Game for a laugh

A new collective is giving locals the giggles in Whanganui- and putting the city on the national comedy circuit.

WHANGANUI IS A BUSY LITTLE PLACE. Great shopping, wining and dining, the iconic river and a great bunch of locals who have long punched above their weight in the artistic and creative space. And yet, for Dave Wiggins and Elizabeth McMenamin-Pervan, there just seemed to be a little something missing, and that something was a standup comedy scene. So, with classic Kiwi can-do attitude, they set about putting that to rights.

Aucklander Wiggins had been a regular on the New Zealand comedy scene - and winner of the NZ Comedy Guild Best Newcomer in 2003 - for sometime before stepping back from the limelight for nearly a decade and then relaunching his standup just in time for, well, COVID. Whanganui native McMenamin-Pervan originally began treading the boards as an actor in Auckland and began her comedy career at the same time as she and Dave were cooking up Hello Comedy, winning the Whanganui Raw Comedy Competition in June this year.

When they both found themselves in Whanganui, it didn’t take long for them to recognise that the city needed a standup scene - and they were perfectly placed to launch it.

“Dave and I met through a comedian friend of ours,” says Elizabeth. “Once we had both moved here we realised there was no real comedy scene in Whanganui and comedians were skipping us and going to New Plymouth and Palmerston North - I guess they figured people from Whanganui would drive over for gigs. We had a vision about creating a scene here and so we organised our first show in February in The Musicians Club - and despite all the COVID restrictions at the time it sold out,

Above: Dave Wiggins and Elizabeth McMenamin-Pervan. Dave is on the left.

which told us there was a real appetite for more. It also gave us the impetus to book Rhys Mathewson in June - and that sold out three weeks before the show!”

The duo’s comedy connections have been core to the fledgling comedy scene’s success, with both Wiggins and McMenamin-Pervan able to pick up the phone and run ideas directly by some of the country’s big names in comedy, but they are also committed to shining a spot light on our lesser known comedy talents.

“As well as the three-monthly shows, where we strive for a really great headliner supported by three locals, we have also been running our Fresh Comedy nights at Porridge Watson,” says Elizabeth, referring to the hippest bar in town and the wellspring of so much of Whanganui’s creativity. “Fresh Comedy is for local comedians, or comedians coming over from New Plymouth or Palmerston North, and we are really committed to making it as diverse as possible. We usually have at least eight comedians and even though we have it on a Monday night we get really great turnouts.”

The best is yet to come however, so if you’ve been looking for a reason to visit Whanganui, Hello Comedy have just the ticket (pun intended).

“We’ve always dreamed a bit bigger,” says Elizabeth, “and wanted to really put Whanganui on the map with something special. We’d been brainstorming it for sometime, and when we got some funding from Whanganui and Partners to market a festival we came up with the Whanganui Comedy Gala - which we’ll be hosting on 16 June 2023, with tickets on sale in December. Air Chathams has also helped out and we have Dai Henwood and Michelle A’Court lined up, Rhys Mathewson MCing and some really big names in the works. It’s going to be an amazing show - and one that is not going to skip Whanganui!”

Even with their comedy connections it might be expected that convincing standups to leave the big smoke and play in the provinces wouldn’t be easy, but Elizabeth says it has been pretty plain sailing.

If you’ve been looking for areason to visit Whanganui,Hello Comedy have just the ticket.

“Comedians love the regions - they have such great crowds, great atmosphere - maybe because we’re not so spoiled for choice as in the big centres. And I guess they do tailor their sets for where they are, certainly bagging Auckland always works! Justine Smith got a lot of flak for how she pronounced Whanganui in some of our advertising! We don’t pronounce the H, so in her show she got up and really broke the ice with this brilliant piece on how ‘sorry’ she was! It was brilliant.”

So pencil the Whanganui Comedy Gala into your diary in preparation for an awesome Whanganui getaway; tickets can be purchased at the The Royal Whanganui Opera House box office and ticket website or via the Hello Comedy website. More headliners will soon be announced - check out their Facebook or Instagram page - and maybe practice your pronunciation unless you think you can upstage Justine Smith with witty comebacks on why you say the city’s name wrong!