Bad Gigs: Recent Episodes
Alan McElroy
Who doesn't love a complete disastrous bombing on stage?!?! Well... The performer! As a comedian, I've had good gigs and bad gigs but the good gigs don't make a funny story. The diabolical ones do! In this podcast, I will chat with several performers and have a laugh about some of their worst gigs and discuss the performer's mental ability to recover and carry on
@al_mcelroy facebook.com/ComedianAlanMcElroy
Sanjay Patel from Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee has been gigging since 2008.
We've done a lot of weird gigs together over the years so we reminisce on some of those.
I copied the following from his website:
Just a small bit about me. I’ve been performing stand up comedy in NZ since the end of 2008. (I said that already) This has included performing solo shows in 4 NZ International Comedy Festivals and solo shows for the first time in both the Dunedin Fringe Festival & Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2016.
Danny McChrystal is Liverpudlian comedian who was based in New Zealand for several years & performed at the NZ International Comedy Festival a few times. He appeared on the stand up comedy show, AotearoHa & the clip of which can be seen here:
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/aotearoha-next-big-things-2011/credits
Danny and I gigged together a lot and had some horrendous gigs, which we discuss here
Finally we're back and what a lovely episode to come back with! NZ legendary comedian, Justine Smith share's her bad gig stories. This was actually recorded over a year ago but a last minute, "Your computer has f@#k all memory left" message meant a disastrous cleans of the bloody lap top but I was delighted to find this recently and cannot wait to do more!
This episode is nuts!!
Welcome back to Bad Gigs and in this episode, I chat with musician Scotty McNairn from the band, Nerdlinger.
This is one of my favourite stories ever so have a listen and spread it about
https://www.facebook.com/nerdlinger.punkrock
Something lovely happened recently, I had some performers get in touch with me to share their experience and Broden Tadros was one of them.
He is my first musician/band member and he's in Sydney.
It turns out that we share a similar story which was fun to discuss and embarrassing to remember.
He is also a podcaster and runs https://www.chatswiththemusos.com/
Check out his links to his social media and chats with musos!
Enjoy
This week i'm joined by a fellow Irish comedian living in NZ, Lolsy Byrne.
We're both still locked down in different regions of Auckland so we Zoomed this great chat and cover everything from dog shits to bad gigs!
Lolsy is known for her hilarious comedy and starring on Youtube's Try channel.
Enjoy, share, sellotape it to lamp posts etc
Welcome to episode 6 with the hilarious Aussie comedian, Lindsay Webb!
We have a great chat about life, getting back to gigging after a long lockdown and of course, bad gigs.
Thanks and welcome to the new listeners.
If you enjoy these podcasts, please jump on https://www.nzpodcastawards.com/nominate and give our little pod a vote. We're a small fish in a big pond and at this early stage, any extra attention would be amazing.
Thanks again and enjoy
Part 2 of the 3 hour chat with the legend that is Mistress Viv! This time we get into the serious topic of PC crowds and how we've had to update our material as the world has changed so much, so fast. We both share stories of on that topic.
We also have a laugh about getting injured on stage and tough crowds.
Sit back, listen and enjoy
Also, there are a couple of moments where the music jumps in the wrong place... Apologies
What a chat this was! We compared bad gigs for nearly 3 hours to the extent that this interview will be spread out over 2 episodes. Mistress Viv is the notorious host of the legendary Bitchin' Bingo in New Zealand. Bitchin' Bingo is a fun, rowdy, usually booze fuelled and filled alternative bingo night, popular in the pubs, hen do's and corporates. AND corporates is what we chatted about the most. Awkward, unusual and sometimes horrible gigs in someone's office when everyone would rather be at home. We also discuss the psychology behind how we deal with gigs like these.
I also talk about the time I think i accidentally did meth...
This is such a fun episode so enjoy!!
NZ comedian & actor, Tarun Mohanbhai, shares some funny stories of a bad audition where he tried to age himself with talcum powder to get the part, a strange corporate gig that he did with peer Rhys Darby & a crazy gig that we did together when we opened for Jackass in Hamilton, NZ!
Jackass are known for some crazy antics and stunts but we never expected to see a grown man do a poo on stage!
I do some rambling chat at the end as we're back in lockdown in Auckland and I've too much time on my hands.
Thanks for listening and subscribing!
Tarun's social media is @that_indian_guy_tarun Mine is @al_mcelroy on Insta
@almcelroy on TikTok & comedianalanmcelroy on Facebook
For my second episode, I sit down for a drink with multi-award winning writer, MC and stand-up comedian, Nick Rado! We chat about his beginnings on the UK comedy scene and a nightmarish blood soaked gig in Wales, then his move to NZ and an unbelievable gig mishap on a Red Nose Telethon!
Not only do we talk about bad gigs, Nick unselfishly gives plenty of advice for rookie comics and MCs.
Nick is a guest panellist and head writer of over 250 episodes for TV3's award-winning topical news comedy show 7 Days. Nick is the only comedian to win the NZ Comedy Guild Award for 'Best Comedy MC' five times; he is also the winner of Best Male Comedian NZ Comedy Guild Awards 2019. Rado was hand-selected to perform at the Sydney Opera House for the prestigious Just for Laughs Sydney showcase. He has opened for Rob Brydon, Aziz Ansari and Russell Howard on their nationwide tours. He was also featured in Rhys Darby's Sitcom Short Poppies on Netflix. As seen on, The Comedy Channel Australia, the Nightwatchmen and Narrow World of Sports for Fox Sports Australia and as heard on The Rock's Sporting Rumble.
He also has his stand up special for sale. Go to www.nickrado.com for more info
After gigging with NZ comic David Correos in Paihia in New Zealand, we found a dodgy corner of a car park and sat down and discussed our worst gigs. He has some GOOD ONES!
Dave is a living legend already! He's all over TV on shows like 7Days, the time travelling guy on the Vodafone ad and Taskmaster NZ.
We've gigged in a few festivals together in NZ Comedy Fest, Adelaide Fringe, Dunedin Fringe and Edinburgh when it took us 2 weeks to finally find each other at the end up the night in a semi sober state for some messing.
As a professional comic myself, not only do I find stories about our worst gigs hilarious but I'm fascinated by the mental ability to brush ourselves off and continue gigging!
This is a lovely chat with one of the funniest comics out there.
The Die Hard Christmas song is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnUwVQ1NGiM