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Pulp Comedy Presents

Ewen Gilmour

TV3 (New Zealand) · 2001

A heavily denimed hour of straight-faced New Zealand bogan comedy.

The late Ewen Gilmour leans entirely into his Westie persona to deliver straight-faced bogan observations. The set is self-styled as his “not-so-special,” working as a pure distillation of his specific flavor of New Zealand cultural pride. Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey even stops by the Pulp Comedy stage to present the comic with a literal coathanger to the city.

Filmed in 2001, Gilmour covers hyper-local and broadly absurd territory. He outlines the logistical benefits of having a goatee, delivers an ode to hitchhiking, and argues that George Mallory beat Sir Edmund Hillary to the summit of Everest. Other tangents cover stoned semen, westie Halloween, and treating the SPCA as a cattery.

The broadcast captures the comedian at an odd point in his career. The same year this aired, he gave a newspaper interview threatening to quit stand-up entirely due to the financial grind, going so far as to raffle off a wood-paneled 1970 Singer Vogue car during a festival run. He ultimately stuck around, continuing to perform in denim for another decade.

The set list

8 bits
  1. Receiving the coathanger to the city

    Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey presents Gilmour with the coathanger to the city as Cultural Ambassador.

  2. An ode to hitchhiking

  3. George Mallory's claims to have beaten Hillary

  4. The love-making benefits of a goatee

  5. Flying high and stoned semen

  6. Westie Halloween

  7. Using the SPCA as a cattery

  8. Barbs on cerebral palsy and the Avon River

How it plays

Tone
Warm-hearted, self-deprecating bogan humor.
On stage
Self-described Westie delivering warm-hearted bogan barbs.
About
West Auckland, Westie culture, Hitchhiking, Sexuality and grooming

Backstory

An episode of the stand-up showcase series 'Pulp Comedy' celebrating Gilmour's West Auckland identity, featuring Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey presenting his Cultural Ambassador with the coathanger to the city.

Details

Released
Where
TV3 (New Zealand)
Topics

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