‘The Great Debate’

Press, 13 July 1985, Page 8

‘The Great Debate’

“The Great Debate and Comedy Show” debating the motion “That Torvill and Dean are morally indefensible.” Theatre Royal, Friday, July 12, 8 p.m. Reviewed by Carole van Grandelle. Some of New Zealand’s finest stand-up comics delighted a capacity audience at the Theatre Royal last evening with a range of bawdy pub humour. The Great Debate was to consider the motion “That Torvill and Dean are morally indefensible. It was Liz Grant of the “Mainland Touch” who as compere set the tone of the evening by posing the question, “Did they do it and did they do it to each other?” Thus the debaters took

the opportunity to twist old jokes into lewd new ones and to assassinate their opponents’ characters. Waitemata’s Mayor and “the radical’s radical,” Tim Shadbolt, opened the Great Debate for the affirmative in true auctioneer’s style. With him spoke the cartoonist, Tom Scott, in good scathing form, and the poet, Gary McCormack, a natural with the audience after his years of pub performances. Chris McVeigh, a Christchurch lawyer, led the local team with A. K. Grant. A surprise to the line-up was David McPhail, dressed in drag on entering, who had had half an hour’s notice to take the place of Karyn

Hay, stopped by fog at Wellington Airport. McVeigh replied in flamboyant style, McPhail gave the audience side-splitting renditions of Lange, McLay, Douglas, and Ann Hercus in brilliant impromptu fashion, and Grant, dressed in conspicuous red shirt and blue sweater (in comparison with the others’ tuxedos), spoke in defence of the purity of Torvill’s thighs. According to the audience applause the debate was a draw. The base humour and clever political innuendo common to both sides were the hit of the evening, but whether they herald the new image of New Zealand culture out on its own is still debatable.