February 24, 2026 • 8 mins
Starting tonight 6pm at Fringe Bar, Silver Tongues perform as part of the Wellington Fringe Festival. The group comprising of comedians all over the age of 50 take the stage over 4 nights with their stand up routines "showing that the silver haired are also silver tongued".
Nick is joined in the studio by performers Neil Thorton, Ganesh Cherian and Darrell Phillips to talk all thing Fringe, performing, what to expect from the show, and why being old is a source of comedy, not just trauma.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Talk said, b okay, we finally get in their silver tongues.
They are a fringe comedian group. They're doing stand up
at Fringebar and their show starts, believe it or not,
tonight with me. I've got Neil Thornton, Denise Cheaton and
Darryl Phillips.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Do I get all the night? Dames?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Mine? Right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Cherrian Cheerian? Okay, I'll start with you, Denise, tell us
a joke, tell me something funny. How good is this
going to be?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
It's going to be amazing, because you know, when you're
talking about old people, we've got all the best stories
and of course we've got incredible, you know, terribly absurd
things that have happened to us in our lives that
we're going to present to you as trauma but also
as humor.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So how are you going to make it funny? Guys?
I mean, old age isn't funny?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Of course it is. It's hilarious, absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
What the fact we got old?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, that's a good start and.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
We definitely have it everyone about. So we will do
our we will do our darndas to you know, so what.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ruled us about? What made you come up with this
idea that you know you have three middle aged Can
I call you middle aged guys?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Description I've been running I've been a comedian for gosh say,
fifteen twenty years now, and I've been running this wonderful
little thing called the New Zealand Comedy School, teaching comedy classes.
And it turns out a huge chunk of my students
that have graduated from the school, and as well as
my favorite comics, are all over the age of fifty.
(01:43):
So five years ago, when I turned fifty, I decided
for my fiftieth birthday to do a show all featuring
all comedians over the age of fifty. And we got
great comics to do the thing, including some people who
are up tonight, Maryanne and Brenda as well as you know,
great comics to do the thing. We had wonderful audience.
It turned out to be a lovely show. So I've
been running it for periodically for the last five years
(02:06):
and then now this is our third Fringe festival.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Okay, is it rehearsed? Do you rehearse it? Does it?
Just stand up and.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Go stand up comedy is a process of you try
your jokes, they fail, you try them again, they don't work,
they go you know, and then ultimately you put together
your five minutes set that's a mix of written and
improvised things and should sound like it's off the cuff.
But largely we know which jokes are going to work
or not. And then we did a group workshop a
couple of weeks ago where we all hung out and
(02:34):
drank beer and laughed at each other.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
We've got a lot of material, so oftentimes, you know,
if you if you hit a joke and it doesn't land,
you can, you know, pivot a little bit and try
something different. And but we've usually got enough that we've
practiced that we know is solid and that will be funny,
that will have people laughing, and then a bit of
stuff that actually is just off the cuff because of
(02:59):
the audience interaction and the way that you know that
is live performance.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Now there's about eight of you, there's eight tonight, and
then a different eight tomorrow. I think totally it's gonna
be about over thirty different comics over the course of
the next four days.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He how does everyone get an opportunity to be funny.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
H Well, that's part of the game of what I
do for a living is provide performance opportunities. So not
only am I gonna help people bring people on board,
you know, bring people on board, but also give them
as many opportunities to practice and play and make each
other laugh as possible. Run monthly alumni shows and whatnot.
And so five minutes each is a good time, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And you will stand you're all on the stage together,
or you.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Spring one at a time. It's gonna look like it's
gonna look like a lineup comedy show. It's gonna look
it's basically a pro comedy show where everyone comes on
and does their best five minutes, one at a time.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What happens if someone.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Sucks?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
They want to put somebody else in five minutes time?
But you do you need about me for five But
it's they're standing there that I'm not looking at you.
I'm not picking on you. You're looking at eye have sight.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Just laugh at me. When I work on the stage,
I think I'm funny from the start.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So your five minutes, yeah, yeah, yeah, what are you
going to do? Tell me what you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, I'm going to start off with a few viagra jokes,
which works very well. I've got to say it wins
me over to get the young people, would me.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can you give one of our listeners kind.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
To get me standing upright? Not just private parts? And
I'm currently in a program to improve viagra. They want
one that gets you harder, fast or quicker. And I
took the pill and the bloody thing froze me vote
the throats and I had to go on a respirator
for about two hours until I came down. But they
(04:50):
now told me that the only problem with the drug
was that it was too far from the target. So
I'm not looking forward to the suppository next week. There
I got it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I got it. There, I got it. So that's the
sort of stuff we're going to get. Is it all
our eighteen or is.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
It there's a mix of Uh, there's a mook. What
I love about it is a mix of Uh. We've
got more women than men in the whole lineup over
the next four days, beautifully diverse international group of people, uh, men, women,
LGBT folks uh. And really excited about that. And even
tonight at which I'm really looking forward to. You've got
(05:25):
a broad breadth of political points of view coming on stage.
Some lean a little bit more conservative, people like me
who are radically and extremely left wing. But I want
to make sure all the voices are featured.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I reckon that that would be all left wing. Yeah,
that will be. I think the poor old nets will
cop it. Why't they? It'll be It'll be a peck
on the nets wing.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Oh and the boomers. The boomers get lots of good grief.
I'm there to defeend the boomers.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Right, yeah, we're yeah. As I said, all we will
celebrate all the voices as long as they're not racist.
Homophobics exist.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I just to ask you both, all three of you,
I'm going to go around. Sure, favorite New Zealand comedian.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
So my favorite comedian would be raybon Kahn.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I really really enjoyed him much lately.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I saw him a.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Couple of years ago, but he's he's around and he
still still does sort of stuff, still.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Doing his thing.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He's your favorite comedia.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
You've got stuck, you're well.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You think about it. I hope you don't freeze tonight.
I mean that would be very especially after Viegro. If
you freeze after you're in real trouble.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I'm gonna upset a lot of people by not naming names.
But recently did a show up in Auckland with the
absolutely fantastic Justine smith As who's been a feature of
the scene forever and I love her to death as
well as uh. The opening act was this incredible Angela
Dravid who I don't know if you know her, but young, wonderful, filthy, incredible.
(06:50):
And then a new kid who just just graduated but
also is killing it, Emerson betterage. So those are three
people who I just did a show with, so they're
really fresh on my mind. Plus a lot of people
great people in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Can I can I tell you who I and I've
been in the industry my whole life. The best comedian
that I have ever seen live in the world I've
seen Davey Allen. I don't know whether you guys remember
Dave Aelle. It's the Irish comedian he was. He's pretty outstanding.
Billy T.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
James, Yeah, I was about to say to you, if
I can go into the past, that's your well.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I mean I did say Staves clever, Yeah, very clever.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I still watching one video all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
He's brilliant And why should people go to the show?
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Well, you know, well to see them if they're over fifty,
to see themselves represented in the ways that you're not
going to get normal. You're most of fringe festivals people
under the age of twenty five, and this is a
big part of it. Also, it's over early, it's between
six and seven pm. That's a lovely So how much
does it cost it's at.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The fringe bar.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Oh yeah, twenty twenty five bucks of that depending yeah,
gold card less less, so to get a discount. Yeah,
the same concession at the door when no one checks
the idea And so why should they go?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Because it's really really.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Funny, it's very very clever. If you're under fifty, you're
gonna see some points of view you normally don't get
to see on the television screens. Are represented in local
Wellington stages.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And how good is it to have the French Festival
and Warrington Guys brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
There is so much talent in Wellington and it's great
to have everybody you know, express themselves in creative ways.
So that's our it's our really, Wellington is the creative
hub and so we're getting to do.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
This is amazing, fantastic. The show's on tonight at Fringebar.
I'm sure they're still tickets available, but it's on till
the seventh. No sorry, it's on till twenty eighth of February.
Enjoy break a league, guys, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Thank you very much. Everybody.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Go to Fringe dot co dot nz. We'll find your ticket.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Here you go and the show's called Silver Tongues if
you needed reminding.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Talk said, b okay, we finally get in their silver tongues.
They are a fringe comedian group. They're doing stand up
at Fringebar and their show starts, believe it or not,
tonight with me. I've got Neil Thornton, Denise Cheaton and
Darryl Phillips.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Do I get all the night? Dames?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Mine? Right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Cherrian Cheerian? Okay, I'll start with you, Denise, tell us
a joke, tell me something funny. How good is this
going to be?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
It's going to be amazing, because you know, when you're
talking about old people, we've got all the best stories
and of course we've got incredible, you know, terribly absurd
things that have happened to us in our lives that
we're going to present to you as trauma but also
as humor.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So how are you going to make it funny? Guys?
I mean, old age isn't funny?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Of course it is. It's hilarious, absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
What the fact we got old?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, that's a good start and.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
We definitely have it everyone about. So we will do
our we will do our darndas to you know, so what.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ruled us about? What made you come up with this
idea that you know you have three middle aged Can
I call you middle aged guys?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Description I've been running I've been a comedian for gosh say,
fifteen twenty years now, and I've been running this wonderful
little thing called the New Zealand Comedy School, teaching comedy classes.
And it turns out a huge chunk of my students
that have graduated from the school, and as well as
my favorite comics, are all over the age of fifty.
(01:43):
So five years ago, when I turned fifty, I decided
for my fiftieth birthday to do a show all featuring
all comedians over the age of fifty. And we got
great comics to do the thing, including some people who
are up tonight, Maryanne and Brenda as well as you know,
great comics to do the thing. We had wonderful audience.
It turned out to be a lovely show. So I've
been running it for periodically for the last five years
(02:06):
and then now this is our third Fringe festival.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Okay, is it rehearsed? Do you rehearse it? Does it?
Just stand up and.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Go stand up comedy is a process of you try
your jokes, they fail, you try them again, they don't work,
they go you know, and then ultimately you put together
your five minutes set that's a mix of written and
improvised things and should sound like it's off the cuff.
But largely we know which jokes are going to work
or not. And then we did a group workshop a
couple of weeks ago where we all hung out and
(02:34):
drank beer and laughed at each other.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
We've got a lot of material, so oftentimes, you know,
if you if you hit a joke and it doesn't land,
you can, you know, pivot a little bit and try
something different. And but we've usually got enough that we've
practiced that we know is solid and that will be funny,
that will have people laughing, and then a bit of
stuff that actually is just off the cuff because of
(02:59):
the audience interaction and the way that you know that
is live performance.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Now there's about eight of you, there's eight tonight, and
then a different eight tomorrow. I think totally it's gonna
be about over thirty different comics over the course of
the next four days.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He how does everyone get an opportunity to be funny.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
H Well, that's part of the game of what I
do for a living is provide performance opportunities. So not
only am I gonna help people bring people on board,
you know, bring people on board, but also give them
as many opportunities to practice and play and make each
other laugh as possible. Run monthly alumni shows and whatnot.
And so five minutes each is a good time, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And you will stand you're all on the stage together,
or you.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Spring one at a time. It's gonna look like it's
gonna look like a lineup comedy show. It's gonna look
it's basically a pro comedy show where everyone comes on
and does their best five minutes, one at a time.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What happens if someone.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Sucks?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
They want to put somebody else in five minutes time?
But you do you need about me for five But
it's they're standing there that I'm not looking at you.
I'm not picking on you. You're looking at eye have sight.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Just laugh at me. When I work on the stage,
I think I'm funny from the start.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So your five minutes, yeah, yeah, yeah, what are you
going to do? Tell me what you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, I'm going to start off with a few viagra jokes,
which works very well. I've got to say it wins
me over to get the young people, would me.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can you give one of our listeners kind.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
To get me standing upright? Not just private parts? And
I'm currently in a program to improve viagra. They want
one that gets you harder, fast or quicker. And I
took the pill and the bloody thing froze me vote
the throats and I had to go on a respirator
for about two hours until I came down. But they
(04:50):
now told me that the only problem with the drug
was that it was too far from the target. So
I'm not looking forward to the suppository next week. There
I got it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I got it. There, I got it. So that's the
sort of stuff we're going to get. Is it all
our eighteen or is.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
It there's a mix of Uh, there's a mook. What
I love about it is a mix of Uh. We've
got more women than men in the whole lineup over
the next four days, beautifully diverse international group of people, uh, men, women,
LGBT folks uh. And really excited about that. And even
tonight at which I'm really looking forward to. You've got
(05:25):
a broad breadth of political points of view coming on stage.
Some lean a little bit more conservative, people like me
who are radically and extremely left wing. But I want
to make sure all the voices are featured.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I reckon that that would be all left wing. Yeah,
that will be. I think the poor old nets will
cop it. Why't they? It'll be It'll be a peck
on the nets wing.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Oh and the boomers. The boomers get lots of good grief.
I'm there to defeend the boomers.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Right, yeah, we're yeah. As I said, all we will
celebrate all the voices as long as they're not racist.
Homophobics exist.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I just to ask you both, all three of you,
I'm going to go around. Sure, favorite New Zealand comedian.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
So my favorite comedian would be raybon Kahn.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I really really enjoyed him much lately.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I saw him a.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Couple of years ago, but he's he's around and he
still still does sort of stuff, still.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Doing his thing.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He's your favorite comedia.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
You've got stuck, you're well.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You think about it. I hope you don't freeze tonight.
I mean that would be very especially after Viegro. If
you freeze after you're in real trouble.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I'm gonna upset a lot of people by not naming names.
But recently did a show up in Auckland with the
absolutely fantastic Justine smith As who's been a feature of
the scene forever and I love her to death as
well as uh. The opening act was this incredible Angela
Dravid who I don't know if you know her, but young, wonderful, filthy, incredible.
(06:50):
And then a new kid who just just graduated but
also is killing it, Emerson betterage. So those are three
people who I just did a show with, so they're
really fresh on my mind. Plus a lot of people
great people in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Can I can I tell you who I and I've
been in the industry my whole life. The best comedian
that I have ever seen live in the world I've
seen Davey Allen. I don't know whether you guys remember
Dave Aelle. It's the Irish comedian he was. He's pretty outstanding.
Billy T.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
James, Yeah, I was about to say to you, if
I can go into the past, that's your well.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I mean I did say Staves clever, Yeah, very clever.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I still watching one video all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
He's brilliant And why should people go to the show?
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Well, you know, well to see them if they're over fifty,
to see themselves represented in the ways that you're not
going to get normal. You're most of fringe festivals people
under the age of twenty five, and this is a
big part of it. Also, it's over early, it's between
six and seven pm. That's a lovely So how much
does it cost it's at.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The fringe bar.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Oh yeah, twenty twenty five bucks of that depending yeah,
gold card less less, so to get a discount. Yeah,
the same concession at the door when no one checks
the idea And so why should they go?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Because it's really really.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Funny, it's very very clever. If you're under fifty, you're
gonna see some points of view you normally don't get
to see on the television screens. Are represented in local
Wellington stages.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And how good is it to have the French Festival
and Warrington Guys brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
There is so much talent in Wellington and it's great
to have everybody you know, express themselves in creative ways.
So that's our it's our really, Wellington is the creative
hub and so we're getting to do.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
This is amazing, fantastic. The show's on tonight at Fringebar.
I'm sure they're still tickets available, but it's on till
the seventh. No sorry, it's on till twenty eighth of February.
Enjoy break a league, guys, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Thank you very much. Everybody.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Go to Fringe dot co dot nz. We'll find your ticket.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Here you go and the show's called Silver Tongues if
you needed reminding.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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