The comic was wrapping up his mammoth ‘Eleven’ tour, which has seen him playing to packed venues across Australia and New Zealand over the past few months. After a well-received warm-up set from Aussie comedian Joel Osborne (and a surprise off-stage introduction by ‘Owen Wilson’) ‘Arjy Barjy’ kicked things off with an unexpected musical number featuring the man himself on harmonica and vocals.
You’ve got to love a comic who can handle a heckler, and Barker wasted no time shooting back a biting one-liner to a woman in the crowd who – after imbibing a bit too much Dutch courage – decided to declare her undying love for him. From that point Arj was on a roll, bounding from topic to topic and indulging in plenty of his signature stream-of-consciousness rambling along the way.
Barker has a massive fan base across Australia and New Zealand, and on Saturday night he told the crowd how much he loves it in this part of the world. “I feel at home here” he said, before poking fun at our laid back nature (“'No worries'? I find that comforting, gregarious and somewhat unrealistic”) In fact according to Arj, the average person’s bucket list is just a standard extreme sports weekend in New Zealand. It’s pretty clear the comic genuinely enjoys coming back to our shores, and we love having him here.
Happily, Barker had no qualms about making fun of his own stand-up routine either. At the odd point where the commentary wandered off track he immediately got the crowd back on side by jokingly citing “lazy writing,” and I’m yet to see another comic work a plug for their own website and merchandise so successfully into their set!
From his tussles with Google Maps to his encounters with slippery prawns in Thailand (“there’s no ‘five second rule’ in Bangkok, ladies and gentlemen”) the ‘Flight of the Conchords’ funnyman took the audience on a weird and wonderful ride through the world as he sees it. Next time he hits town, make sure you get on board.
Copyright : Comedy Central New Zealand