A white­board greets us at the top of the stairs of BATS’ Dome Theatre.

10am – Dan­cing with Craig (R18). It reads. 1.45pm – Knit­ting with Craig (R18), then 8pm – Dave & Bry­an Impov Thing.

And that is what we’re here to see (though I am par­tic­u­larly taken by the concept of 12.45pm – Autopsy for Begin­ners.)

We’re at the “Hataitai Bowl­ing Club” for an even­ing with our two hosts Dave (Aus­tin Har­ris­on) and Bry­an (Dylan Hut­ton), two middle-aged Kiwi dudes who just really want to use their vast exper­i­ence and priv­ilege to help solve the prob­lems of us com­mon folk. One’s a charter boat own­er, the oth­er runs ebikes on Wel­ling­ton’s water­front, but togeth­er, they’ve got a wealth of know­ledge to make all our lives bet­ter. Win­ning Octo­ber­’s Late Night Knife Fight last year, the show is back, full length and packed full of famil­i­ar improv games that delight and amuse.

Look, you know the show’s fant­ast­ic, you’ve seen who’s in it. Both Har­ris­on and Hut­ton are vet­er­ans of the Wel­ling­ton per­form­ance scene, bring­ing joy and charm to gigs across the city for a hand­ful of years now, and have phe­nom­en­al rap­port as per­formers, boun­cing off each oth­er excel­lently through premise after ridicu­lous premise. For a show that relies a lot on its audi­ence, the ask-fors nev­er feel stag­nant and we are gently chauf­feured through any moments of audi­ence inter­ac­tion – some­thing that I’m per­son­ally always trep­id­a­tious about!

Some par­tic­u­lar high­lights for me dur­ing this show included: Har­ris­on mak­ing it through the word “diver­ticu­lit­is” while speak­ing in a par­tic­u­larly heavy French accent, Hut­ton’s abso­lutely ridicu­lous stature as a “Milo vam­pire”, and a scene about fam­ily polit­ics pre­faced with, “Sorry for what you’re about to see,” though believe me, I was gig­gling in my seat through­out.

The endear­ing “will they, won’t they” push-pull of this per­form­ance duo is high­lighted through­out – neither per­former feels par­tic­u­larly like they’re act­ing as the lead­er, with the stage very well bal­anced for the dur­a­tion of the piece. This well-hewn chem­istry is one of the true draw­cards of the work – even in moments where there are stumbles or jokes don’t land as expec­ted (hey, it’s improv!), the charm of the per­formers and their banter with the audi­ence is a sol­id con­stant. I just really enjoy watch­ing per­formers who get on well per­form with each oth­er, okay?

Gabe (Matt Hut­ton), is a very gif­ted 14-year old pian­ist who needs to be home by 9pm, and he provides a whim­sic­al back­ing to each scene, while Scotty (Scott Max­im) is on the lights, and gifts us with the final ask-for of the night – a little spiel about how he ripped his pants for the second time this week – which Dave and Bry­an turn into a bat­shit non­sense song to close out the show. Both pro­duc­tion roles are wholly incor­por­ated into the nar­rat­ive itself, and often cause laughs of their own.

Pudgy Mediocre White Men Solve Your Prob­lems is (mostly)-duo improv at its best. Nev­er does the format feel grat­ing or too appar­ent, and the skill of the per­formers with their mas­tery of the audi­ence is such a delight to be part of. Magic has been made in Haitaitai Bowl­ing Club this week – and it’s some­thing you’ve got to get in on too.