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Month: October 2020

Something Different

Something Different

Friday night and the players arrived at the Historic Village for something a bit different.

Well, some arrived earlier to set up a table in the Incubator shed for the Test Tube event.

This was a get-together of creatives; all types from artists and sculptors, magicians, dancers and of course, comedians in the form of the Honest Liars.

Fee stayed on at the table to answer questions and promote the shows while the other Honest Liars prepared for a 30-minute taste of Improv held outdoors. Nothing betters a free performance to give punters a feel of Improvised comedy!

The stage was set, (not so much a stage but a grassy knoll), the musicians had finally done their last number – wait, one more… no… one more and then another one for good luck.

Finally, the audience had assembled, and the kiddies sat on the bean bags in the front row full of eager anticipation.

Children? The players were undoubtedly going to have to curb their usual R16 antics!

The games began with a round of ‘Alphabet’ which had Brett and Melissa doing a bank heist. The problem was that Brett turned out to be an anti-capitalist bank robber who didn’t want to steal any money. In fact, he’d also forgotten to bring the guns.

alphabet game honest liars

The ‘Good, Bad & Ugly’ offered excellent advice, including what to do with a relative who was too religious. The advice ranged from politely leaving leaflets about satanic cults around the home for education to redecorating their room with static wallpaper with an upside-down cross pattern.

Three groups of two players were in the ‘Clap’ game and topics suggested from the audience were brain surgery, lozenges and a giraffe. Steve was the brain surgeon, and Kathy wanted her dog to have a brain transplant so it could speak Spanish.

After hearing the audience suggestion of meeting a tinder date in a mortuary, Kathy pointed out that it was an interesting theme for a family audience. But not to be deterred the players delivered a funny ‘Change’ game to the delight of the adults and kids alike.

During this game, there was an interruption. A small dog wandered into the scene and proceeded to poop in the bushes for all to see. Kathy, quick as a wink, rushed on shouting “Hola, hola” hoping that perhaps this was the dog with the brain transplant. She left the stage, the dog sauntered off, order returned, and the game continued.

‘Foreign Film Dub’ saw Steve and Kristina acting out the scene and Melissa and Brett as the translators. The film title ‘I Can Dance’ was in Bulgarian and Steve gave an excellent rendition of the national dance as he tutored Kristina who managed to keep her laughter under control.

The night ended well with all the players drifting off to Mood and having a well-deserved libation as the Test Tube event wound down.

Thanks to the players:

Kathy
Melissa
Kristina
Steve
Kelly
Wendy
Brett

Thanks to Fee on the table and special thanks to Sue who helped put this post together.

The next show at the Jam Factory is on Sunday 1st November 7 pm

Book your tickets, have a drink at Mood Lounge first, then join us for loads of laughs.

1st Sunday of every Month
Jam Factory, Historic Village
Show Starts: 7 p.m.

book now

Busy Times

Busy Times

Within a matter of 48 hours, the Honest Liars had hosted two workshops.

The first one was a little outside the box as the wonderful folk at Media Works asked the players if they would come and entertain them during a conference day they were having. This involved staff from radio stations based in Tauranga, Thames and Coromandel and was to be held at the Falls Retreat in Karangahake Gorge. 

It started well as the Honest Liars sat and discussed the line-up over a coffee.

But neither the players nor the radio personal had any idea that this lunch was going to be in a public restaurant where other people would be. Well, free show for the onlookers, although they probably wouldn’t have got any of the in-jokes that the players dropped throughout the gig.

The show kicked off with a quiz-style question and answers with all the participants up onto their feet, answering multi-choice questions and sitting down if getting it wrong. How could they? All the questions were loosely based on what Honest Liars had been able to glean about their audience. But, there was a winner and chocolate came his way.

The ‘Alphabet Game’ clinched even more secrets being let out of the bag to the delight of the audience.

However, it was a little disconcerting when the restaurant staff picked the middle of the ‘Change Game’ to bring out the pizzas and place them on the tables. But the humour of the situation wasn’t entirely lost by any.

A couple of games specifically more in the corporate workshop realm rounded off the hour, and the players left them to get on with their conference.

Two days later…

Now it was time for the Free Taster. The ‘teachers’ arrived knowing it was going to be busy. And, sure enough, there were 17 people in total… not counting the teachers.

This made for a wonderful couple of hours.

The usual warm-up games were played with one being ‘Body Touching’. Yes, that’s right folk, Kathy called out a number and a body part and the players had to connect. 

“four ankles!”

“four pinkies!”

But the favourite was:

“four bums!”

It certainly got everyone loosened up and laughing.

Players were broken up into groups for “Plan a Party” which had magic carpets, ponies and unicorns and Donald Trump arriving.

“I am a Tree” had all sorts of different poses and got the players thinking outside their comfort zone and they added to the story.

Two lines were formed to play the “Yes And” game with murder and mayhem and “The Johnson File” covered divorce papers, doctors files and even a missing chapter of the bible.

Everyone loved “Space Jump” seeing players dancing with sore ankles, climbing a tree, doing yoga and even delivering an alien.

The Taster workshop proved to be a hit, and those who attended certainly had a ton of raw talent. Laughter abounded, and by the end, everyone left feeling uplifted and many indicating that they wanted more.

Thanks to the Teachers: Kathy & Melissa

Thanks to Support Players: Fee, Kay, Wendy, Sally, Steve

And a huge thanks to all who came along to try their brains at Improv.

The next show at the Jam Factory is on Sunday 1st November 7 pm

Book your tickets, have a drink at Mood Lounge first, then join us for loads of laughs.

1st Sunday of every Month
Jam Factory, Historic Village
Show Starts: 7 p.m.

book now

A Change Makes A Difference.

A Change Makes A Difference.

It began with an idea that proved to be a winner!

The Honest Liars decided to make quite a change with the layout of the stage. It worked!!!! The audience thought it was brilliant, they could see what was going on, and the players had more space to frolic about with their comedic antics.

a change makes all the difference

It was a smaller group of players this time, only six, but they still managed to put on a show that had the audience laughing. Once the stage had been positioned, it was time to put out the chairs ready for the seven people who had tickets to arrive (and the hope of a few more walk-ins). Then it was time for a run-through of the games that were going to be played.

honest liars players

After a good warm-up, the players headed over to the Mood Lounge for a break leaving the crew to man the door. By the time they were back, there were certainly more than seven eager patrons filing in. In fact, it ended up being a nearly full house as more tickets had been sold at the last minute!

The players arrived on stage to battle it out for the best ‘World’s Worst’ hypnotist/publican/boss and midwife. Quickly followed by another warm-up game, ‘Questions’, where the players must speak in question form only.

Then the games began in earnest with ‘Four Ways to Die’ after which was the hilarious ‘Hollywood Director’ game. Kevin played the director trying to come up with the best take on the audience suggested scene of prostitutes in an alleyway. Kathy was an excellent pimp handling a prostitute (Jon) with problems and Melissa a very demanding customer. The director tried different genres from Western to Shakespeare, each one getting funnier and the problems getting worse.

Improv games

It was decided to lengthen the half-time as not only did the audience need a bathroom break, but many needed to refresh their drinks from Mood.

Back with the show and ‘Film Noir’ was another hit. The suggestion from the audience had Jon and Melissa in Disneyland. Melissa, a princess, was tired of just having children around so when she spied Jon, she decided he could be the one. Little did she know that Jon, being British, gets turned on standing in queues for 3 – 4 hours. Have a peek and why he said it.

 

The rest of the 2nd half had the ‘Superheros’ battling a shortage of peanut butter and Fee, Sally and Kevin giving ‘Good, Bad and Ugly’ advice on home loans and procrastination among other things.

Two brave members of the audience came up onto the stage to assist in the ‘Change’ game. There Kathy, a criminal lawyer, was trying to talk to the client, Fee, who couldn’t make up her mind if she’d killed just one celebrity or many all for 15 minutes of fame.

Finally, the curtain came down. Well, not literally as there is no curtain! The players said goodnight to the audience, reassembled the stage back to where it was, turned off the lights and headed to Mood for a celebratory drink and a wind-down.

Thanks to the players:

Kathy
Kevin
Sally
Melissa
Jon
Fee

Thanks to the Crew:

Mark and the players!

 

The next show at the Jam Factory is on Sunday 1st November 7 pm

Book your tickets, have a drink at Mood Lounge first, then join us for loads of laughs.

1st Sunday of every Month
Jam Factory, Historic Village
Show Starts: 7 p.m.

book now

Next Workshop – Jam Factory Saturday, October 10th 10 – 12

Contact us if interested

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