Brynley Stent is not a household name in Australia yet, though fans of NZ Taskmaster will know her, but she’s bound to make a big splash here. She’s certainly one of the funniest comedians I’ve seen to come out of New Zealand and they’re mostly pretty good.
There is no audience banter or small talk, Brynley gets right into the business at hand of making her audience fall about laughing. Brynley tackles the mundane frustrations of life such as self check out and all the small social faux pas we fear making and makes them epic, really capturing the inner excruciating pain and taking the ideas to places you don’t expect.
Soft carnage is not a standup show as such, it is so much more. This show has everything; running gags, surprise story arcs, a nemesis, endearing hand drawn backdrops, magnificent props and grandiose impressions that all come at you from weirder angles than you would expect. Brynley throws herself into everything with great gusto and appears quite exhausted towards the end.
Soft Carnage has Award winning show written all over it. It’s highly polished, dealing with modern life and issues including the horrors of A.I. It has brilliant tech and BIG props that had to be hauled over the ditch for us. The dark humour is unexpected from this seemingly cheery, breezy young woman, but there are hints at a real heart breaking backstory, and yet there are the most gut aching belly laughs throughout the show that had me breathless and some members of the audience I was in just fell apart.
It is not at all surprising that Brynley was awarded one the top comedy award in New Zealand, the Billy T award. Soft Carnage completely blew me away, but it is surprising how small her room is. I am raving about this show to anyone who comes within my vicinity, it will sell out, so you should buy tickets now.
Brynley Stent performs Soft Carnage at the Victoria Hotel at 9.10/8.10 until April 20
The 32nd Melbourne International Comedy Festival has been officially
Lano & Woodley
Launched for 2018. Hosted by comedy legends Lano & Woodley, their reunion this year, after 12 years apart, in their new show Fly is one of the big thrills causing quite a buzz in a gigantic, exciting programme. There are more than 620 shows in this years festival. Some of the shows are encore performances and others that we Squirrels managed to catch and review at other festivals.
Feel free to click on the links below and read what we thought of these earlier iterations, keeping in mind that festival shows are ever evolving beasts that change and develop over time, so the new version may be quite different to one we saw.
See a favourite off the telly, See someone you’ve never heard of. Most of all have a wonderful time and keep an eye on Squirrel Comedy as the new reviews roll in and we keep you up to date on what’s happening via our Social Media.
Snort are a bunch of up-and-coming New Zealand comedians, banding together to do some great longform improv. With a rotating cast of performers and guest monologists every night, no two shows will be the same. I caught a performance where the cast included Rose Matafeo, Guy Montgomery, Donna Brookbanks, Alice Snedden, Tom Sainsbury and Brynley Stent.
With Friends runs the Armando improv format. One person will deliver a monologue prompted by a word provided by the audience, and then the team will perform scenes based on that monologue. On the evening I attended, there was a monologue from Snort member Alice Snedden, as well as from special guests Aaron Chen and Tom Walker. The best part of the stories is seeing how each performer interprets their prompt. “Kookaburra” led to a story about cricket gear, “pickle” to an in-depth description of a meal you can buy in Marrickville, and “abyss” to some bad wrestling gimmicks.
The Snort crew have a great rapport and play fast and loose with the format. Some of the best moments in the night came from scenes left to run a bit too long, confusing interactions and cast members throwing each other under the bus in general. This is clearly a group that is comfortable enough playing together that they know they can test each other’s limits. Stent was a standout as a maid/pickle saleswoman/camel saleswoman with an unplaceable broad accent. Sainsbury and Brookbanks were fantastic as a couple on the run after having a Christmas that was a little too “edgy”. Snort have hit a sweet spot with their improv – silly but not out-of-control, unpredictable yet skilful.
Snort With Friends is a wonderful hour of late-night mayhem and is a must-see for improv fans.
