Best Foods Comedy Gala

The Best Foods Comedy Gala is back with an incredible lineup to kick off the 2021 New Zealand International Comedy Festival. Expect big laughs from this fast-paced live show with bite-sized sets from some of Aotearoa’s comedy superstars.

Leading the lineup this year, our host is the multi award-winning Queen of NZ comedy, Justine Smith. Joining Justine on the lineup is national treasure Ben Hurley of Have You Been Paying Attention? and 7 Days, alongside international Samoan comedy superstar, and half of the Laughing Samoan’s duo - Tofiga Fepulea'i; 2018 Fred Award Winner and online sensation Chris Parker; from TVNZ’s Taskmaster NZ and winner of the Billy T Award the awkward and always hilarious Angella Dravid!

Returning from a 5-year Festival hiatus, international comedy superstar Rhys Darby joins the line-up with his sensational blend of sound effects, characterisations and off-kilter observations. Multi-award winning stand up Nick Rado joins this stellar line-up too, along with superstar Aussie comic Laura Davis. Billy T Award-winning comedian Guy Montgomery and the crack-up deadpan and self-deprecating Cori Gonzalez-Macuer round out the line-up.

With their pop-bangers laden with killer punchlines, the musical comedy duo Two Hearts will be cranking up the energy in both Auckland and Wellington, joined by the witty and political James Nokise - the reigning Fred Award winner from 2019. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s Jonno Roberts steps off Broadway and onto the Opera House stage, joined by Aotearoa's own vaudevillian heroine Penny Ashton.

Rounding out the line is the star of TVNZ's Taskmaster NZ Paul Williams, the multi-talented, multi award-winning Sameena Zehra and Pōneke's own star on the rise, Sera Devcich!