The Weekend Comedy Cocktail

Downstage presents

The Weekend Comedy Cocktail
WORLD-CLASS MUSICAL COMEDY, MADE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

Vance Fontaine: Command Performance
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Miss Fletcher Sings the Blues

Downstage continues to showcase outstanding contemporary New Zealand performers with a double-bill of standout acts from this year’s International Comedy Festival.

Vance Fontaine: Command Performance

The Show

Combining the rock & roll attitude of Ray Woolf with the slick sensuality of John Rowles, Vance Fontaine is a legendary New Zealand crooner who has performed everywhere from Roto-vegas to actual Vegas. Relive a lifetime of song as Fontaine and his band, The Peculiar Sensations tell the story of his long career.

Only problem is – Vance can hardly remember any of it – the hits and the high life. Thankfully, with the help of audience suggestions, master improvisors Vince and his Sensations can create any song or story on the spot, and tie it all together into an unforgettable biographic retrospective. If you can imagine it, it happened to the Vance, and if you can name a musical style, they can play it. In fact, they probably invented it…

The Creator

Greg Ellis (Vance Fontaine) is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished exponents of the subtle and demanding art of improv. For 20 years he has gone where most actors fear to tread – without a script, surviving on his instinct and wits alone, as a kind of Bear Grylls of comedy.

Command Performance combines all the most difficult elements of improvisation – a solo actor, rhyme, musicality, narrative, audience interaction, reincorporation. Very few performers would attempt it, let alone achieve the spectacular success Ellis has in his previous Auckland and Wellington seasons.

Greg Ellis has been Artistic Director of Wellington improv company The Improvisors for many years, performing at countless functions, events and theatre shows. As a solo performer he has previously created the Conan Doyle spoof Holmes Alone and the Victoriana medicine show Snake Oil. He has also represented New Zealand in theatresports at both Commonwealth and World Cup level.

The Peculiar Sensations (Tane Upjohn-Beatson, Takumi Motokawa, Thomas P. McGrath, Matiu Whiting) are a four-piece band drawn together for this show. Combining versatile musicianship with the ability to rapidly improvise in multiple genres, the Sensations are more than merely a backing band, they are a key part of the show’s success and humour.

Miss Fletcher Sings the Blues

The Show

Miss Fletcher is a well-meaning but slightly unhinged substitute teacher who treats an unwitting geography class (the audience) to a surprise music lesson. Through the medium of song, Miss Fletcher hopes to not just educate but enlighten and edify. Tackling the big issues of the world, her songs such as Key Changes for Africa, Puberty Express and Moustache Paradise are a hilarious, off-kilter performance that brings to mind the likes of Tim Minchin and Flight of the Conchords, but with her own very special flavor.

Over the course of the show, Miss Fletcher’s quest for self-expression brings her to a passionate crescendo, where the phrase ‘do as I say, not as I do’ could never be more fitting.

The Creator

Hayley Sproull first created Miss Fletcher as part of her Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School Solo Season. It was a way of combining her classical piano training with a love of comedy. Her Comedy Festival season at BATS was a huge success, with reviewers praising her versatility, comic timing and originality.

She has also become something of a YouTube sensation, with over ten thousand views of her videos at the time of writing.

Creating the Double Bill…

In August Downstage added The Weekend Comedy Cocktail to its 2012 Independent Season.

Director/CEO Hilary Beaton says:
“We are producing world-class creative comedy right here, right now, and at Downstage we wanted to showcase two of the best. Both of these artists are building on the long tradition of musical comedy, and this double-bill is not only a great night’s entertainment, but an example of two unique talents at the top of their game. The Weekend Comedy Cocktail provides a platform for them to connect with an even wider audience.

We’re very proud to be entering into these partnerships. Just as Downstage was a part of the journey for the Flight of the Conchords after their BATS debut, we wanted to be a part of the story for these outstanding musical comedians. I hope people who missed catching Bret and Jemaine in the early days won’t make the same mistake twice!”

The Weekend Comedy Cocktail

Season Dates: 12 – 29 Oct 2012 Thu-Sun (no show Fri 26)
Showtimes: Thu, Fri, Sat 8pm.
Sun 7pm

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