San Francisco Bathhouse
Wednesday May 9

This fast rising star of New Zealand comedy started the show colourfully, by playing his alter ego, ‘P-Funk.’ A tight wearing and chair-welding wrestler, one plausible way to describe him would be Mike Tyson meets the Bushwhackers. As expected, this character gave a few well aimed jokes, including “I was so hard when I attended a Catholic School that I assaulted the priest.”

After a quick wardrobe change, the real and somewhat familiar Dai Henwood reappeared and wasted no time in acquainting himself with the night’s audience. He gave intelligent and insightful jokes about growing up in Wellington and attending our very own Victoria University. He described New Zealand life in the 80’s, where the only drugs that existed were Miami wine cooler and glue. He then gave some classic examples of polical correctness gone mad, vividly using the recently publicised airline policy of not letting any male passengers sit next to an unaccompanied minor. He gave a crowd a highly memorable journey through much of our cultural heritage and struck a chord with most people, on the grounds of the uniqueness of being a Kiwi. This show far exceeded my expectations, confirming Henwood’s status as one of New Zealand’s best and brightest comedians. After the show, Henwood spoke to Salient, describing how he still gets the biggest kick out of performing on stage. He also spoke of his experiences performing with other international acts at big festivals such as the Melbourne and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and how his witty insights on Kiwiana have managed to entertain crowds all over the world.

He admits that his rise to fame has come extremely rapidly, mainly due to his weekly C4 television slot, Insert Video Here. He proclaimed that while fame does have its benefits, he still tries to remains nice and humble.