During the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, ‘Behind the LOLs’ will reveal the inner workings of some of our finest comedy talent. Today: Eli Matthewson.
This year it seems like me and all my peers decided to get experimental with our Comedy Festival shows.
Maybe because we’ve reached the stage in our lives where we have steady-ish incomes and long term partners, so need to manufacture a bit of craziness. Some of my friends are performing from the bottom of a well, doing a Christmas show in May, talking about their fictitious children or trying to get to the moon. My show is a solo sketch show trying to cover every single facet of the internet.
People always ask whether I come up with my show’s title first. 100% absolutely. This show was born out of a title I came up with late one night after reading a lot of Buzzfeed. It’s a really long title that no one can remember, which is exactly what you want when marketing your show.
Was it the only title I thought of? No, so here I present to you the list of shows I could’ve been performing in the 2016 NZ International Comedy Festival:
VeLOLcitaptor
This is me, dressed as a dinosaur, doing all my best dinosaur gear. For my particularly good lines I’ll have a sound sting that says “Clever Girl”
In the Booth with Ringo
I play Ringo Starr, the show is set in the voice booth for Thomas the Tank Engine. Ringo uses the stories of the trains to slowly confess his darkest secrets.
“A great diversion from your average stand-up show” – Theatreview
Me and Your Dad
I pick an audience member at random, and spend the full hour telling them about the long-term affair I have been having with their father. Heaps of dirty jokes but also some real touching pathos.
In the end they welcome me as their new step-dad but I’m like “PSYCHE! I made it all up!”
“I want to go see it again so I can hear about his affair with a whole other dad!” – Keeping Up With NZ
The Poke-rap & Other Things From the Nineties!
I leave all creativity behind and cash in on that sweet nostalgia dollar. Very popular, very terrible show.
Lemonade
This one is about when Jay-Z cheated on me
Deuce Clense!
For the entirety of the show’s 10-night run I’m doing a juice cleanse, but I also have to watch Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo every day before the show to creatively cleanse myself. Not many jokes, but you do get the spectacle of witnessing a tortured man. Come back later in the season and see the tears increase!
A Concise List of All Blacks I Have Slept With
This might be the name of my show next year. It would be a very short show if I did it right now, but give me time ;)