Comic relief

BY KIM KNIGHT

THE F-WORD. It's like pie, explains comedian and television producer Jon Bridges.

"It's a sometimes food. Not an every day food."

Bridges has spent a lifetime figuring out what people find funny.

Bad language? Best used sparingly. Risque jokes about newsreader Simon Dallow? More please. Graphic descriptions about the sexual function of female body parts?

"I was unsure, but the in-house censor and the lawyer laughed, and they're both women... "

Bridges is sitting in a meeting room at TV3, contemplating the success of 7Days, the Friday night comedy game show he produces that ridicules the news, the newsmakers and New Zealanders.

It's very early. He nurses a chocolate milk and a sore leg. He fell off his bike this morning. That's not funny. But this, he says, picking up the morning newspaper, is: "John Key. Very funny."

And you're inclined to believe him. Because this year, Bridges, a team of guys called The Down Low Concept, and a bunch of local stand-ups produced that rare beast: a New Zealand comedy that made people laugh.

The smart alec news-of-the-moment format has been tried before. Out of the Question with Paul Holmes and Mike Hosking. Game of Two Halves with Marc Ellis and Matthew Ridge. Why does 7 Days work better?

"Because it has comedians," says Bridges. "That's the only reason."

This was a good year to be funny. Comedy festivals attracted record audiences. Television screened numerous "best ofs" and renewed its commitment to the likes of The Jaquie Brown Diaries and Pulp Sport. Filming started on another new show, A Night at the Classic. Heck, even Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby moved back to New Zealand.

"New Zealand hasn't had comedians as a species," says Bridges. "We've had the odd one – Billy T James, Fred Dagg – but we haven't had a group of comedians working as an industry until now."

7 Days employs a revolving team of television faces, led by presenter Jeremy Corbett and "team leaders" Dai Henwood and Paul Ego. But, weekly, it also offers comedians around the country a chance to contribute, emailing out news stories that are likely to make the show and paying anyone who gets their jokes used.

A typical schedule?

Monday: Meet, laugh about ratings, decide what games to play that week.

Tuesday: Start whiteboard "auditions" of the week's news and send stories to the school taking part in the segment called "my kid could draw that".

Wednesday: Send the week's stories out to guest comedians and spec writers.

Thursday: Finalise any scripted material and, that evening, film around two hours of material.

Friday: Edit show to 23 minutes. Screen.

"I think we're getting over the cultural cringe where we can't watch ourselves on television," says Bridges.

7 Days, he says, works because of two phenomena that came before it.

"Half of it is to do with Shortland Street. We're living in a generation of viewers that have never known TV without it. As far as they're concerned, you can turn on New Zealand TV and watch quality programming that's as good as any programme from the rest of the world."

And the other half? In 1997, Bridges and Corbett were among the shareholders who established The Classic – Auckland's stand-up comedy venue.

"A lot of us lost money. We did it well and we did it poorly at the same time. Comedy-wise, great. Business-wise, appallingly. The company went under, but luckily, from the ashes rose a more stable company and now, The Classic is safe."

Because of that, says Bridges, "comedians can have a proper living in New Zealand and there's a circuit and there's places all over the country you can do comedy. It's all due to The Classic".

In the earliest days, Bridges did stand-up at a venue called Kitty O'Briens. Every second Thursday, comedians would lug 100 chairs on the back of a trailer and perform to a world not quite woken up to local humour.

Today, 7 Days is filmed in a subterranean space off Auckland's Queen St. The set-up is still makeshift, the "studio" is sectioned off with black cloth curtains, and the live audience sits on plastic chairs. The sole concession to style is the bar's refusal to sell wine, because its licence will allow it only to pour liquor into plastic glasses – and that's just not very classy.

"We just haven't got the money for a flash studio," says Bridges. "But we've got a swinging camera. So we're pretty happy about that."

There are other reasons to be happy. "It used to be whenever I did an interview, the question would always be `why can't we make a funny TV programme?' For 15 years, that's the first question you'd hear. It's really good that now the question is `how come we're making good comedy?"'

7 Days - 12 Months end of year special airs on TV3 on Wednesday, December 30, at 9.30pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News