Status Pending
It's a romance fit for the 21st century: millennial Lizzie (The Killian Curse's Ivana Palezevic) is obsessed with social media, and indecisive about staying with her Tinder boyfriend Ryan (Ben Zolno) or travelling overseas. Status Pending follows the couple for one day as Ryan tries to help Lizzie by getting her to tick off her life goals, like building a house (albeit out of bed sheets). Time is running out: Lizzie needs to decide about a cheap around-the-world deal. Written and directed by Zolno, the semi-improvised film premiered at US festival Cinequest. It was released online via Amazon.
7 Days - Series One, Episode Three
Well-received comedy panel series 7 Days debuted on TV3 in 2009. The show takes an irreverent look at the past week in the news with such regular segments as “my kid could draw that” and “what’s the taxi driver talking about”. Jeremy Corbett hosts, and there are two teams of regular and guest comedians including Ben Hurley, Jeremy Elwood, Dai Henwood and Paul Ego. This episode’s special guests are Rhys Darby and Australian comedian Lindsay Webb, while Labour MP Darren Hughes features in “politician in the hot seat”.
Hang Time
Marlborough's beloved grapevines star in this comedy feature, which was shot at a winery in just 11 days. Twenty-something Harry (Hayden J Weal from Chronesthesia) is dumped by his fiancée, just days before their wedding at a vineyard. Two of Harry's friends ensure the wine doesn't go to waste as they try to cheer him up. Written and directed by Casey Zilbert, the film was inspired by classic Ernest Hemingway novel Fiesta (aka The Sun Also Rises) about drunken expats in Europe. Hang Time is Zilbert's first movie; at university, her studies included Fiesta and wine science.
Alice Snedden - Funny As Interview
A lawyer by trade, Alice Snedden discovered that her passion was performing comedy while living in the United States.
Millen Baird - Funny As Interview
Millen Baird found comedy after deciding there was no future for him in being a tax accountant — yes, a tax accountant!
Cal Wilson - Funny As Interview
After starting her career in improv comedy, Cal Wilson has gone on to work in Australia and the United States.
Penny Ashton - Funny As Interview
She always thought she'd become an actor — but comedy poet Penny Ashton says poetry "chose" her. Ashton has toured her solo shows around the world, and in this Funny As interview she covers a range of topics, including: Being a cabaret act — doing a mix of poetry, songs and comedy — and lamenting that there’s less cabaret around in New Zealand than there used to be Producing Rhys Darby’s first solo show and Paolo Rotondo's play Little Che, and meeting poet Pam Ayres Representing New Zealand on a poetry tour of England, and different styles of slam poetry around the world The time a man yelled out "lose weight" during a performance — and the great response from a woman in the front row that inspired a new poem — plus the “new breed of woke bros coming through” Doing 130 shows in 55 towns across five countries between April 2017 and May 2018, at which point she "couldn’t remember what my husband looked like" How tough performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is, how phenomenally beautiful the city is, and how "f***ing terrible" the weather is
Chris Parker - Funny As Interview
Chris Parker grew up seeing long-running improv show Scared Scriptless at Christchurch's Court Theatre. A move to Auckland and comedy troupe Snort — which fellow Snorter Thomas Sainsbury joins him here to discuss — saw him playing David Halls onstage, and becoming a head writer on Jono and Ben. Among other things, Parker discusses: Seeing himself as an actor more than a comedian Getting the role of David Halls in the Hudson and Halls stage play without an audition, and learning about Halls and Peter Hudson's lives as gay men in the public eye, "who couldn't openly be out" The apparent contradiction of being a head writer of mainstream show Jono and Ben, despite his 2015 Comedy Festival show being “a weep fest about coming out to your parents ... like 45 minutes of dancing and no jokes” Winning the prestigious Fred Award for the best show written and performed by a New Zealand comedian, for his 2018 show Camp Binch, which he notes also contained no jokes Watching and learning from fellow actors Jo Randerson and Rima Te Wiata He’s joined by fellow comedian Thomas Sainsbury to discuss Auckland improv group Snort
Eli Matthewson - Funny As Interview
Starting out in Christchurch with the aim of becoming a serious actor, comedian Eli Matthewson has found his place further north, in stand-up and as a writer for television.
Two Hearts - Funny As Interview
Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore were both Billy T nominated comedians before they started performing together as musical comedy duo Two Hearts.