A powerful force
Urzila Carlson doesn’t feel outnumbered in the Comedy Convoy, writes Tracey Cooper. ‘In normal theatres, you think ‘I better keep it clean because mum or pop’s in the audience’, but in Hamilton you can just go and flop it out anyway. They like it.’
You have to pity Jeremy Corbett, Marcel Lucont, Gordon Southern and Simon Mckinney. Not because they’ll be stuck in a van with each other for close to two weeks on the annual Comedy Convoy, but that they’ll have Urzila Carlson with them.
‘‘With me in the van, trust me, they’re outnumbered,’’ the rapidly rising, South Africa-born Kiwi comic says.
‘‘The poor b....... They’re probably sitting in a pub now, sorting out how they’re going to handle it. Maybe they’ll take it in shifts.’’
The Comedy Convoy is an annual travelling laugh show which takes comedy on the road for a 12-date tour of New Zealand’s heartland. It’s part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, which this year celebrates 20 years.
This year, the five comics start their trek in Hamilton and visit Tauranga, Rotorua, Hastings, New Plymouth, Whanganui and Palmerston North in the North Island, before hitting stages in Nelson, Blenheim, Invercargill, Oamaru and Timaru in the south.
Carlson says, somewhat hopefully, it’s not just going to be two weeks stuck in a van with a bunch of sweaty blokes ‘‘thank goodness’’.
‘‘It’s going to be great. All the other guys who are on it are really cool, I’ve worked with them before. They’re all low maintenance guys.’’
Carlson, who’s added extra shows to her sold-out Comedy Festival seasons in Auckland and Wellington, says getting out of the big centres is always fun.
‘‘I like a good pub gig and that’s kind of how I see it, even though we’re going to be in big theatres. It’s sort of the same as a pub gig because, it’s like, after the gig you’re going to hang out with everyone, that’s kind of how I see it.’’
And like plenty of comedians before her, Carlson rates Hamilton audiences as among the best in the country.
She’s performed at both the Clarence St Theatre and the Cook in Hamilton East, where Hamilton comedian Jan Maree hosts a monthly comedy night.
Hamilton audiences, she says, are great ‘‘because you can get into the real nitty gritty and they get it, exactly like a pub gig . . . In normal theatres, you think ‘I better keep it clean because mum or pop’s in the audience’, but in Hamilton you can just go and flop it out anyway. They like it.’’
Carlson has had something of a rapid rise in New Zealand comedy circles after first taking the stage just three years ago.
Last year she was nominated for the Billy T Awards and has picked up the New Zealand Comedy Guild’s Best Female Comedian in both 2010 and 2011.
She says there’s no big secret to her success, but it’s a role she was born for.
‘‘My comedy is storytelling, which is just what everybody does in my family, so it’s the perfect job for me. I’m a woman and I like talking all the time and I hate it when people interrupt. So when somebody gives me a mic and tells me to go on stage and no-one’s going to interrupt, I’m going ‘Are you s....... me, this is fantastic’.’’
Joining Carlson on the Comedy Convoy is ‘‘tour guide’’ and 7 Days host Jeremy Corbett, France’s premiere misanthropist Marcel Lucont, Britain’s Gordon Southern and New Zealand’s No 1 stand-up character impressionist Simon Mckinney.