Published: 26/06/2018
Family favourite The Early Early Late Show is back to bring the laughter for your 6 - 13-year olds these school holidays.
Director Brendon Bennetts is excited to take The Court Jesters out of The Court Theatre and into a former courtroom in what used to be the Christchurch District Courts – and is now the home of Science Alive!
“The Early Early Late Show is an improvised comedy show where a group of four actors and a musician have to make up hilarious scenes and stories based on whatever gets thrown at them. In this version the Jesters will be put on ‘trial’.”
The structure for the show comes from voice-over instructions provided to the Jesters from an omnipresent ‘Judge’. Based on these instructions and audience participation, the Jesters make up new and hilarious skits and stories for each performance.
Although sure to make audiences of all ages laugh, The Early Early Late Show was created in 2015 to provide live comedy for a group often underrepresented in the arts.
“There aren’t enough live shows designed for young people in the 6 – 13 age range, so that’s the group The Early Early Late Show is focused on. The Court Jesters have been doing our late-night comedy show Scared Scriptless for almost 30 years now and we love it, but not everyone can come being on so late at night. The Early Early Late Show is our way of bringing the comedy and chaos of our late-night show to audiences with slightly earlier bedtimes,” Bennetts said.
The cast providing the entertainment is a mix of veteran Early Early Late Show & Scared Scriptless performers and upcoming talent including Kathleen Burns, Jeff Clark, Criss Grueber, Gabby Wakefield and musician Jack Page.
Bennetts, a cast member himself in the show’s last three seasons, is looking forward to sitting in the director’s chair – and extracting his revenge.
“As a performer in the show I’ve had to do all kinds of things: I’ve been dressed as a tennis playing caveman, balanced books on my head, had to stuff my mouth with marshmallows and keep acting… Now I get to come up with the challenges that the actors have to deal with. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time…”