Double dose of comical whimsy

Raybon Kan qualifies as one of New Zealand comedy’s elder states-persons. He was a pioneer of Kiwi stand-up before it was fashionable.

Now that comedy is mainstream, it has performers like Kan to thank for doing much of the ‘‘early lifting’’.

‘‘I remember feeling very uncomfortable describing myself as a comedian – it was like describing myself as a ‘wizard’. It was a number of years before I could even use the ‘C’ word.’’

Kan said kids these days didn’t think twice about it.

‘‘Now it’s turbocharged. You can go on Youtube during a weekend and watch more stand-up than I’d seen in my life before I started.’’

It was a mere half-dozen hours of what he called ‘‘stadium comedy’’ from the likes of Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy and Richard Prior that helped set him up.

‘‘Now, you can binge-watch infinite hours of clever, intelligent, punchy comedy.’’

Kan will be bringing his own intelligent and punchy routine to The Dark Room next week in the company of good mate, Nick Rado.

His New Zealand International Comedy Festival show Positive Pessimist will be performed in tandem with Rado’s Live, Laugh, Love in a double bill they have christened The Authorised Bootleg Tour.

Both comedians eschew the extreme approach to getting laughs. ‘‘There are lines you can cross, but it can be more fun to cross them in a subtle way. If you go extreme shock-factor, gross-out mayhem, it leaves you nowhere else to go because you’ve already been there,’’ Kan said.

Rado’s day-job is as head writer for comedy hit show 7 Days, alongside Ben Hurley. He writes jokes for Jeremy Corbett, and sometimes they get used. Much of the humour, he said, ‘‘just happens’’.

The pair perform at The Dark Room on Tuesday July 11 and Wednesday July 12.