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‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar’ song

A Night of Improv Laughter – Nina Conti, In Your Face Live at The Lowry, Salford Quays

By Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
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Nina Conti Live Ticket

Comedian Ventriloquist Nina Conti has recently embarked on her first fully improvised tour, entitled In Your Face. No script what so ever. For any performer this is brave and no doubt requires a lot of courage.

It also means that each show in the tour is a totally unique experience. Simon and I went to see her at The Lowry, Salford Quays. Nina did exceptionally well and had the audience laughing aloud often.

Manchester audiences are notoriously difficult on an audience participation front, generally having the attitude that they’ve paid for the ticket now want to be passively entertained. Audience participation is an essential component of all of Nina’s performances and she demonstrated her skill at engaging audiences by engaging and involving the audience from the off.

Nina’s longstanding puppet Monkey was the only puppet to come on to the stage with Nina. Monkey says what he thinks, which makes him and Nina hilarious. At one point, he even put Nina in a bag on stage, so that he could talk to the audience alone.

I missed Nina’s Daughter and Inner Child, mainly because of the ‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar’ song. But I wasn’t to be disappointed as Monkey did a rendition. Simon missed Gran, I think it was just because of her perky attitude. These puppets, along with others that Nina has used in the past were replaced with more face mask/moving mouth puppets for audience members.

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Nina Conti Live at The Lowry, Salford.

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Nina Conti Live: The Set.

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Jumper Puppet, Me and Simon during the interval.

What I loved about the show, was that even Nina herself didn’t know what direction the show would go in at times. It was an evening of fun, good humour and childlike play. I loved the childlike play and I think it something we all need more of in our lives. So Thank you, Nina for allowing us an evening of playfulness.

Simon and I were both inspired by the first half of the show, that during the interval Simon created a puppet using my jumper. This resulted in even more laughs.

Nina missed an opportunity, by having no merchandise being available to buy before, during or after the show. I would have liked to have bought a mug.

Unfortunately Nina’s tour is limited and in most places she is only doing one date. But if you’ve missed her this time round, make sure you catch her next time round. You can find information around Nina’s live dates here.

Blog soon,

Antony



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DVD Review: Nina Conti – Dolly Mixtures Live

By Amazon, Happiness & Joy, Reviews, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments
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Nina Conti DVD and Treats

Last week was a tough week. I needed cheering up, so head to my local supermarket and bought Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures, along with some popcorn and a multipack of Curly Wurly’s.

Superb Ventriloquist Nina Conti presents her live show Dolly Mixtures on DVD, filmed in Leeds. The hilarious comedy show is a laugh-a-second and cheered me up no end. It’s part scripted and part improv, with Nina making herself the butt of many of her own jokes.

Nina starts the show with her long-standing puppet Monkey. Monkey presents a lateral thinking puzzle:
A crowd is covered in strange lumps of foam, on the floor empty suitcases, an old mans clothes and a paint brush. What happened?

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Click to Buy on Amazon

Then Nina introduces her six new puppets:
  • Nina’s Daughter and Inner Child who sings ‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar.’
  • Killer the Camp Dog who tells his story of how he raided Claire’s Accessories during the riots.
  • Stefan the Builder who is a step-in puppet that requires some audience participation.
  • Granny the Clairvoyant who shows off her clairvoyance.
  • The Human Puppets with Talking Mouths, which leads to more audience participation.
  • Granddad John the Painter who leads to a bizarre but extremely funny show’s ending.

Throughout the show, there’s plenty of good natured audience participation with the themes being: good fun & humour.

Nina is fantastically funny and by the end of the show my sides hurt because I’d laughed so much. The show ends by showing the lateral thinking puzzle, that even God couldn’t solve! LOL.

I’ve watched Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures several times since I bought it and never failed to lose myself in laughter. If I star rated DVDs, it would be five out of five star.

Here’s a clip from Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures:

Click here to display content from www.youtube.com

Review soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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