By Daniel Rutledge
Jan Maree is definitely one of New Zealand's best comedians, a fact made official with her Fred Award last year.
Her latest show, Hairy Today Gone Tomorrow, got off to a fairly slow start last night with Jan imitating her Croatian relatives. It wasn’t that funny, but comprised some crucial building blocks for the rest of the material.
It wasn’t long however before Jan was treating the crowd to a great series of jokes about pubic hair. It was surprisingly not as juvenile as it sounds and ended up developing into a hilarious segment on grooming in general.
Most of the show focuses on Jan’s escapades around the world over the last year, with highlights in Indonesia and Croatia. The funniest segment revolved around what Jan got up to during the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It's probably the best segment I've seen of any show at this year's festival, one of those classics that builds your laughter gradually over its course into a crescendo of exploding guffaws at its climax. But it might not be for everyone and I think the Hamilton heritage I share with Jan may be part of the reason I was so thrilled with it.
Jan's an all-round comedian in a wonderful, mature stage of her career. She’s physically funny with an impressive range of facial expressions, she’s got great timing and most importantly of all, she has a knack for telling interesting stories in highly entertaining ways.
There's a tonal shift at the end of Hairy Today Gone Tomorrow and I think describing it at all would be a spoiler – all I can say that is that it is very good.
I walked out completely satisfied and can’t wait to see Jan’s next show.
Jan Maree is performing at the New Zealand Comedy Festival, visit the official website for further information.
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