I attended Samantha Hannah’s show on Tuesday night with high expectations, and she did not disappoint.

For those who don’t know her, Samantha Hannah is a Billy T Award nominee who’s been turning life’s oddities into comedy for years. In 2018, she garnered a lot of attention with her show How to Find a Husband in a Year, a concept born from her real-life attempt to find a partner. By 2019, she had followed it up with How to Find Happiness (in a Year), a witty and self-aware exploration of reclaiming happiness after grief that earned her a spot in the top 10 for the Funny Women Best Show award. Now, seven months pregnant and balancing motherhood, work, and stand-up, she brings her latest show, Peekaboo!, to the NZ International Comedy Festival, and it’s a solid hit.

The premise for this show is that Samantha is reinventing herself as a touring children’s entertainer. In keeping with the theme, the stage is set like an interactive children’s TV programme. Her easygoing charm made it comfortable for us to join her on a chaotic interpretation of children’s entertainment for adults, complete with props, toys, and storytelling that never quite worked out as intended, even putting out a New Zealand icon to roast.

Samantha is exceptionally talented at comedic storytelling. She has a way of drawing you into the narrative with a real gift for crafting imagery that pulls you into the moment. For this reason, I would say she didn’t really need to supplement it with the photos to complement the storytelling, as we were already with her. However, I did very much enjoy the videos of her baby Charlie and clips from the home security system, which brought hilarity to the sweet and mundane of everyday life on maternity leave.

While the show centres on parenthood, it’s far from exclusive. Non-parents (like me) will still have a great time. Hannah has an impressive way of being relatable to anyone in her audience through raw honesty, with punchlines that deliver dark and outrageous twists.

Samantha Hannah’s Peekaboo! is well-crafted and engaging, weaving personal experiences into a broader commentary on parenthood, work, and identity without ever feeling heavy-handed. She tackled the chaos of balancing motherhood, a full-time job, and stand-up with humour that felt authentic and relatable.

Make sure you get your tickets! This is a show that you’ll be guaranteed to leave with a smile on your face.

 

 

Review by Nadia Freeman