bReview: Big Queer Improv Party 2

at Basement Theatre

Wednesday 26 February 2025

Full feature by Mikaela Stroud

Photography by Milad Asadi

The Big Queer Improv show is back at Basement Theatre for Big Queer Improv Party 2! A show with passion, energy and silly stories that’ll have you in stitches all evening.

After a raucously successful first season during Pride Month last year, they have joined forces with Comedy Culture New Zealand and brought it back to the Basement stage with an all star lineup of queer comedy talent.

I had the priveledge of attending opening night Wednesday the 26th, featuring the Director and improvisor themself Rebecca Mary Gwendolyn, with music by Greg Ward alongside comedians and improvisers Amy Bird, Bridie Thomson, Ralph Corke, Georgia Pringle, and China Gonzalez!

Rebecca begins the show with boundless energy and warmth, welcoming the audience into their space as if it was their own living room. The cast was introduced for the night and the floor was open to the audience to prompt the first story. Each one word prompt in turn was followed by a real story relating to that word shared by one of the cast, and once they finished their tale they were off! The cast tuned in with eachother, taking inspiration from elements of the stories being shared and creating all new scenes that morphed and shifted with every offer. The room was electric, each performer open and engaging, with the whole cast balancing between structure and chaos beautifully.

From Gluten free birthday cakes ruined by weed brownies, gender reveal cannons full of bees, vegan crabs, to jude law the sex robot, these hilarious performers bring out the comedy in the most random stories, where you could end up buying a home with a wild refrigerator man, or find out your mum’s the top forensic scientist in the Hawkes Bay!

I got the chance to speak with both Rebecca and Bridie, who joined forces both on stage and in production for this year’s Big Queer Improv Party 2, and got to chatting about their experience developing the show this year and what it meant to them.

Initially Rebecca had started the project with collaborator and fellow performer Amy Bird. As a performer, they spoke about their experiences as an improviser and their realisation that they hadn’t gotten to explore that in an openly queer environment.

R: “When you're doing improv it's quite vulnerable, because in order to be improvising well we [...] say the obvious thing not the clever thing. So you’re [...] sharing what's on the top of your mind, and what sounds normal [...] what's instinctive to you [...]. I feel like it's easier to do that in a space with people that feel welcoming and trustworthy, even though everyone in this place doesnt know eachother. Even in rehearsal people are saying things where [I think] I bet you may not have told that story in a different environment.”

B: “And the same with audiences as well, queer audiences are [the audiences] who we generally want, [who] get our references, and we want to entertain. [Our] world experiences are on that same plane [...], as you're improvising you’re drawing from your experience. And nothing brings people together like a good cause!”

Many of the performers come from comedic backgrounds, so I asked about the experience of translating their talents to the improv world, how it benefits them as performers and how the two differ, and how they’ve been able to explore their queerness in the improv space.

R: “Traditionally the format that we’re doing is inspired by the Armando Diaz experience, which is a format where you try to tell stories that are true and not funny. So I think it's a testament to how funny everyone is [that] they couldnt help being funny!”

B: “People are the funniest when they’re being themselves, their most genuine selves. A lot [of people] in stand up are trying to be someone else but in improv you have to be yourself. Sometimes the funniest thing is someone being themself.”

R: “I feel like, as a genderfluid person, one of my favourite things is that in improv you can just do whatever you want. Just be any character. Like [I] can be a character [in an improv scene] that no one would ever cast me as, even though I can feel like [...], you know, I can play this character. But no casting agent is ever gonna cast me as this character. In improv you cast yourself.”

B: “Yeah … I love playing Straight Man™… It's so fun. Like, I feel way more comfortable playing a straight man than I do playing anything else. [...] It allows you [an opportunity] to test out the masc, the femme, the big, the small, which is like [what] queerness [is] generally.”

To finish off the interview, I asked their opinions on the performance of queer identity in the performing arts, the importance of queer visibility and any reflections they want audiences to take home after seeing Big Queer Improv Party 2.

R: “Something that I enjoy about creating and doing the show, especially last year, when we were casting the show, we got to realise that some of the people that we improvise with all the time are queer and we don’t think about it necessarily. And then there were other people that we didn’t improvise with before and then we were able to bring in [from] the queer community, and then people we improvise with all the time who we had no idea were queer! So I [love], as a visibly queer artist, the opportunity to create spaces for other people to be comfortable to be themselves. Because [someone] may not necessarily have that space, so it's nice to be able to create that.”

B: “It's important, especially because mainstream spaces can be so isolating as a queer person. You can kinda be the people that you wish you had growing up, and also bring in the people who [may think] I’m not queer enough yes you are! There's no scale, baby! There's room for everyone here!”

R: “My key phrase for all of our comedy culture shows, and this show especially, is joy as an act of resistance.”

B: “Because one of my favourite bands has a song and phrase which is joy and love is an act of resistance so fully, especially now with the climate and how everything’s progressing. You can’t fight fire with fire, so [why not] fight fire with fun and joy and love.”

R: “Especially when the fire is actively trying to shut down events. We’re just gonna do it anyway! Fight it with fun!”

The Big Queer Improv Party has 2 more shows this season, the 27th and 28th, so make sure to catch it before it's gone! Tickets are pay what you can, and all proceeds are going towards Rainbow Youth New Zealand. See Basement Theatre’s website for more details