Mike Loader ‘Wanted Thoughts’
Q Vault
Auckland Fringe Festival
Tuesday 24 February, 2015 to Saturday 28 February, 2015 at 8.45pm
Mike Loader has the one quality comedian’s need – he’s truly funny.
Much comedy requires critical mass and Loader’s is no different, the bigger the audience – within reason, I doubt stadium shows are an option – the bigger the laughs but it takes a real craftsman to work a smallish Wednesday audience and have them guffawing happily for a full hour. Mike Loader achieved this because his material is great, his energy is great and his timing is spot on.
Loader has been around the traps for twenty years and, while I’ve seen him on television (‘Seven Days’, ‘Pulp Comedy’, ‘Crack Up’ and ‘After Dark’) this was my first time gazing into the whites of his eyes. He won the prestigious Billy T James Award in 2000 and there have been more awards since but he impresses as a man for whom awards are of less interest than making real people laugh in all the many permutations of that pleasurable activity. Speaking only for myself – though the rest of the audience seemed completely engaged too – I chuckled, hooted, sniggered, smiled both inwardly and outwardly and thoroughly enjoyed the many ‘I can’t believe he just said that’ moments. Did I have a good time? I certainly did.
Mike Loader
In fact the entire experience was a ripper as is often the case at the Q. Box office staff friendly and helpful, front of house polite and efficient, techies onto it, and the whole show ran like clockwork. Not that the show itself is complex, it’s not, but as anyone who has created a piece of theatre knows, if it can go wrong it will, and nothing did.
It’s probably worth noting that, like many shows of its type, it’s a work in progress. It’s called ‘Wanted Thoughts’ because Loader is still building the work and he’s cleverly found ways to get direct audience input into the structure and effectiveness of new material. Don’t get me wrong, some ‘works in progress’ are a fumbling muddle of confusion but this certainly isn’t. It’s slick and sharp, segues between thoughts and segments are clever and seamless, and the script is gutwrenchingly funny.
I love downstairs at the Loft. There’s a wonderful sense of ‘Lenny Bruce just left the building and Tom Waits is next’ about it. It’s raw and unfinished with the hint of ‘70s arthouse crypt about it. The lighting is basic and we’re greeted by a microphone on a stand, a small side table with a misty glass of unidentified liquid sitting on it and pumping music of a singularly appropriate type.
A voice over by Loader from backstage welcomes us, it’s funny, self-effacing and just enough to give him sufficient grunt to get himself and his wheelchair to centre stage – yep, this is stand-up comedy of the sit-down type. It’s clear from the outset that Loader has great patter, great pace and excellent timing. He’s likable, charming even, and he understands the animal that is the audience. He singles us out, talks to us individually, sets us up, puts us down, embarrasses us – and we love him for it.
He decides early on that I am a ‘sir’, sticks with that decision all night despite my correcting him twice, but I forgive him this small booboo because – did I mention it already – he’s incredibly damn funny. I won’t next time though because he’s been warned, this chick has a mouth of her own!
He rips through his material with nary a slip, he’s articulate and digresses with an ease I’ve seldom experienced. He zips from topic to unrelated topic with the clarity of a Steve Reich – that’s a good thing – and makes perfect sense of the bizarre. He works his way through rock stars, cats – he has one called Jack Reacher and Jack does some extraordinary things – the set on tinder is a riot, old people, a fetish for marbles, butterflies and retarded monkeys and each one is an absolute gem. He educates us too, about life if you have giant black dildo hands, what to do if you lose your elephant (or otter), the power of pooh-on-a-stick and glory holes. There are gay jokes that, while funny, don’t get even close to offending, cops, magical mirrors, ‘When Animals Attack’ and Freeway Rick but his most hilarious, most outrageous and most well written material features plumbers, Masturbatory reconditioning, Christian and Muslim magic, the power of the flip flop in male to male confrontations and why it’s always good to have a helpful lesbian in your head.
At the end of the show Loader discards the mike and creates a somewhat magical piece of ‘real theatre’ because, of course, no-one takes comedy seriously and, who knows, ‘there might be a reviewer in the house’. He was right about the latter but wrong about the former. He’s a serious comedian with great skills and you deserve to see him. I admired his artistry immensely and would have no hesitation in recommending his work to my most discerning friends for all the reasons listed above. He’s honed his art and it’s ready and raring to go. You should too – go, that is – and there are two more nights at Q Vault so Aucklanders can do just that. Just do it and don’t moan about it because, as Mike says ‘nobody likes a fucking whiner.’
dykiegirl 