Funny As

Raised in Palmerston North, Paul Horan was a member of the late-80s comedy troupe Facial DBX which featured Jon Bridges and Jeremy Corbett. Paul went on to set up the Classic Comedy Club - New Zealand's only venue dedicated solely to comedy - in 1998. Paul was also the co-founder of the New Zealand Comedy Festival (in 1992) and wrote for the television series Topp Twins III. Shifting to Australia in 2000, he was hired to set up the writer's room for Rove. He has since become a senior producer and script consultant for shows such as Hamish and Andy's Real Stories and The Mansion. He helped create The 7PM Project and most recently the ground-breaking comedy Problems for the ABC. Paul lives in Melbourne with his partner Greg; he returns to New Zealand often.Philip Matthews is a senior journalist, reviewer and editorial writer whose work has appeared in the NZ Listener, Metro, Sunday Star-Times, Landfall, The Press, The Wire, The Spinoff and a host of other publications during his 25 years in the business. For more than 10 years he was an award-winning film reviewer for the NZ Listener, with two stints as the magazine's arts and books editor. He sporadically maintains a film blog and is more active than he would like to be on Twitter. He has never performed comedy and can barely remember jokes, but people tell him he's funny. He lives in Christchurch with his wife and three daughters.

• by Michele A'CourtIntroductionChapter 1 Bloody laughter: war and the birth of New Zealand comedyChapter 2 Comedy and writers: blokes, bastards and outbreaks of beautyChapter 3 Lessons in comedy: universities and capping revuesChapter 4 `Bold and blue': female impersonators, cabaret and varietyChapter 5 Comedians and politicians: `stuff that doesn't really matter'Chapter 6 Comedy and theatre: million-dollar ideasChapter 7 Directors on the edge: comedy on screenChapter 8 The start of it: TV comedy up to the 1980sChapter 9 John Clarke: the man from the audienceChapter 10 Billy T. James: between two worldsChapter 11 The Topp Twins: only in New ZealandChapter 12 The Front Lawn: sons of the suburbsChapter 13 Live comedy in the 1980s and 1990s: looking for a place to stand (up)Chapter 14 Breaking the rules: TV in the 1990s and beyondChapter 15 Naked in the house of spirits: Samoan comedyChapter 16 Live comedy in the twenty-first century: the new establishmentChapter 17 Kin folk: Flight of the ConchordsChapter 18 Taika Waititi: a Ma-ori in spaceChapter 19 Rose and other names: a new comedy generationBibliographyNotes

‘It’s a hefty tome. It’s lavish. It clips along at a rollicking pace.’ – Andrew Lumsden, Newsroom‘Those many Kiwis with a sense of humour will strike gold in Funny As‘ ‘This, though, is a truly magnificent work’ – Clarke Isaacs, Otago Daily Times‘A wonderful (fun, funny, engaging, page-turning) read.’ – Simon Sweetman, Off the Tracks