Steph Walker reviews Keith Preene’s Golden Goose Bingo, presented as part of the World Buskers Festival in the James Hay Auditorium, Friday 31 January, 2025.
Every year during the festive season I’ve seen Keith Preene calendars hit the market – the long-time Rolleston native’s annual chance to really show off his protrusions and personality. Preene has been hosting his Golden Goose Bingo nights for over a decade now, and after a long hiatus from the big rooms and the Buskers Festival, he hits the James Hay Theatre stage to call the game for 750 people. I finally get to see the man, the myth, the legend. It’s obvious he has a lot of fans in the house, and he knows how to use their energy throughout the night.
Preene emerges onto the stage in a whiff of smoke, dressed in a glorious black and gold tux, and a pair of New Balance re-issues that I’m pretty sure my dad had in the 90s. He is the alter ego of stalwart comedian Shay Horay, and you can see the love Shay has for Preene throughout the night. The audience, too, find him massively endearing. Preene tells the sort of jokes you might hear from your Dad or Uncle and groan, but when Keith Preene tells them, you laugh heartily.
We’re here because we love bingo, says Preene. We receive bingo cards on arrival but pens were at a premium, with many a personal bag looted for whatever might make a mark – surely Venues Ōtautahi could have thrown a couple of boxes to their theatre team? Preene makes light of it. A woman behind me realises she’s forgotten her reading glasses. The woman next to me gives up at the interval and just watches proceedings.
The bingo is called from Keith’s house, beautifully realised on one side of the stage with the invisible wall quickly becoming a running gag for the evening. The kitchen set, much like old mate Preene, harks back to a few decades ago. The walls are decorated with yellow and brown patterned wallpaper, and decorated with images of Christ, Preene as a baby and some questionable taxidermy. Formica tables and a few key retro pieces finish off the decor. Here, he settles in with his bingo set up and off we go… then we stop. Postie Gary (a typically lackadaisical cameo by Jonathan Brugh) is here to deliver Temu boxes, and turns out to be a bit of a fan, as we learn through his repeated visits. Off we go on bingo again… Then we stop. At one point Preene gives us a contemporary dance number and it’s a busker’s classic – lip-sync, costume change, hilarity.
The thing about having a real live game of bingo at the heart of the show is that all the best laid plans get sidetracked. Many things go wrong in the show. Some on purpose, others less so, but Horay deals with them all incredibly well. Some of the audience get the game wrong and, as Preene puts it, are swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool. When it happens again, the audience are incredulous. By the time someone calls BINGO we’re all ready for it… but the cocky young guy lied, and we go back to playing again. It’s about here the energy in the room drops and we’re all just gagging for a winner. Preene too, I sense. In the end four people get bingo, and they settle who wins with a very Kiwi pub tradition – a game of darts.
I can see why Keith Preene is an enduring and endearing character. Despite the drawn out bingo his dodgy charm, especially with audience volunteer Mel, is lovely to watch. There is a lot going on, all the time. A mildly unhinged chaotic energy surrounds the evening in quite glorious way, but at times from the back of the 750 strong audience I wasn’t sure I was fully a part of it… until the bingo started back up. Preene is constantly addressing the audience, but with a crowd that big it’s hard to get us all feeling included. Some further crowd work or interaction down in the aisles wouldn’t have gone astray, but perhaps would have tipped that chaotic energy over into dangerous territory.
Horay has gone all out for this big theatre version of Golden Goose Bingo, both with set and supporting characters. While a Jonathan Brugh cameo is always a lovely thing, Gary the Postie felt more like a security blanket for Horay than a necessary part of the show. Like the many faces of Preene that we see in the iconic calendars, Horay’s portrayal is changeable through the night – you sense that Preene used to say way more naughty things and be a little more risque. He pulls slick moves, then shuffles occasionally – perhaps more a sign that Preene is aging more than anything else?
The jokes are often not for the faint hearted. Shane Jones would love them, I reckon. But we’ve been set up for this from the start – we stand for the national anthem, sung in English only (such an anomaly now, with Te Reo Māori taking the lead everywhere else). Preene chugs on Rheineck cans (a beer, not craft) and longs for a Rothman (a cigarette). This is white culture, ‘Kiwi’ culture, even, where dinner is a lot of sausage rolls and the top prize for the bingo is a Platinum Meat Pack from Beckenham Butchery. Preene gets away with the jokes because he’s reflective of an era and an ilk where we almost expect them.
Preene, or should I say Horay, is a much-needed local legend in the new look Buskers Festival, which is finally looking to programme hometown favourites rather than shipping in an all-international line up. I’d love to play bingo with Keith “The Numbers” Preene again, although I think I’d much prefer it in a more intimate setting where I can smell his Brut. Horay literally throws the kitchen sink at the show, but all we really needed was lovable old Keith and his bingo balls.
The World Buskers Festival edition of Keith Preene’s Golden Goose Bingo was a one night only affair, You can learn more about Keith Preene and buy some of his merch here.
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