New Games, Same Players.
New games were introduced into the show, but the players were the same. Even those returning from holidays got to tread the boards.
The sky had opened, and the torrent of rain came down in sheets as the players arrived at the theatre. The Honest Liars were pleased to get inside the theatre after jumping over the little rivers gushing down the gutters and washing down the path.
Within five minutes, the rain had eased off, not that anyone noticed as they set up the chairs and began a warm-up session to get their fun mojos up to speed.
The audience arrived and visited the bar before getting their seats in anticipation of enjoying a good night’s entertainment, and they were not disappointed.
Jon, the MC, welcomed the players onto the stage and began with three rounds of the game of ‘Categories’, where they had to identify different types of breakfast cereals, nuts, and the weather. This got the laughter started, and the performers lit up.
‘Pocket Note’, always an audience favourite, saw Matt, Mark and Kelly planning a murder. It was a somewhat twisted plot as it became evident that the scene was set in a Comedy Horror House, and Matt had been brought in as a consultant on the best way of murdering someone. Notes woven into the dialogue ranged in absurdity from “you are very sexy”, “I’ll tell your father,” to “I need to go poos”. The most appropriate note was after Matt had offered to tell them the best form of torture; the note read, “hit me, baby, one more time”.
The first new game was introduced to the audience, ‘Story, Story, Die’. This is where players tell one consistent story. The MC points to a player who must immediately pick up from where the story left off, even if it is mid-sentence. When a player hesitates or repeats words, they ‘die’. The story goes on until the last player is standing.
The topic given by the audience was a safari. The story began with Drucilla and Keith trying to get tickets to go and see the zebras. It ended with them eating camel toenails – don’t ask!
The next new game, ‘Improv Anonymous,’ saw Kathy, Brett and Matt welcome new member Kelly to the group meeting. There they poured their hearts out over their addiction to stealing teapots. Now, Kelly had been sent out of the room while the audience had offered the subject. The idea of the game is that the ‘new’ member has to guess what exactly the addiction is from the clues, some not so subtle, given by the others.
Brett began by sharing that it had all started when he was a kid, and now he still can’t go to Paeroa.
Matt’s predisposition to teapots had come about because he is British, and Kathy was the Queen and was teased as a child with family singing “Lilibet short and stout”.
Kelly was very much on the mark when she stated, “My name is Kelly, and I’m addicted to stealing teapots.”
Before the interval, two courageous audience members, Ryan and Bryce, came up on stage to be part of the ‘Emotional Symphony’ game. Along with Matt and Mark, they were each given an emotion to sound. There was rage, jealousy, happiness and horny, and Jon conducted the cacophony of strange sounds into a loosely described musical number. All of this to the delight of the audience.
A competition was held with the game’ Rant and Rave’. Steve and Mark were given the topic of Polocrosse, of which neither of them knew what the sport was. They had to rant about it, then quickly switch to raving when the MC rang the bell. Matt and Brett had the rather intriguing suggestion of belly button fluff to rant and rave about. Both teams did well, but the audience decided that the belly button fluff was the clear winner, especially as Matt had said it made excellent teapot covers, a great callback to the addiction of stealing teapots.
‘The Cube’ game had four players acting out four different games, providing another avenue to reference previous lines from other games. Laughter certainly rang out as the audience picked up on these.
But the new game ‘The Twitch’ had the audience laughing the most. Jon was interviewing for a straddle truck driver, and each applicant arrived with a different twitch or quirk. Jon had to copy each movement and sound, and as each person came in, he had to add the new quirk. In total, there were six different twitches and Jon was seen throwing arms up and out and legs up and over the arm of the chair, yelling out “Yeeha”, standing up saluting with “God save the King”, flipping his head back and putting in a few “woop woops”. Among all this, he still had to conduct the interviews.
A game that will definitely be seen in future shows.
The show ended with the ‘Puppets’ game. With the topic of Hurricane Ian, Charles and Ellie from the audience volunteered to be the puppeteers, and both did an excellent job. See for yourself with the snippet below.
Kelly and Brett certainly found themselves in some rather strange poses but managed to keep the story going.
As the audience left, still laughing, the players converged at the bar for a round of well-deserved drinks. It was agreed that the suggestions had been the best. This audience was full of fun energy spilt over to the players. A great night all around.
Thanks to players
| Jon (MC) Brett Kelly Steve |
Kathy Matt Mark |
Crew: Fee and Sue
Sound engineer: Ant
Book your tickets for the next show and join the players for loads of laughs.
1st Saturday of every month.
16th Ave Theatre.
16th Avenue, Tauranga.
Show Starts: 7.30 p.m.
Licenced bar available.
