Finalists Announced For 2025 Comedy Fest's Fred Award For Best New Zealand Show
Named in honour of the late comedy icon John Clarke's legendary Kiwi character Fred Dagg, The Fred Award was introduced in 2006 and recognises the Comedy Festival's Best Show by a New Zealand comedian. Previous winners have included Rose Matafeo, Guy Montgomery, Dai Henwood, James Nokise, Chris Parker, Rhys Darby and the 2024 reigning winners Barnie Duncan & Trygve Wakenshaw with their show Different Party.
The standard has been incredibly high across the Festival and the panel had long discussions to create the shortlist of three finalists.
The Fred Award finalists for 2025 are:
For the first time, all of this year's Fred finalists are women, an exciting milestone that celebrates the creativity and contributions of wāhine across the comedy industry. All three have also previously won the coveted Billy T Award, Angella in 2017, Melanie in 2018 and Abby in 2023.
'This year's Fred Award finalists represent the very best of what comedy in Aotearoa can be, fearless, distinctive, and brilliantly funny. It's a proud moment to see these wāhine, all previous Billy T Award winners, take centre stage in a lineup that's both historic and deeply deserved.' says Lauren Whitney, Chief Executive, New Zealand Comedy Trust.
The Fred Award winner will receive a $5,000 cash grant from the New Zealand Comedy Trust. The Trust's vision and purpose is to champion the craft of comedy so everyone can share a laugh, and are the producers of the Festival.
The final show of the Festival tomorrow, Last Laughs is hosted by 2021 Fred Award winner Eli Matthewson. Head along to celebrate the best of the festival at Last Laughs from 7PM at SKYCITY, and see performances from the Fred Award finalists, alongside the 2025 Billy T Award nominees, David Stuart, Hoani Hotene, Lesa MacLeod-Whiting, Booth the Clown & Jak Darling, and Itay Dom. Witness who will be honoured with the prestigious Billy T Award Yellow Towel and The Fred Award's Golden Gumboot and the official gifting of the Topp Prize to James Nokise. Making a special appearance as this year's headline act is Tofiga.
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A new children's series is giving tamariki Māori the chance to take the pilot's seat, using drone technology to see their marae and tūrangawaewae from a different angle. The 10-part digital series Fly My Pepeha - produced by Rotorua-based Natives On Screen - is the first kids show to use FPV (First Person View) drone technology. It features different tamariki in each episode, sharing stories of their whānau, iwi, marae, maunga, awa and rohe. Producer Lilly Jordan (Te Arawa) said Fly My Pepeha began by combining their passion for drone technology with creating content that would appeal to her two te reo Māori-speaking tamariki, "Both of our kids are very technically savvy, they're into, like a lot of tamariki their age, into innovation into technology and IT, but there's not a lot of options for reo Māori content in those spaces." Each of the series 10 episodes features different tamariki sharing the stories of their home and getting the chance to put on the goggles and see it for the themselves from above. One of Fly My Pepeha's main narrators - 13-year-old Moko Peni from Rotorua. Photo: Supplied/Natives on Screen Jordan said one of her favourites was when they traveled into the rohe (region) of Tūhoe. "Just seeing our tamaiti there really come alive when she saw her awa in a completely different perspective from the sky. And just seeing a kid that would normally be really quiet become really animated and excited to see her whenua and to see her awa." Drone pilot George Jordan said the best reaction probably came from Moko Peni, the narrator of episode one. "[We] went up to Mount Tarawera and we did a big fly around of the crater up there, big high dives and coming down the cliff faces and stuff. Just watching him buzz out on that was pretty cool." The team had the chance to film in different locales across the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Rotorua and down to Taupō. George said his favourite vista was at Raukokore in the eastern Bay of Plenty. "I just love flying spots that nobody has ever flown," he said. George Jordan testing out the drone behind the scenes of Fly My Pepeha. Photo: Supplied/Natives on Screen Lilly Jordan said her favourite view was flying over the crater of Mount Tarawera. "Even for us as adults exploring our whenua that way with our kids was awesome," she said. The crew was 100 percent Māori, predominantly from the Te Arawa region where there is a really filmmaking base, she said. "We're all parents, we all have reo Māori speaking kids, but for all of us the highlight was seeing all of our tamariki get excited about reengaging with their whenua and their marae and doing that at speed from the sky." Right from the outset, the kids guided the crew on the kōrero they wanted to share and how they wanted to express their love for their whenua, she said. All parts of the story are told from the tamariki perspective and the crew were just there to capture it. George Jordan said all the tamariki they worked with were awesome, and none were intimidated by the drone's eight motors and eight-inch blades. "It's a very, very big drone, could be quite intimidating, but none of them really were scared of it, they embraced it." Lilly Jordan said it seems that some of the kids want to carry on working behind and in front of the camera. "So we're hoping that it's something that leads to them pursuing storytelling for themselves in the future. Another thing that we're doing, that we've just started of the side of Fly My Pepeha is we've created a charitable trust called Te Rereao Trust, and so that's about creating education pathways for our tamariki into the screen industries and also into drone operation." "FPV is a pretty niche market, there's not many pilots out there so I want to get as many Māori speaking FPV pilots into the hobby," George Jordan added. Lilly Jordan was hopeful that whānau around the country and living overseas away from their homes will be able to watch Fly My Pepeha and reconnect with their whenua. Fly My Pepeha is spoken entirely in te reo Māori, with English subtitles, the series is also being translated into Mandarin and Spanish. It is available to watch on the Māori+ app and Air New Zealand have picked up the series to be on flights around the world. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
