Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter about good shit in Tāmaki Makaurau, by Reilly Hodson. This week, I went to see Chris Parker, in a full theatre, and it was awesome. If you enjoy clipboard, spread the love by sharing it with the friend of yours whose trousers fit the best.

laughter is the best medicine

It’s been quite the couple of years, hasn’t it? It can be easy to forget the stuff that you enjoyed before we locked ourselves at home, learnt what KN95 meant and became amateur experts on contagious disease.

Pre-Covid, one of my favourite times of year was the comedy festival. I lucked into a job that got me some free tickets, and we made the most of it a couple of years in a row. It was a few weeks straight of nights out, occasionally multiple shows in a night, crammed into the Basement theatre sharing laughs with a bunch of people.

Over the past few years, though, the festival hasn’t happened, and most of my comedy intake has shifted into coming through screens. It’s not quite the same, and one doesn’t often literally laugh out loud when scrolling TikTok or rewatching Brooklyn 99.

This week, after numerous delays, we headed to see Chris Parker at Q Theatre, and it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a while. Chris is obviously deeply hilarious, as everyone knows from the internet, and he’s almost unbelievably high energy.

High points included an extended gag about people who order a mocha, a borderline morbid story about ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas,’ and a next level entrance sequence involving a cartwheel, a glass of wine and a Berocca.

At first it felt weird, to laugh out loud in a room full of people. By the end, though, it was cathartic, and felt (*gasp*) even a bit normal, at times.

Not everyone is comfortable getting out of the house and spending time in confined places with others - I certainly don’t want to get Covid again. But it certainly felt nice, for a few hours, to focus on just feeling joy, surrounded by people focused on that same thing.

It can’t be all bad, all the time, right?

clips

• A couple of classic bangers in the Spinoff this week: why Whittaker’s Miraka Kirīmi is just the start of non-English in our supermarkets, every Covid lockdown ranked (correctly, I think), and an enlightening interview with the rich white guy funding Sean Plunket’s The Platform. 

• I’m into the new graphics drop from the fantastic hemp tee merchants at Buddy - this one takes me back to my roots as a non-athlete born in Sydney

• I’m not famous enough for my pic to make the cut in this piece, but I had a great time celebrating the second birthday of NZ’s best fashion publication, Ensemble! It’s been great fun to be a small part of the Ensemble story, here’s to many more years

• I’m very keen to try out Gloria’s, the bakehouse from the minds behind Bar Celeste and East Street Hall. More good lunch spots!

• You can pre-order Inward Goods’ heavy polo in green now - I own this in navy and it is an awesome piece, perfect for the incoming “jumper and shorts” season

• I’m in countdown mode for my trip to Melbourne, so keep sending me recommendations for stores, galleries, cafes and restaurants to head to while I’m there and I’ll wrap it all up into an offical clipboard city guideTM.

That’s all for clipboard this week, thanks for reading! I’ll be back with more good shit next Sunday morning, and in the meantime you can hit me up on Instagram or via email. See you later!