Strong Support for First Week of the GoMedia Comedy Carnival
Strong Support for the First Week of the GoMedia Comedy Carnival
The 2019 GoMedia Comedy Carnival is at its halfway point as the festival wraps its first week with impressive ticket sales.
Festival director Snap who funds and promotes the Comedy Carnival with help from a handful of sponsors says
“It’s been really good;
the responses have been great, and the numbers have been
consistently up from last year. People are getting out going
to different shows and we are attracting a whole new
audience who haven’t gone to comedy before.”
The
Comedy Carnival launch night showcase received rave reviews
from CityScape Magazine and was the first of many shows that
had a sold out run in the first week.
Corey Humm’s solo hour “Emotional Junior Staffer” sold out Space Academy as did Jo Ghastly and Ben Kent’s show “The Generation Gap”, and Jess Jean's "Mackenzie Mackenzie: Icon".
The Fresh Comedy Competition ushered in nine new comedians who all performed in a sold-out Dux Central. Asher Etherington won the competition with Peter Randrup coming second and Geraldine comedian Melanie Page taking third place.
Snap said that audience turn out has been
fantastic for bringing people back into the city.
“There is so much new audience that are learning about
comedy and finding out it is happening in Christchurch. But
also, a lot of tourists who are in Christchurch have seen
there is a festival on and have been attending some shows
while they’re here, or extending their stays to catch more
of the festival”
The first week also saw shows from Ashton Brown, Georgina Sivier, Advait Kirtikar, Snap Presented by Rusewebsites as well as a multitude of festival run shows.
The Comedy Carnival holds the illustrious, and unsubstantiated title of being the longest running arts festival of its size to never be funded by the local council.
“The festival is basically hitting every single target that the council seems to have around growing the arts, and bringing people back into the city, so it’s an absolute shock that in our fourth year they still don’t support it,” Snap said.
The Go Media Comedy Carnival will still be running for another week.
The second week will see shows from Billy T nominee Li’i Alaimoana, Fergus Aitken, Tony Chestnut amongst a series of line up shows including; “No Dicks”, an all-female line up show which will feature a revolving line up of female and non-binary comedians. “Old AF” featuring Drop Dee, Andy Millar and Jo Ghastly as well as “Young Guns” featuring Jack Harnett, Ben Kent and Craig Westenberg.
The Comedy
Carnival closing ceremony is scheduled for Saturday 21st
September at Dux Central.