There was a lot of firepower on stage at the sold out Great Auckland Pride Debate that took place Monday 18 February. Power emcee Steven Oates and Paul Rose created an Auckland Pride event that blended the worlds of comedy and politics and produced a classy, witty, hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable affair that raised both spirits and $2500 for Rainbow Youth.

Oates kicked things off with a dynamite opening routine that set the mood – clever, quick comedy with a bite.

“Team Jacinda” vs “Team Nikki” with the moot – Marriage is a Queer Notion. It was a subject everyone agreed on, but that was beside the point. Comedy was what was happening and boy did it happen.

On Team Nikki: Curmudgeonly boisterous Jan Maree, ex-National candidate Claudette Hauti who brought a dose of soul to the proceedings and of course Kaye herself who gave a fiery turn on the mike.

On Team Jacinda: Green MP Jan Logie (who did a pretty good number with a wedding veil) and Urzila Carlson, a trash talking hilarion from South Africa who trilled a no-BS and killer routine, dropping the f* bomb like tiddlywinks.

But the real belle of the ball was Jacinda Ardern, fortunately poured into a white lace wedding dress.

Now she’s a damn good MP – fair, compassionate and intelligent – but wait until you see her do comedy. I asked her afterwards who wrote her material and she credited a friend with helping her but said most of it was self-written, which is just ridiculous when you consider how really good her jokes were. And forget the delivery. People work for years on this shit in the hopes of being that good and she just got up there and killed it.  Sickening (that’s sickening good, btw)!

The three-judge panel of glam Taro Patch, equally glam Verity George and Campbell Orr gave the win to Team Jacinda on a night that grew so raucous that noise control even made an appearance. These are the kind of out-of-the-box affairs that Auckland needs and we hope to see much more in the future from producers Steven Oates and Paul Rose.

| Kacie Stetson