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Chris Skelton / STUFF
For 17 years, teenagers took to the stage at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, performing original sets for crowds accustomed to some of the biggest names in comedy.
According to Auckland Adolescents, Brendon Green looks like the brother who did not make the All Blacks team. It looks like he's lost his mother at the mall. He looks like a single person who claims to have a partner. He looks like a fancy garden gnome
Brendon Green, it is said, looks like a stable working man who commands whites, who has not participated in many parties, most of the time at Inside, slowly losing one's mental health.
It's a torrential Saturday in the late afternoon and Green, an award-winning comedian, warms the audience of the Q Theater in downtown Auckland. The 6 "4" West Aucklander with a ginger tinted beard and a New Balance sneaker addiction tells us that he had solicited insults as an exercise in the Comedians Class Comedians program of New Zealand which, for 17 years, has assigned professional kiwi comedians with high schools in Auckland and Wellington for young comedians in the making, and teach them the tricks of the trade, the audience today is filled with families, friends and members of the public
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Brendon Green, writer and award-winning comedian, was known r Auckland's comedy circuit for about 11 years. the Class Comedians program for the last two years.
This is Green's second year in Auckland's program. The 33-year-old worked for 11 years on the comedy circuit in New Zealand, Melbourne and Edinburgh, writing for TV series such as 7 Days and The Project, hosting corporate events, clowns and occasionally organizing quizzes. He jokes about the fact that he looks like Wolverine, if the superpower of X-Man was graphic.
I had heard that Green was probably the most handsome man in New Zealand comedy. I learn that he drives a Nissan Tiida and has a MacBook sporting a sticker that reads "Kindness Matters". At his own comedy festival show, he drinks a bottle of water rather than a glass of wine, and wears panty-liners under the armpits of his shirt. He tells us the first time that he was crying like an adult when he had to abandon his kitten at the SPCA home.
Teens of Milgram Green's modern-day experience did not know anything about it. Nevertheless …
"They've put me in tatters," he told the crowd.
"The only good thing is that the future of New Zealand comedy is in very good hands."
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
In a month, Green taught seven teens from Auckland how to manipulate a microphone, and to write a guaranteed laugh joke
THE MOST DIFFICULT CROWD
A Monday afternoon two months earlier, I arrive at St Mary's & # 39; College, a Catholic high school for girls in the city center. suburbs. At lunch time, Mr. Green and his group of comedians will provide students with a non-provocative information booth, with the aim of attracting some of them to his studio after the event. # 39; school. From there, one, sometimes two, students will be selected to take a free 10-day intensive course during school holidays and weekends: naturally funny pubescent boys and girls gathered for an intensive professional comedy course.
The room is filled with girls in cobalt blazers fleeing the deluge on the outside. Green's voice emanates wings.
"Ladies, ladies and gentlemen, and we know that we are still at the end of our sentences!"
There is polite applause, and Green appears on stage, smiling on a field of ponytails. His task is daunting: to make a hundred of teens laugh.
Green opens his game by asking those gathered to "make noise" if they are, like him, a child of divorce.
He continues to disclose Fun and tortured details of a vaguely dysfunctional family before handing over the microphone to Inosi Colavanua, a 22-year-old Fijian kiwi who began to perfect his art three years ago after borrowing a book about stand-up comedy from the library.
"I would have liked that they would follow this program at my high school," he had said earlier.
"I would have liked to do it, it makes you come out of your shell …"
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Ruby Esther is a former student of Comedian Class and a winner of Raw Comedy Quest 2017.
Colavanua completes her set, and it is the turn of Ruby Esther. She was part of the Class Comedian program two years ago and has continued to be professional since then.
Esther's blond curls, her blue eyes and her red sneakers evoke an unlikely heroine in a children's book. Hugging a ukulele in pale aquamarine tones, the 19-year-old girl does not feel much younger than she with the uncertainties and insecurities that come from being a legal adult without five-year plan or partner.
have a theory about why she does not have a boyfriend, she says. They suspect that she is a lesbian.
"I really had short hair once," she thought.
"And I've always been a tomboy, and I always made girls …"
What better way to explore the puzzle than through the music? Esther wonders aloud. There is a squeegee of the uke, and she begins to sing
My family thinks I am gay
They call me back every day [19659006] That, hey, it's good …
Dear mother, dear father
Despite what you think [19659006] I'm not a LGBTQ nor interrogator …
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Comedians perfected their art in downtown Auckland. New Zealand comedy.
Esther, a student at the University of Auckland, lives with the aforementioned parents. Whatever misconceptions they may or may not have about his sexuality, they support his job.
"I think that they would like me to focus a little more on my work … But they just want me to have a plan that's going to keep me alive," she told me more Later, adding that after winning the RAW Comedy Quest last year, his mother and father attended each of his concerts for the next six months.
"Whenever my father Come, he would cry," she said, lost.
"I could see him from the balcony and he wiped his eyes …"
Esther finishes her set – " I'm right like a ruler, straight as a line, everything right like all the righteous things that rhyme … "- to enthusiastic applause. The song is a real worm of the ear. I'm going to buzz it for months to come.
"I thought it might be weird to have someone close to his age," he says afterwards, referring to Esther's performance.
"But it's a genius. It's perfect.
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
The Class Comedians spent hours at The Vault Festival Sets.
A LESSON IN LAUGH
The bell rings, signaling the end of another school day, and Green and I are waiting in the same room as d & # 39; Strange Comics Present
Three girls materialize. Green, perpetually imperturbable by all things, had said that from 1 to 30 students could attend.
He kicks the girls – two brunettes and a blonde with glasses – to name comedians whom they know and love.
"Basically, the thing about the stand-up is that you have to make people laugh," says Green. The way to do this is to surprise an audience. He says you can be honest, you can be political, you can be physical, you can be musical. You can tell stories. Or, if you are David Correos, you can stick a knife to your head and run through an audience claiming to be a unicorn.
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Comedian Brendon Green with his students Triyash Chetty, front left , Cat Thomas, Farias' Amelia, Ronan Mann, Sam Williams, Sarah Pilbrow and Josh Black. [19659012] "A lot of comedies are like short jokes, but you also make people see the world in a different way by being yourself, nobody sees the world exactly like you, you can think that you are normal and boring, if you say something that is true for you, it makes others' brains do something they are not used to. "
Green says the best – in fact, the only way – To learn how to do – is to actually do it. As such, the rest of the session is devoted to theater-sport exercises. Including writing what Green looks like.
He tells the girls that he wants their observations to be as accurate as possible.
"This is known as school-sanctioned bullying," he says, still smiling.
"The fun thing about me is, I have very thick skin, so I can take it."
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
The most indispensable accessory of the comedian.
THE BOOTCAMP BEGINS
The girl with blond hair and glasses stands halfway up a fire station in a parking lot gloriously sporting a graffiti, contemplating the morning greyness while a group of teenagers freezes concrete below.
Amelia de Farias is one of seven class actresses this year. They have a month to learn how to be funny on demand, before going to play at the six-minute theater at the Comedy Festival. These six minutes have allowed former classmates, such as Rose Matafeo and Rhys Mathewson, to embark on a successful career. Today, it could be the beginning of something.
Amelia is "the leader of the present generation" in her family, she says. The 15-year-old took a train and a bus to get here this morning.
"When I discovered that I had been chosen for that, I was really, really excited, certainly for the holidays …"
Green arrives and leads the troop up to On one-piece steel stairs that strangely reminiscent of a film set Saw . There are chains hanging from the roof and a window that leads nowhere. Four of the eight fluorescent lamps are functional. We are warned not to use the toilet under any circumstances.
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
The young comic strips used to be in front of each other to the point of knowing the jokes of others by heart.
We sit in a line with our back against the wall. In addition to Amelia, there is Josh Black, a Grade 11 with a baritone voice and a blue button-down shirt, and classmate Cat Thomas, a blonde haired referee who suffered a concussion at Valentine's Day.
Sam Williams a 17-year-old who runs a theater sports group on Friday after school and works as a waiter at a restaurant where you can buy four spring rolls for $ 20. He tells us that he has a tick that makes him blink. Green asks what he wants to do with his life
"I would like to say that I'm going to do comedy but then again, I could say, I'm going to fight …" "
Sarah Pilbrow is half Chinese and has hair colored like a sunset.She goes to the same school as Sam.He once he directed it in scenes of Hamlet .Sarah, 16, said that she was in the anime now, playing Dungeons and Dragons consumes her spare time.
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Some people may be naturally funny, but quality comedy does not happen by chance.
"I think I'm introverted, but I've been told that I'm not sure. was extrovert, and I do not know who I am anymore … "
At age 14, Triyash Chetty is the youngest in the group and tells us that he has moved to Ōtāhuhu with his family from Fiji. He does not miss it, he says. "It's very polluted."
Then there is Ronan Mann (no relationship with the writer), who is in last year of school. She is an astrology enthusiast who traces her future according to her natal chart. Where will she be in ten years?
"Just, famous."
Today, it is for teens to acclimate to each other, and the spotlight. It is also important to learn the basic rules of stand-up. Some people may be naturally funny, but it quickly becomes clear that quality comedy does not happen by accident. In the middle of the rain, Green orders his accusers to take out their notebooks and write what he is about to say
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Ronan's poem slam went a treat with the public.
A FINAL REPETITION
It's a Sunday morning and I'm back in a windowless room with seven teenagers (though – thankfully – a more inviting one). Over the past four weeks, Class Comedians have put these notes into practice. They learned to compose their personalities for an audience, to express their self-awareness on stage. They know that they must know their character. They know that they must own their style. In one month, Green taught them how to manipulate a microphone, and how to write a joke for laughs. There is a "rule of three" and another one on tension in construction. He emphasized the specificity and importance of the choice of words. He taught them to "cut fats" from their sets, which took shape over the hours spent in dimly lit spaces. Greenberg tells me that he liked watching the group embrace their personalities on stage
"They start with expectations of themselves, or they just want to integrate and do what others and then they say, "Oh, okay, I have a voice." "
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Cat's experiences on the hockey field gave him a lot of material for the stage.
A group of evolving comedians – Melanie Bracewell, Hamish Parkinson, David Correos, Jimmy McGhie and Rhys Mathewson – has stopped over the past few weeks to pass on their wisdom to the next generation. "Mathewson, the preceptor of the program before Green, told the seven no matter who was the funniest scene. more work in his set would be the funniest of the night. 9659006] Today, teens will play their sets on this underground stage for a team of industry people who have come to town to give them their opinion. their great beginnings.
"Look how terrified they are!" Green chuckles on the stony faces of teenagers
"They only did it in front of them and they hate each other's jokes …"
JASON DORDAY / STUFF
Sam takes a moment to contemplate a punchline. His flow of consciousness has earned some of the biggest laughs at the showcase.
Ronan leaves first, telling us that she recently came out of jail – "Not like a physical prison, I was vegetarian …" – and energetically taking the piss of slam poetry into herself performing a play entitled Boy on Queen Street who dropped his bread .
"… Boy on Queen Street / For me / That bread is all wrong / With our company / Filthy / Forgotten / White …"
Receives universal recognition of professional comedians in the front row . Green calls Sarah to the scene, causing a cry of terror. Behind the microphone, the 16-year-old raises her adolescent embarrassment. Adults love it.
"I'm bad in a lot of things but there's one thing I'm good at," she says. "I believe that all relationships are like motorcycles and the best bikes have three wheels …"
One of the pros told Sarah that she worked "how to be present on stage while being of lower status ".
It takes years to train, he says.
"You should be very proud of it."
Chris Skelton / Stuff
Next up, Josh. The 15-year-old treats us with misadventures of the young romance for four minutes and 46 seconds. He is told that he has great self-confidence and that he has a lot of physique, but that he has to work on his delivery. Criticism is taken in the spirit that is given to it: with mutual respect, a note noted, a nod of the head.
Then it's Triyash's turn. He speaks in bursts of staccato, his character on stage is angry. He hates babies, he tells us, almost as much as he abhors the state of modern public toilets. Seriously, Green tells him he's talking about a place of anger, he has to watch the game by frowning.
"Do not break, do not smile, you make them smile."
Knitwear Triyash her eyebrows together.
"Exactly!" Green says, ecstatic. "Your eyebrows must stay there all this time"
Chris Skelton / Stuff
Cat nailed him in the night.
Cat is the last in the line-up today. In rehearsals this morning, she was the first to nail all the punchlines. She is refreshing, confident, well spoken and at ease on stage. She has a good start.
"I like to have control over the old white men, I'm a hockey referee … It's always a shock to the system when a 16-year-old girl has the total control of the story. oppressors … "
Soon, however, Cat loses his train of thought.This is not much, Green is encouraging and the audience is friendly – we know it can do it. But she offers just a few more lines, before returning to her place.
One of the pros tries to comfort her.
"Sometimes," he said softly, "when you did a routine like, 50 times you will go on stage, and your brain will … "
Chris Skelton / Stuff
The mirrors in the Green spaces were used well.
THIS IS THE DISPLAY
The green room is white and warm and feels the nervous body.I heard them singing down the hallway: Frozen & nbsp; Do you want to build a snowman?
It's 30 minutes before the show and the seven have spent the last The last hours were more and more talkative, louder and noisier and more and more noisy, bringing last-minute changes to their sets, mumbling them in mimic microphones as they roamed the space. . Now they know each other's lines by heart.
They are dressed and made up. Josh seems to have had his hair cut off; Sarah is no longer colorful as a sunset. Green is wearing his second shirt in as many hours. In the mirror Cat catches his hair; Ronan is adjusting an eyelash. The bathroom is constantly busy.
The showcase starts at 17h. Green tells them what to expect.
Chris Skelton / Stuff
Josh enters the area before going on stage.
"There will be lights in the eyes, applause and applause, booming music, you'll take a good old breath, and you'll nail the sets you're all working on." Believe me, you're all very funny and I'm very proud of everything you did. "
The audience is filling up and Justin Timberlake is booming the sound system – Nothin 'I can see you when you dance, dance, dance …
And then …
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the showcase of Comedians class 2018, are you already single!"
Chris Skelton / Stuff
Triyash Chetty, Amelia of Farias and Sam Williams train on stage at the Class Comedians presentation this year.
Green warms the audience (he looks like the brother who did not make the team All Blacks He looks like a garden gnome!) It's almost time for class comedians to steal the show.
Ronan is up first. In the green room she had squeezed both her hands as if to dry them. Now they are crossed over her waist as she waits for Green to call her name.
His face is fixed. His name is called. There is applause, cheers, loud music. She comes out of the darkness behind the scenes and enters the light.
– Sunday Magazine
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