FROM THE DESK OF...

It's the 23rd of April. The festival officially starts in four days, on Friday night, with the Comedy Gala - though there are a couple of shows sneaking in before then, like the 7 Days Special, and the 5 Star Preview, so technically the festival starts for me on Thursday.

Well, I’m going to be a maverick here and write one of these From The Desk Of… yokes. By maverick, I don’t mean a motherless cow.

Boston hosts an awesome Women In Comedy Festival, now being a comedy festival veteran (14 one hour shows over ten years at Edinburgh Fringe) I was expecting a town under siege – much in the way Edinburgh gets every August but this one is very different.

Some grannies are quite cool and give you lollies and let you stay up late, while other grannies are not so cool and give you brussel sprouts and send you to bed so they can watch the news.

It’s Thursday today which means its ‘shooting 7 Days day’. There is a mild undercurrent of panic in the air although that’s drowned out by Steve Wrigley talking heaps and the fact we’re all excited for another award winning, ratings smashing show.

Fans are a strange yet wondrous thing. I’m sure you’re a fan of things – I myself am a fan of sleeping late and dogs dressed as humans (just check my facebook page for verification). It’s nice to have interests, to be a fan of things.

So it’s about a month away from the start of the Comedy Festival, and already it’s started to take over my life. The Festival is a very strange beast. On the one hand, there is a large chunk of my year that is consumed by thinking about my Festival show, and the stress and fear associated with it.

I just got back from Adelaide Fringe festival. I've been going for the past 3 years. It's not getting any easier and it's got nothing to do with the shows or the audiences either. The first year I went they had a massive heatwave. Averaging mid 40's every day. Try doing a show with no aircon and 5 spotlights on you.

Well it's 2012 so it's time for me to return. I know it may seem like I never went away, but it's actually been six years since I've done a solo show in the NZ International Comedy Festival!

I've always liked the movie Big and wondered what it would be like to be someone else for a day. With that in mind, here is my account of what it would be like if I was recording artist Gin Wigmore.