Comedy Festival
Rhys Darby: This Way To Spaceship
The Opera House, until today Reviewed by Simon Sweetman
Rhys Darby says a word. Any word. There's a laugh. He has more of a nasal twang to his voice sometimes – but it's funny, no matter the amount of twang, no matter the word.
Sometimes there is an expletive. And that's always hilarious. It's as if Murray (his character from Flight of the Conchords) is actually swearing. In real life. Amazing. Hilarious. There was the bit where he pretended to be an Olympic swimmer heading into a bar, so in he walked while miming some freestyle arm-strokes because swimmers are always swimming – even on dry land. Funny. And then when the Olympic swimmer realised he was in the wrong bar he backstroked out of there – with real backstroke-actions. The side-splitting kind.
Next thing Darby is being a horse. Not just any kind of horse though – a dressage horse. So he's doing really funny side-stepping and bowing and lifting his legs high, keeping them straight as he pretends to be a horse walking backwards. It's tricky for a horse to walk backwards, so a comedian-pretending-to-be-a-horse must take extra care when miming this equine difficulty. Crackup.
The full house exploded with laughter as Darby ran back and forth across the stage trying to land his empty handshake. You see, he had no one to shake his hand, and what was he going to do? He had to ground the handshake, sinking to the stage to slide it down for a landing. Very funny.
Then he mimed his fingers crawling out – as if disembarking from a plane. The fingers did the walking across the stage, up his leg and back into his pocket. But then, hilariously, it was the wrong pocket! So he crossed his arms – next thing he's a walking straitjacket. Make it stop! Make it stop!
Darby entertained with sound effects: a robot noise, doors creaking, imaginary frisbees.
And it is always hilarious, because he was on television in America. And in movies too.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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