Reviews
Here are some of our favourite reviews for Heidi O’Loughlin and Rose Matafeo in ‘A Guide to the Uncool’ – part of the 2009 NZ International Comedy Festival…
Lumière Reader
“IT’S COOL to be uncool – or is it? Everything about A Guide To The Uncool (The Basement, May 19-23) was quirky, twee and superbly hilarious. From the comic strip programme sheet to the gimmicky deadpan opening act by an apparently “12-year-old” Joseph Harper and the random strumming of Brendon Green between skits, the very “trendy” Heidi O’Loughlin and Rose Matafeo take you through a journey of what is uncool and cool in style, drugs, dating, music and day time TV. Opening night nervousness aside, these girls kept the comedy going with snazzy visual aids and well timed, refreshing comedy. The scheduled randomness of the night continued with a little Michael Jackson action, although I wish I wasn’t caught in the cross fire (bag-of-crisps projectile smacked face). A nicely put together performance by a new crop of young talents that culminates in the happy conclusion that it is neither cool to be uncool nor uncool to be cool. My happiest hour spent this week.”
TVNZ
“Between the two of them, Heidi and Rose have a plethora of awards (Spirit of the Festival 2008 and Best Actress in the 48hr Film Festival 2008 respectively) that should wipe any doubt from your mind about whether seeing the one-hour “action-packed adventure lecture” is worth heading out on a typically drizzly Auckland evening.
Fortunately, they deliver on their promises and the hour is certainly action-packed. They propel you through time (some very entertaining blasts from the past), space and other such dimensions.
Perhaps your only knowledge of Heidi and Rose are the posters and fliers dotted around Auckland City with the More-Cool-Than-Uncool handwritten title- complete with hearts above the ‘i’s. If this is the case it would be a gross error in judgment to think that this guide to making the right decisions on your road to coolness is only applicable to Heidi and Rose’s peers.
There is advice and references to icons of ‘Cool’ and ‘Uncool’ (MacGyver’s mullet, Donnie and Marie’s questionable relationship) that spans the ages.
Complete with Power Point slides, the pair shows commitment to their concept that this is an adventure-lecture and they leave no stone unturned. From music through to romance, they offer up their advice on cool and also let us make some decisions of our own- what is our stance on dance-battles?
Heidi and Rose have a killer dynamic and you sense that they feed off each other when finding the funny in life and popular culture. It is unsurprising that Rose won best actress in the 48hr Film Festival because she is faultless in her delivery of every line- particularly an exceptionally funny interlude of art-house theatre.
Sometimes an hour of comedy can grow tedious but this is absolutely not the case with Heidi and Rose’s: A Guide to the Uncool. They keep you riveted and surprised from beginning to end.”
Coup de Main
“I was assigned to cover the Comedy Festival and things got a bit carried away on me. Suddenly I found myself with four shows to cover and only a few more festival days to do it in.
In one deft, fell swoop… I managed to tee up three shows, back-to-back in one night. I called it the Comedython 5000.
Hilarious, isn’t it?
The night began with a wretched last-minute run to the CBD, to catch Heidi and Rose’s ‘A GUIDE TO THE UNCOOL‘, at The Basement. The Basement is a cool venue with a bar out front, that has graffiti’d walls and bright pink lightbulbs. It’s the kind of place where you’d expect to bump into a Lost-Boys-era Kiefer Sutherland, who would use that deliciously wrinkled smirk of his to coerce you into stealing a 40 of gin, getting on the back of his motorbike and hiding out under the Avondale Railway bridge, before revealing to you that he was a TEENAGE VAMPIRE!
But I digress.
By the time I got in (creeping into comedy shows late is SO not fashionable), Heidi and Rose were in full swing. Then somebody handed me a plastic bag which, in the darkness felt like either marijuana buds or scroggin. I briefly contemplated a taste test, but decided against it. Meanwhile, Heidi and Rose were on fire. There’s a reason why these two wunderkinds have been the talk of the town during the festival…
Delivering a hilariously matter-of-fact seminar on the labyrinth that is ‘cool’, the girls had the crowd in hysterics. The kind of piss-your-pantsery that you remember from your circle-of-friends high school days. Enlisting the help of their borderline musician friend on side of stage, plus voice-overs and hilariously low-fi visuals, ‘A GUIDE TO THE UNCOOL’ was literally a comedy feast. Entirely unpretentious, delivered with hot shazam by two chicks with moxy.
These girls are funny. FUN-NY. Not many people can hold your attention for a full hour, let alone be funny for an hour… But Heidi and Rose packed in a mardi-gras, complete with their brilliant theatre-piece about awkward woman mechanics, a genius parody shanty on ukulele… and a FULLY CHOREOGRAPHED 80’S HIT DANCE.
Literally, everything you could ask for.”
