Masters of the quick change

By SUSAN BUDD

For a trio, comedians the 4 Noels make a terrific quartet.

John Forman, Jesse Griffin and James Pratt gave the funniest show at this year's Laugh Festival with their crazed western The Magnificent Seventeen, which had 41 scenes, 13 songs in three-part harmony and 46 characters. The Australian-based New Zealanders return to the Classic next week with the western and a reprise of their sci-fi action thriller, Njoh Namrof - Space Explorer.

John Forman, who has played the hero in their last two shows, says the group sometimes they wonder how their performances are going to hang together. They improvise and improvise until they have a story, however loose.

The Magnificent Seventeen is the hardest show they have ever devised. They had won funding from an Australian organisation, Moosehead, but "we had all these photographs and ideas, but no show," says Forman.

"For three weeks we were so frustrated, going round in circles." By the time it started to take shape they only had two weeks left and were rehearsing the last number just before the show opened at Wellington's Bats Theatre.

Films and television are the 4 Noels' main inspirations. Griffin and Pratt go for independent movies but Forman is into American sci-fi and action, the trashier the better.

Nhoj Namrof is their first show without music, the whole world of outer space being created with mime. "It is interactive," says Forman. "We are asking the audience's imagination to be involved."

* The 4 Noels are at the Classic from Wednesday, August 2 to August 12.