It’s a rare occurrence for a performance to start off with an apology. But before Axis of Awesome picked up their instruments, they walked on stage and told the audience they were more used to performing in large amphitheatres and sports stadiums, which Auckland’s Town Hall is not. They also said they normally have a more decorated display of fireworks, animatronic dinosaurs and a caged dancing Madonna in the background, but all were unfortunately confiscated by Auckland Customs.
Jeremy Corbett and his boys were at the top of their game at the Comedy Festival’s hilarious 7 Days Live show at the Skycity theater. Dai Henwood, Paul Ego, Rhys Mathewson, Jeremy Elwoods, Jesse Mulligan and Australian guest Lindsay Webb made up the teams in a completely filthy and uncut hour and a half of non-stop laughter. With no cameras around and no young’uns to worry about, absolutely nothing was held sacred – Jeremy Corbett expressing his excitement at the fact early in the show with a King’s Speech inspired explosion of schoolyard expletives. “Bum! Dick! Titties!!! Big titties!!” The rest of the cast seemed equally expressive throwing F-bombs, S-bombs and even the odd C-bomb into the mix.
Fortunately, for Australia’s comedy ‘man-band’, this stuff isn’t needed to get laughs out of the audience. Axis of Awesome brought plenty to the stage with their hilarious songs, playful banter, and their rockstar attitudes. Some of their best songs parody music’s most cliché and annoying quirks. One of their best songs was singing a love song in their “boyband” style - but not just a generic love song. They created the most generic cliché love song one could create for a “non-specific girl”, which includes singing backup breathily and passionately changing the key “to let you know we take it seriously”. And quite fairly, it sounded better and more honest than actual love songs.
Dai opened up early on about a childhood game he called ‘willy shark’. Incredulous that nobody else had played it, he said the game involved a willy, a rubber band (of the small variety according to him), a Popsicle stick and a plastic fin. This confession became a running gag the entire show with the others using any opportunity to sink their teeth into his favourite childhood sport.
Another great original song they had parodied those annoying people who like to pump out loud music from their cars, accurately titled Can you hear the f*cking music coming out of my car? While a song like sounds irritating in concept, the song was surprisingly catchy and made me want to buy the song in order for people to hear loud f*cking music coming out of my car. To which they admitted after their song “I think we’ve taken awareness to a problem and just made it a hell of a lot worse”.
Naturally, Kim Dotcom, Gerry Brownlee, Bear Grylls, Prince William and the Queen’s ‘tightness’ all got a royal beating; the boys dedicating a good five minute banter about Kim Dotcom’s weight and John Bank’s memory of the infamous helicopter flight. Labour MP Jacinda Ardern took the hot seat for Yes Minister, doing well to ward off questions about her looks, Labour’s policies and John Banks - Jesse Mulligan asking if it was possible for any leader of the ACT party to make the previous one look competent.
While someone could compare any musical comedy band to the likes of Tenacious D or our own Flight of the Conchords, Axis of Awesome bring something different through the strength in the personas they take on while on stage. Jordan, the lead vocalist (who looks a lot like Jack Black), has a large personality and attempts to use his “sex appeal” to please the ladies by unbuttoning his shirt and growling like a (“diseased”) wolf. Lee, who plays the guitar, behaves as a cliché dim-witted sidekick, but still manages to be likable in his naïve ways. Both Jordan and Lee would spend most of their banter between songs making fun of keyboardist Benny, the short but most classy of the group, who surprised me in his fluency in German and his resemblance to Chicken Little. The banter that occurs between the three of them does feel a bit too scripted at times, but helps keep the flow between songs easy and very humorous.
None of the audience participation seemed to go smoothly, but the team used the blunders as a basis for more jokes. Pictures drawn by the audience were used in the ‘this is my picture’ segment but the sketcher of the first drawing appeared to have already left the show. The other drew a stoned man defecating on a tree in a park – not something she saw on the news but instead from her office window at work. Consequentially the news story of the picture was not guessed but the boys predicted it wouldn’t beTV3 News’ number one story but “it will probably make number two”. A highlight was Paul Ego’s fantastic impersonation of how Stephen Hawking would fare on Dancing with the Stars, spinning in his wheelie chair saying “I. Feel. So. Free. I. Feel. So. Free.” while Dai shimmied around him. Mathewson was as cheekily provocative as ever, constantly treading the line of good taste while Elwoods rose to every challenge with his quick wit. Mulligan was very laid back but always dead on with his dry commentary and guest Lindsay Webb fit right in perfectly to the mix.
Of course the main highlight of the Axis of Awesome performance (and, from audience reaction, why most people bought tickets) was for their infamous Four Chord Song – the song that can play almost any pop song with four simple chords. While most people may have seen it on Youtube already and think they’ve heard it all, Axis of Awesome kept it new and relevant by throwing in recent releases like Rihanna’s “We Found Love”. Overall, Axis of Awesome didn’t need to apologise in the beginning of their performance. The only thing they should apologise for is the sore ribs I gained from laughing throughout their show. All expectations I had of a good comedy show were blown away by the reality of a fantastic and hilarious comedy show. In fact, I can hear the f*cking music playing inside my head right now. Brilliant.
6
Melissa Low
If you’ve ever considered seeing the team live or you are a fan of the show, take the next opportunity you get to see them live in action. After seeing them uncensored and unedited, watching the TV show will forever feel like I am missing out. Matthew Cattin Reviews