Overview
The first thing you notice about the Rangatira Room at Q Theatre is the sheer size of the place, a large stage, high ceilings, and 350+ capacity. In terms of a venue for a one man stand up comedy show it demands a huge stage presence. We snuck in a couple of minutes late to see Paul Ego standing there, one man in front of a huge red curtain, dressed as a Squirrel that resembled a Penis. For the quick witted radio jock and star of Seven Days it was a quirky and unexpected way to begin the show.
Ego is a middle aged white guy from Devonport, a family man, and the whole show was basically based around these facts. Quite a lot of the crowd seemed to be of a similar ilk, assuming Ego must have known that this would be the case, the material seemed to be aimed at this demographic. After 10 or so minutes he removed the ridiculous Squirrel outfit and stood barefooted with a beer in hand wearing the strange combination of a bright striped dress shirt and black tennis shorts.
There was a hilarious story of a dinner party that turned into a red wine nightmare, the tale of an awkward encounter with the only African shopkeeper in Devonport, and a roll call that created brand new stereotypes for people with names like Dave and Stefan.
Ego is at his best when he has the chance for sharp comebacks and on the spot wit and I can't help but wish we got to see more of this, and less of the funny but predictable Dad stories. There was one occasion though when Ego asked if any crowd members had recollections of times when their children had embarrassed them. A brave soul sitting about three rows from the front told an uneventful tale about his teenage kids, it was an absolute flop of a story. Ego ripped into him completely and had the rest of the crowd in fits of laughter, if we could have had maybe six or seven more moments like this it really would have made the show.
All in all Ego is a fantastic performer and really does know his audience. This show itself though just felt a little safe, the subject matter didn't really leave Paul Ego's Devonport villa, it didn't really make you think. There were chuckles right throughout but the audience never seemed to be completely in love with the performance. If you are in that middle aged, suburban, Paul Ego demographic there is definitely some hilarious and highly relatable stuff in this show for you, if you aren't, you will laugh but you may feel a little bit like the out of place teenager at your parents' dinner party.