YouNity comedy gala assessment: Comedians donate an evening of guffaws in help of rainbow group

Boomers, millennials and Gen Z-ers alike packed out the YouUnity comedy present on Sunday to assist increase cash for native faculties’ queer-straight alliance teams.

And since I’m a millennial and might’t afford a home, that’s why I went to the charity present – in keeping with headlining act Chris Parker, anyway.

Eight comedians donated their time to rally help for the LGBTQIA+ group after a sequence of occasions in Tauranga this 12 months, together with a fireplace on the metropolis’s hub for queer and gender-diverse youth, and Bethlehem School asking faculty dad and mom to acknowledge its perception that marriage is between a person and a girl.

The present was stuffed with digs at heterosexual white males, “straight tradition” and sexual innuendos – I in all probability can’t repeat about half of the jokes instructed as a result of they’d be inappropriate.

But it surely was additionally about creating consciousness and a protected house for the LGBTQIA+ group, and comedians shared experiences and jokes about their sexuality.

James Mustapic stated he was instructed to “cease being homosexual” after he was “very confused” whereas watching a rugby recreation. He stormed out, and his buddies adopted to ensure he was okay – an instance of “the best way to make something, together with a Rugby World Cup closing, about me”.

And Liv McKenzie stated she needed to begin telling individuals she was bisexual as a result of her nostril ring fell out and so they wouldn’t be capable to inform in any other case.

Tauranga comic Summer time Xia, initially from China, stated she was a “proud Chiwi”, and if she ever acquired elected to Tauranga Metropolis Council, she would get Chinese language contractors in to “repair that bloody Cameron Rd” in simply two months.

Not that that would occur till 2024 anyway.

And Michelle A’Courtroom defined how feminism was not about “man-hating”, however that girls ought to do 12 per cent much less in life due to the 12 per cent pay hole between women and men.

After the present, I requested my companion – a straight white male – if he felt focused by the jokes.

“Not all males…” he began, earlier than laughing and saying, “No, every little thing they’re saying about straight white males is true.”

Organiser Gordy Lockhart, who based YoubeYou Tauranga Moana, stated YouNity occasions have been about recognising minority teams and celebrating distinction, inclusion and fairness.

And the individuals of Tauranga – or as Chris Parker would name it, “Ponsonby with a mountain” – have been positively capable of have fun this on the present.

Who: Kiwi comedians Chris Parker, Justine Smith, Michelle A’Courtroom, Corey Gonzales-Macuer, James Mustapic, Donna Brookbanks, Liv McKenzie and Summer time Xia. Organised by YoubeYou Tauranga Moana founder Gordy Lockhart.

What: YouNity comedy gala.

The place: Baycourt Group and Arts Centre.

When: November 20, 2022 – Trans Satisfaction Consciousness Day.