Bingo with bells on top
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REVIEW: Keith Preene's Golden Goose Bingo show
has returned to the World Buskers Festival for a second season.
Here is Charlie Gates' review from last year.
This is a crazy town. Where else would you gather in a
performance space made of blue pallets in a desolate landscape of
partially demolished buildings to play bingo?
It was halfway through the game of bingo that I got the giggles
at the brilliant absurdity of the situation. Is there a better way
to respond to a natural disaster than a laugh, a beer and a game of
bingo among the ruins?
Keith Preene's Golden Goose Bingo is a fun night of old-school
entertainment. It's testament to the show's good-natured warmth
that it was able to overcome a chilly, grit-filled southerly in
this sheltered, but open-air venue.
Once Preene was on stage, I didn't really notice the cold.
Preene, the alter ego of Christchurch performer Shay Horay, is a
faded television personality whose heyday was probably in the 1970s
and 80s.
You can imagine him with a show like It's in the Bag during the
week and opening supermarkets in Ashburton at the weekend.
He had a good time in those years and so he's determined to stay
there. He drinks Rheineck beer, smokes Rothmans and tells long,
off-colour jokes. He's like the loveable, old uncle that you only
see at family weddings.
He calls the numbers and operates the specially modified, but
fantastically vintage, bingo machine. At least he is when he's not
necking Rheinecks, telling jokes or charming the audience. The show
is carried by the likeable and good-natured Preene.
And you know what, bingo is actually great fun.
My partner, the Essex Princess, is a vegetarian, but found
herself wanting to win even though the main prize was a luxury meat
pack.
The game is given an absurd twist by Preene's strange nicknames
for the numbers. A traditional caller might call 22 "two little
ducks", but only Preene would call 72 a tall man bending over to
fart in a swan's face.
Hey, TV people, instead of commissioning a reality show about
the Ridges, why not give Keith Preene his own old-school game show?
He could tour working men's clubs and town halls across New
Zealand. Now, that I would watch.
So, this show is two things - a snapshot from a strange city
recovering with almighty pluck from a knockdown and a really fun
night out.
When we emerged from the pallet pavilion, we were faced with an
empty gravel lot and half-demolished buildings.
Where to go for an after-show drink? We ended up in Denny's for
hot chocolate and curly fries. It seemed a perfect fit with the
show's sense of old-school fun.
Keith Preene's Golden Goose Bingo.
Gap Filler Pallet Pavilion, corner of Durham and Kilmore
streets.
8pm every night.
Bingo with bells on top
Charlie Gates
© Fairfax NZ News