Gaffigan roasts the Garden City

Review

Jim Gaffigan. Aurora Centre, Burnside High. Reviewed by Julian Lee.

You’ve either never heard of him or perhaps believe, rather self-indulgently, you’re his biggest fan. But whoever he is to you, he had more jokes about Christchurch on Thursday night than anyone was probably expecting.

US comedian Jim Gaffigan has performed all over the world and has regularly featured on US television. So once he hit Christchurch he was probably surprised to learn that he would be doing a gig at a school hall in Burnside. To be fair to the Aurora Centre for Performing Arts, you’d struggle to find a better venue in Christchurch to host a top-shelf comedian, and, perhaps aware of the post-earthquake situation in Christchurch, Gaffigan managed to avoid pointing out what must have been one of the stranger venues on his world circuit.

The 200-strong crowd were no doubt expecting internationally appreciated material that Gaffigan could use all over the world. But right away he shocked the audience with tons of well-thought-out gags about the Garden City. He didn’t need to do that, nor was anyone expecting anything more of him than perhaps a one-liner in recognition of Christchurch. But it was soon obvious he had taken serious time out to get some laughs out of Cantabrians. The professionalism with which he approached the gig despite what must have been a very small crowd for him was striking. Gaffigan had created a whole routine about his struggle with understanding how Christchurch got its extremely religious name and congratulated the crowd on avoiding the pull of another pale entertainer performing in Dunedin the same night. The crowd was unusually diverse in age, all the way from the elderly down to children and even a baby, evidence of Gaffigan’s broad appeal.

Gaffigan did not fail to impress in the delivery of his characteristic selfdeprecating routine where he struggles with the lure of food, but he ventured intonew areas including his time in Europe trying to get his head around European culture.

The crowd was stoked that he brought up Australian cricket before he admitted how he struggled to remember the differences between Australia and New Zealand.

Never one to avoid the difficult issues in his life, he revealed his wife had just had a brain tumour removed, but did it in a way that only he could – seeing the funny side of his odd encounter with the main surgeon. Her health issues forced him to cancel his original tour dates last year.

Gaffigan is only limited in New Zealand by his lack of exposure here. The only way New Zealanders would be aware of him is from spending a decent amount of time on the internet, or hearing about him from someone else, as he has never featured on New Zealand television – although he did appear on one episode of Flight of the Conchords. But he’s very well known in the US, which would probably explain a number of American accents that could be heard in the audience.

Gaffigan was prefaced by Kiwi comedian Melanie Bracewell, who was warmly received by the crowd when she talked dating, her height and sexism in the comedy industry.

He performed in Wellington on Wednesday and takes to the stage in Auckland tonight.