New Zealand Comedy Trust Presents
2025 NZ INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL WITH BEST FOODS MAYO
2 – 25 May, 2025
Brace yourself for a month filled with non-stop laughter as the NZ International Comedy Festival with Best Foods Mayo takes over this May for the 32nd year! This May Auckland and Wellington will be bursting with comedy as 150+ homegrown and international stars deliver more than 600 side-splitting live performances. The full programme and tickets are live from Wednesday 5 March 10am and available to view at comedyfestival.co.nz.
With a plethora of comic delights to choose from, the New Zealand Comedy Trust has crowd pleaser line-up shows, which are guaranteed to give the best bite sized taste of what’s on offer this year. Kicking off the month of laughter is the festival’s flagship event, the Best Foods Comedy Gala, heading to both Auckland and Wellington with host Hayley Sproull. Once again the Best Comedy Show On Earth will live up to its name, delivering an evening of hilarious comedy at Skycity Theatre from crowd favourites and rising stars picked out of this year’s programme, hosted by Australia’s much loved Becky Lucas. Creator and star of Bouncers Joe Daymond plays host to The Comedy Mixtape on the Q Theatre mainstage and Te Auaha’s big room, showcasing a hot mix of some of his favourites on the scene.
For a sneak peak of the packed festival line-up, get along to the Auckland Preview Show at Basement Theatre, with host Joel McCarthy and the likes of Hoani Hotene, Itay Dom, Angella Dravid, David Stuart and more. The Wellington Preview Show, hosted by Jerome Chandrahasen, will feature local favourites including Lesa Macleod-Whiting, Jak Darling & Booth The Clown, Liv Ward, Dan Boerman, Sameena ZehraLate Laughs is your late-night festival showcase where the comics come out to play, every Friday and Saturday night at Wellington’s Fringe Bar.
The Comedy Fest is once again teaming up with Parrotdog Brewery in Lyall Bay for Comedy Fest at Parrotdog, your chance to see The Office Australia star Felicity Ward headline in the capital, alongside Joe Daymond and Johanna Cosgrove, for a night of top-tier comedy, craft lager and great eats. Sell-out Comedy Fest in Kāpiti is back for another year, hosted by Jerome Chandrahasen.
Closing out three weeks of belly aching good times is Last Laughs, hosted by past Fred Award winner Eli Matthewson. This epic celebration gets the comedy community together at SkyCity Theatre and audiences get to be first to see performances from the Billy T nominees and Fred Award finalists and the winners announced.
An impressive lineup of international comedy stars will take to the stage, including some of the UK’s finest – Nish Kumar, Olga Koch, Becky Lucas, Tom Houghton, Mark Simmons and Adam Kay. Making their festival debut also from the UK are Jen Brister, Laura Lexx, All Killa No Filla, Ahir Shah, Sarah Keyworth, Red Richardson and Paul Taylor.
Plus from across the ditch audiences can look forward to more comedy excellence with Pub Choir, Heath Franklin’s Chopper, Nazeem Hussain, Tom Cashman, Anisa Nandaula, He Huang, Jenny Tian, Felicity Ward, Becky Lucas, Neel Kolhatkar, Emma Holland, Kirsty Webeck, Elouise Eftos, The Dark Room and more.
This year’s programme features an incredible lineup of comedians, showcasing the exceptional talent Aotearoa has to offer, including: Tape Face, Melanie Bracewell, Guy Montgomery, Josh Thomson, Brynley Stent, Pax Assadi, Guy Williams, James Mustapic, Abby Howells, Ray O’Leary, Donna Brookbanks, David Correos, Paul Douglas, Rhys Mathewson, Barnie Duncan, Angella Dravid, Paul Douglas, Sameena Zehra, Sera Devcich, Theo Shakes, Liv Parker, Bailey Poching & Anthony Crum, Shoshana McCallum, Alayne Dick, Dr Jo Prendergast, Kajun Brooking, Alice May Connolly—plus many more unmissable acts.
Before you stream it, see it live! Catch much loved favourites or find someone new and Come Play This May as you dive into a month of comedy brilliance at this year’s NZ Comedy Fest.
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