28 Apr 2021
Artist Profile: Meet Tim Batt
'Classy Warfare' is Tim Batt's new hour of stand-up comedy. His show will bring comfort to the afflicted, afflict the comfortable and above all – bring world-class comedy to audiences at the 2021 NZ Int. Comedy Festival.
He describes his ideal audience as “anyone interested in building a guillotine for their landlord”. His material delivers bright and insightful humour with a dark, intelligent edge. And in case you’re wondering, his politics are simple: rich people should be taxed more, poor people helped more, and more drugs for everyone.
Now in his thirties, as a teenager he witnessed the rise of comedians such as Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Ben Hurley and Dai Henwood starting from weekday gigs at the San Fran in Wellington - and Batt was curious to take the stage. Like other ventures in his life, it was a feeling of ‘I'm at least as good as the worst guy doing this, so I'm gonna give it a go’ - so he did, when he was 18. And like others who escaped their teens without video evidence, he’s grateful he got his start before an audience of iPhones captured his initial work. Batt’s early days saw him gigging at The Classic then waking up for a 4.30am BMX-based commute into his day-job producing breakfast radio at Solid Gold FM. His call to pursue comedy full-time came from a strong opposition to someone else determining 40 hours of his week.
As a self confessed nerd with a low attention span, he's transformed into a creative Swiss-army knife over the last 10 years of full-time comedy-making. He’s created some seriously funny work across multiple platforms, honing his technical craft alongside his comedic prowess. He’s been twice nominated for the Billy T Award - the most prestigious honour for emerging talent in New Zealand Comedy, as well as creating his own podcast network that housed the podcast-turned-TVNZ-series The Male Gayz hosted by Chris Parker and Eli Matthewson, and performing his stand-up to sold out audiences both locally and internationally.
Batt is also the creator of the international cult-hit podcast 'The Worst Idea of All Time' with co-host Guy Montgomery. The two met at U Late, broadcast on the now defunct TVNZ U Channel, with Batt’s Loo Review segment, evaluating and rating public restrooms. Pairing up for further paling around, the comedy duo found success in an equally absurd concept for the podcast series - reviewing the same film every week for 52 weeks. The podcast has racked up over 18million downloads, has toured internationally to sold-out shows in the US, Australia and UK - and saw the pair commissioned to create a YouTube pilot that has seen tens of thousands of views and has been met with overwhelming praise.
