James Roque, left, and Joseph Moore join Rhys Mathewson on the latest episode of Billy T' Billy. Photos / Supplied
James Roque, left, and Joseph Moore join Rhys Mathewson on the latest episode of Billy T' Billy. Photos / Supplied
While the online comments section will try and tell you differently, New Zealand comedy is thriving, with a new generation of local comedians finding success online and overseas, as well as selling shows locally.
This year marks 30 years since the first New Zealand International Comedy Festival. As part of the celebrations for this milestone, Billy T’ Billy will be spotlighting the festival for a special trio of episodes looking at how the festival was formed and how comedy has changed during that time.
For this week’s episode, host Rhys Mathewson is joined by Billy T and Fred Award nominees Joseph Moore and James Roque to discuss how comedy has changed since 2013 in the past 10 years of the festival.
Asked how comedy has changed over the past decade, Moore said New Zealand comedy was less of a genre than it once was.
“I think there were possibly more thematic links, and this is not to disparage earlier stuff, but I think that there was a type of voice that rose up more regularly maybe 15, 20 years ago, which was like ‘here’s a real down-to-earth Kiwis take on this crazy world we live in.
“Whereas now there’s just probably more diversity of voices., and I don’t just mean gender and race, but also people being sillier, we got people being more cocky.”
Roque said that the growing popularity of New Zealand talent, such as Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi, has shown that comedy is a viable career path.
“And so I think there was like this energy of ‘oh, we actually can break out of here as well’. There’s a generation of comics now, like the generation that me and Joey are kind of in, that think beyond [New Zealand].”
Roque noted that while New Zealanders have been going to international festivals such as Edinburgh for decades, the younger generation are becoming more ambitious in their targeting.
The past decade has also seen the return of comedic duos and groups, with many younger comics finding success as path of sketch groups or improv troupes alongside their solo careers. Moore and Roque have both been a part of Snort, the improv group that has operated out of the Basement Theatre for 10 years and features Rose Matafeo and Chris Parker among its alumni.
Two Hearts. Photo / Supplied
Moore also performed alongside Matafeo in Fan Fiction Comedy, devised by Heidi O’Loughlin to bring the online world of fan fiction to the real world. Moore said the format allowed comedians who didn’t do traditional stand-up to break into the industry and make a name for themselves.
“We were people that couldn’t get, wouldn’t get booked as much as we liked at The Classic, and couldn’t or maybe didn’t want to do like the gigs out in the suburbs and things where we didn’t go as well there.”
Moore said when he started doing comedy, most of his jokes were about pop culture.
“When Heidi came up with Fan Fiction and we were attracting a crowd of people who not only would get pop culture jokes, they sought out a show that was exclusively pop culture jokes, I was getting better reception than I’d ever got before doing comedy.”
Moore now performs alongside his wife Laura Daniel as the pop comedy act, Two Hearts, picking up Billy T and Fred Award nominations along the way, while Roque worked with Pax Assadi and Jamaine Ross in the trio, Frickin’ Dangerous Dro.
Comedy sketch trio Frickin Dangerous Bro - Pax Assadi, Jamaine Ross and James Roque. Photo / Supplied
Roque said that group was “born out of survival” after the three of them went through periods of being the only brown person on a line-up.
“And then one day all three of us were on the line-up and we’re like, ‘this is a miracle’, and it was kind of like, ‘let’s stick together’.
“And it was like a way to be like, I always know that I have someone in the green room that I don’t need to explain what I mean to, like if another comic said something to me that could be taken as a microaggression and I felt like really alone, I don’t need to explain what that feels like to this other person.”
Roque said if he hadn’t found that group, he likely would have left standup.
“The heart of the Frickin Dangerous Bro was our shared experience as like three brown dudes in the industry that was at the time, not as diverse as it is now.”
Billy T’ Billy is a NZ Herald podcast celebrating local comedy, in partnership with the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. New episodes are out every Tuesday.
The festival is now on in Auckland and Wellington, and runs until May 28th.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
