The final night of Terrible Ideas features another three talented guest stars (two of whom you won’t see anywhere else this Comedy Festival).
Saturday 16 May
Jean Sergent
Jean is an actor, sociologist & cat-dad & you may have seen her performing with the Bacchanals, appearing in What We Talk About When We Talk About during the Fringe Festival, hosting hit show Corner Diary, or heard her discussing Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex as part of Jonny’s Year of Reading Massively podcast.
Adam Goodall
One of the founders of theatre company Making Friends Collective, Adam is part of the brains trust behind shows such as The Good News, Proficiency Test, Euthermia/Hyperprexia and RageFace, and is one of the many What We Talk About When We Talk About alumni to feature in Terrible Ideas.
Daniel John Smith
If you were lucky enough to catch DJS during his Comedy Festival show with Alice Brine, How to Fold a Fitted Sheet, you’ll already know why you should make time to catch this up & coming Wellington comedian. If, on the other hand, you missed it, you definitely better come along to see what Terrible Idea he has in store for us.
The third night of Terrible Ideas features another batch of top-notch guests (of course we would say that, but they really are pretty great).
Friday 15 May
Abby Howells
Writer & performer Abby Howells is a member of comedy group Discharge - the people behind What Is This, Woman’s Hour?, Benedict Cumberbatch Must Die, and 28 Days: A Period Piece. Her show in the 2015 NZ International Comedy Festival is Glocknid (Dwarf Warrior) & is pretty much guaranteed to be a must-see.
Nick Gibb
Comedian, actor and filmmaker Nick Gibb was the 2010 winner of the national RAW Comedy Quest competition, and the 2011 winner of the Billy T Award. With a series of standout solo shows under his belt, this year he’s turning his hand to a play (co-starring Rhys Mathewson) - Force Norman.
Sam Smith
Comedian/dentist Sam Smith was most recently seen in Wellington as part of sketch comedy show My Sketchen Rules - now this writer for the likes of Jono & Ben and 7 Days is back in the capital for the Comedy Festival with a brand-new solo show, Laughing Gas, fresh from a sellout Auckland season.
Night two of Terrible Ideas in the NZ International Comedy Festival is pretty darn amazing too, with three more stellar guests telling us about their plans & schemes that never made it.
Thursday 14 May
Jennifer O'Sullivan
Comedian, improviser, producer and person-who-makes things happen, Jennifer is a familiar face to anyone who’s been to an improv show in Wellington. Most recently, you might have seen her in Definitely Not Witches’ Definitely Not the Babysitters Club during the Comedy Festival, or in their self-titled show during Fringe.
Rhys Mathewson
This fulsomely-bearded comedian was the 2010 winner of the prestigious Billy T Award, and after spending a year on the UK circuit returned to NZ to (among other things) appear as a regular panelist on TVNZ’s Best Bits. His show (with Nick Gibb) in this year’s Comedy Festival is called Force Norman.
Jerome Chandrahasen
Jerome is an ever-present stalwart of the Wellington comedy scene - another prolific producer & a fine comedian in his own right. Also fulsomely-bearded, and also recently returned from foreign shores, he’s a regular local headliner who you can also catch in his solo Comedy Festival show The Third Pint.
It’s probably time we started revealing the amazing lineups we’ve arranged for Terrible Ideas.
First up, on opening night:
Wednesday 13 May
Alice May Connolly
Alice May is a writer and performer who you may have seen performing as part of my accomplice’s Tiny Deaths, or in any number of shows from the Bacchanals, or co-hosting Fringe Festival show What We Talk About When We Talk About, or in last year’s Fringe hit Tut (which she also wrote).
Eamonn Marra
Eamonn is a writer, comedian and Radio Active DJ, and the other co-host of What We Talk About When We Talk About. During this year’s Comedy Festival he’s staging a new & improved version of his show Respite (which was already really great but now will no doubt be even better).
James Nokise
James probably needs no introduction but I’ll give it a go anyway. He’s a writer and comedian who you’ve no doubt seen on TV or in First Laughs or in his Fringe show Rukahu or his Comedy Festival shows So-So Gangsta and The Bronaissance. This year, his new Comedy Festival show is called Big Words.
We’re pretty damn stoked to be kicking off Terrible Ideas with a lineup this good. Details of the lineups on other nights to be revealed soon…
Here’s the poster for Terrible Ideas. Look out for it at a BATS Theatre near you.
Terrible Ideas is about the thoughts you write down at 2am, thinking you’re a genius, then dismiss in the cold light of day as too odd, too ambitious, or too incomprehensible. A rotating lineup of guest performers will present their worst, wildest and weirdest comedy ideas - making for a show the likes of which no-one has ever seen before, and no-one should ever see again.
Hosted and curated by Wellington comedians Jarrod Baker and Jonny Potts, Terrible Ideas challenges its guests to find humour in previously untapped corners of their brains - or fail horribly in the attempt. It’s a panel show with a difference - and a different show every night.
Jarrod Baker is one half of 2007 Billy T Award winning musical comedy act Mrs. Peacock, and the sole member of non-award winning musical comedy act Jarrod Baker. His previous shows in the NZ International Comedy Festival include “We Are All Doomed” (2014), “Songs for my Infant Daughter” (2013), “Worst Songs of the 90s” (2012), and “Litany of Failures” (2011).
Part of the 2015 NZ International Comedy Festival.
Terrible Ideas (BATS Theatre)
