Chris Cox gives Laura Westbrook an insight into how he can "read minds."
Chris Cox: Fatal Distraction
Whitireia Performance Centre, Wellington, May 8
From the moment I stepped into the venue and was handed a pen I knew this show was going to be full of audience participation. This was not traditional comedy where the comedian stands on stage with just a mic for company: This was a set, with props.
Chris Cox is the mind reader who can't read minds. However, he does a good job of making me believe he can do just that. The lanky Brit bounces on stage, charms the crowd with his self-deprecating humour and soon you're swept along on a baffling, but thoroughly enjoyable hour of entertainment.
He's honest that he can't actually read minds and uses techniques such as reading body language, word association, and you know those props on stage aren't random, but his abilities are still, well, mind blowing.
The thread that runs through the show looks at the question, "What if?" giving it a structure with an unexpected poignancy.
There is comedy but the most interesting part is the audience participation - for the more timid out there he doesn't humiliate - and how he manages to get people to scratch their heads and say out loud "What the...?"
Such as how did he know that man's phone number? And how did he know this woman wanted him to break-dance? Be prepared to throw your thoughts at Cox and see what comes back.
If you're looking to sit back and let some good old-fashioned comedy wash over you this probably isn't the show for you. However, if you want to experience something extraordinarily unique, go see Cox.
Just be prepared to leave with one question echoing round your mind - how did he do that?
Details:
Chris Cox perfoms in Wellington at the Whitireia Performance Centre, May 8 to 12.
More information on www.comedyfestival.co.nz
- © Fairfax NZ News
have paintings and drawings and prints. We have photographs and plates. But we have a few posters too - or rather I do. I'm not sure that Katy claims ownership of any of the posters. At best, co-ownership of a couple perhaps.
inn McCool. This guy sat with his pint and drew a cartoon of the band - he gave us a copy and the bass player had copies made to give to each of us. I've hung on to it. Memories flood back when I look at that: gigs all around the country, sometimes, if we didn't get paid on the night, I would borrow money for gas - and one time I used half of that for cigarettes and nearly broke down as a result. I gave up smoking the next day because I was ashamed that it had come to that - choosing cigarettes over petrol.
er (or frame it) and suddenly you have a piece of art. It's that simple. Block-mounting is a lot cheaper than framing and for certain pictures/posters it actually works better. I think Connan is one of the great New Zealand musicians - I very much look forward to seeing what he does next.
Well, picture-discs were made to be hung on the wall, right? So I have a few picture-discs - most of them I have picked up in bargain-bins. And only one of them hangs on the wall. It's INXS' Kick. I guess I have this hanging on my wall simply because I always have. I've owned the picture-disc for nearly 20 years and it's followed me from flat to flat, house to house, surviving the student days and some time in storage. I wrote about it here as part of the Vinyl Countdown - that explains more fully my connection to the music; I was such a fan of the Kick album as a youngster. What a great set of pop-songs. Maybe it hangs on my wall now because that's preferable to ruining the memory by playing the music. That's probably it. Something like that.
