Comedian goes viral by saying novid to Covid
A Marlborough comedian has gone viral after his ‘‘sitting room singing’’ gig was published on the New Zealand Police Facebook page.
An aspiring artist, Jono Entwistle described himself as a ‘‘musical comedian’’ and said he had been doing shows for about six years but started writing music to entertain his friends when he was in high school. Entwistle wrote the lyrics and composed the music for his performance ‘‘Covid, Say Novid’’ in just a few hours before submitting it as a part of their NZ Creative Genius series on April 25.
In just over 10 days, he has accumulated more than 36,000 views with hundreds of likes.
‘‘I had no idea it was getting so many views, it kept climbing and climbing,’’ he said.
When his friend told him about the series, Entwistle decided that night he was going to do a video and started work on it the next day, he said.
‘‘I just got up, wrote up a song and then gave my wife a camera and we recorded [the video] in the afternoon and I emailed it to them [Police],’’ he said.
‘‘It took me two hours to write the lyrics and two hours to put the video together and then two hours to record and two hours to edit the video,’’ he said.
A Police spokesperson said the NZ Creative Genius Series was started on April 6 to spread the safety message around the pandemic to the public.
‘‘For our NZ Creative Genius Series, Police asked the whole creative industry, via the Screen Industry Guild, to come up with creative content to support our public messaging around keeping safe during the Covid-19 pandemic,’’ they said.
Between one and three videos of people performing their different entertaining gigs had been published every day since then, they said.
‘‘We have endeavoured to post a range of creative styles, from different parts of New Zealand, made by people of different ages and ethnicities, with messages appropriate for level four and then level three.
‘‘Police have received around 500 video submissions, with 50 posted online.
‘‘To date, the series has garnered 4.5 million views on Facebook alone."
Although this was not a competition, participants were being paid $1500 if their video was chosen to be posted on the NZ Creative Genius Series Facebook page, they said.
Born in Nelson, Entwistle moved to
Blenheim four years ago.
While living in Nelson, Entwistle attended the comedy nights frequently, then after he moved to Blenheim, he joined the Marlborough Comedy club.
He had been performing for the club once a month since it was founded in March last year.
Entwistle enjoyed playing musical instruments but said he wasn’t a ‘‘top level musician’’ so he couldn’t enter into a music career full time nor did he think he was funny enough to do stand-up comedy, he said.
Being a part-time comedian and a parttime musician made more sense ‘‘so I kind of mixed the two together,’’ he said.
‘‘When I write I kind of normally just start on an idea and then I think it’s funny and then hash out a few lines and then in a way it just kind of grows,’’ he said.
Having the chance to prepare for his gigs before performing in front of a live audience was what drew him to it, he said.
‘‘That’s what I like about musical comedies, that you do kind of get a chance to practice and know your stuff rather than those people who could just go up there and talk, I don’t know how they can get through that.
‘‘I just like clever writing, so musical comedy is good for that sense and little double entendre,’’ he said.
Entwistle said there were many local and international artists who have inspired him over the years like Flight of the Conchords, Bo Burnham, Tim Minchin, and Rhys Darby.
‘‘Obviously Flight of the Conchords is a first port of call, I watched everything they’ve done and loved their work,’’ he said.
Founder of Marlborough Comedy Chris Lippiatt said the club was started after a local business owner put him in touch with Nigel Corbett.
‘‘I approached Hadyn at 5Tapped who put me in contact with another comedian looking to do the same thing. That was Nigel Corbett,’’ Lippiatt said.
Since then, the comedy club has developed with just one goal, which is ‘‘to make Marlborough laugh,’’ he said.
‘‘I had no idea it was getting so many views, it kept climbing and climbing.’’ Jono Entwistle