cats, and it is equal parts unsettling and hilarious. He is accompanied by Joel Chua, who extemporises on the keyboard and manages to keep a straight face.

The Unicorn and El Jaguar are both exceptionally sharp and very funny alter-egos of Canadian improviser Derek Flores, and he inhabits them with absolute commitment and conviction. He is an outstanding storyteller with a wonderful sense of the macabre and he certainly knows how to command a space.

Spooky Times at the Manchester Ranch is top quality comedy and improvisation in an amiable and intimate environment and it engenders an affable sense of community. Even discounting the paucity of venues and entertainment options in Christchurch at the moment, I’d like more of this sort of living room cabaret please.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer