Tried and true and back Festival shows make way for civic vigil
New Zealand comedian Jesse Griffin returns to the Dunedin Fringe Festival as his alter ego, Wilson Dixon, of Cripple Creek, Colorado, in Wilson Dixon and Alice Snedden Do a Comedy Show.
What keeps bringing you back to Dunedin?
Usually airplanes, but I did come here once on the bus from Queenstown, which was horrendous. The bus was filled with Chinese tourists who kept looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo. It turns out that I had got on the wrong bus and had inadvertently joined their expensive guided tour, so their distrust was warranted.
How have you developed as an artist in the past year?
I’m going to be brutally honest with you — I haven’t developed as an artist at all in the past year.
And while I don’t feel especially proud of myself about that, I’ll ask you this question: has the design of the fork developed in the last year? How about the basic design of pants? Or the culinary potential of bananas? If something works OK, my feeling is don’t tamper with it. You can get into all sorts of trouble mucking around with the tried and true.
This year you will be sharing the limelight with Alice Snedden. How do you feel about this?
Not great, but she begged me, she absolutely begged me to share the time slot with me to practise some of her standup jokes. I ended up taking pity on her and agreed to her request.
Is country music cool again?
Is the Earth round? That’s actually a genuine question because I was over at my Uncle Cleetus’ house the other day and he was reading on a website all about how an increasing number of folks (including himself) believe that there is nothing to prove that the Earth is round and that there is pretty good evidence to suggest it is in fact flat; why we don’t all float off into space, for example.
Coffee or drinks for the first date?
Obviously coffee if the date is in the morning. Any alcohol consumption before noon, unless you’re at a wedding or still up from the night before, is frowned upon by most decent people. However, after midday, I think alcohol and lots of it is a good idea. You want to know pretty early on what effect alcohol has on the dynamic of the relationship.
How does one go about choosing the right cowboy hat?
This is basic stuff. Measure the circumference of your head in a line across your eyebrows. Allowing an inch for shrinkage (for the hat, not your head) choose a hat according to your own aesthetics of colour and style. However, I do have one proviso: if you have a thick neck, don’t get a hat with too small a brim, you’ll look like a fool — thicknecked fool wearing a tiny hat.
A Wilson and Alice will perform at the Festival Club, 20 Princes St, at 8pm, today and tomorrow. SHOWS in the Dunedin Fringe Festival were cancelled so ticketholders and artists were free to attend the civic vigil last night.
Almost all of the shows and events scheduled for yesterday were cancelled, and some extra sessions have been added.
Festival director Gareth McMillan said he respected and supported the decision and encouraged people to attend the artists’ other sessions.
All tickets for cancelled shows had been refunded, Mr McMillan said.
Extra sessions had been added for the Skinny Fat, Harlequeen and Tall Stories Short shows.
Information about the new times and sessions are available on the festival’s website.
Today’s programme
(I)sland (T)rap: 5.30pm, Zanzibar.
Sajeela Kershi — Fights Like a Girl: 5.30pm, Inch Bar. 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: 6pm, Emerson’s
Festival Club.
Fu tu REtrospective :6 pm, New Athenaeum Theatre. Le Sujet Parle: 6pm, Otago Museum.
Brendon Green, Of Consequence: 6.30pm, Dog With
Two Tails.
Bad Girls Upset by the Truth: 7pm, Dee’s Cafe and
Venue
Harlequeen: 7pm, University Bookshop.
Lavvie’s: 7pm, Zanzibar.
Polarise: 7pm, Pole Party.
Skinny Fat: 7pm, Inch Bar.
That’s What Friends Are For: 7pm, Dundas. Gringodevil: 7.30pm, Whakamana Cafe.
Lines of Flight: 7.30pm, Port Chalmers Pioneer Hall. Bald Man Sings Rihanna: 8pm, Dee’s Cafe and Venue. Bollards and the Comedy of Hyper industrialisation:
8pm, Blue Oyster.
Four Night Riot: 8pm, Stilettos.
Greta, A Journey: 8pm, Globe Theatre. Rockpocalypse: 8pm, Almond Castle.
She Wolf: 8pm, New Athenaeum Theatre.
Wilson Dixon & Alice Snedden: 8pm, Emerson’s
Festival Club.
Tony Lyall; Quiche: 8.15pm, Inch Bar.
Luke, Who’s Talking: 9.30pm, Inch Bar
Soliloquy: 9.30pm, Octagon.
Logan Kitney — Why I’m Not a TV Magician: 10pm,
New Athenaeum Theatre.
Die Musikband: 10.30pm, Emerson’s Festival Club. Soliloquy: 10.30pm, Octagon.