Hell is for the comedians _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

What would you do if you woke up in Hell with the Devil screaming at you to come up with three minutes of jokes for their entertainment? Cry? Tell knock knock jokes? Or even worse, tell a dad joke? For the upcoming comedy showcase Three Minutes in Hell on the 30^th of March at The Fringe Bar, a group of 15 comedians are voluntarily subjecting themselves to the torture of coming up with fresh material about a set topic.

Hosted by Daniel John Smith and Anya Rzhevitskaya, the (un)lucky 15 comedians are chosen from a pool and given one to two weeks to write about a topic – this month’s is foolishness. Despite the gruelling process of generating new jokes, past participants have expressed their love for the event, saying the show “pushes them to think about new things”.

Producer and host Daniel has performed his shows Children & Other Mistakes and Big Dumb Cats at the Dunedin Fringe, New Zealand International Comedy Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was voted Best Comedian at the Wellington Comedy Awards in 2015 and in 2021. Host Anya has been nominated for “a slew of awards she has so far refused to win”. In addition to the two super-hosts, Booth the Clown [pictured] – recent Best Up and Comer at the Wellington Comedy Awards – will feature in the Seven Minutes in Heaven spot at the end of the show.

Don your flame-retardant overalls because these comedians are coming in hot.