Charlotte Thronton reviews Guy Williams: Rich People Are Stealing From You, at Little Andromeda, Monday 9 November 2026.
Guy Williams is good with people. He found his ideal format with the Jono & Ben spin-off New Zealand Today, where he interviews regular Kiwis about local incidents that are simultaneously mundane and bizarre. Williams hunts for the Invercargill Pool Pooper, investigates match fixing at a mascot race, and interviews the real Jim of Jim’s Mowing fame. In my favourite episode, Williams abandons a story about a long-unsold Feilding house to instead follow the trail of two teenagers who believe Marton’s chicken and chips are the best in the country (but not the world). New Zealand Today proves that Williams is a man of the people.
Rich People Are Stealing From You is a show for the people. Williams tells us he’s been radicalised over the last year or so – if you’ve been paying attention, you probably have too. He’s pissed with the state of the world and particularly the state of our world leaders. When I saw his 10-minute set at the Best Foods Comedy Gala back in May, most of his time was spent yelling about the fuckwits who run this country. Rich People Are Stealing From You is an hour-long expansion of that set, with a new PowerPoint about the history of economics to sell the audience on the titular idea.
Despite the PowerPoint, the show is far from a lecture. Rich People Are Stealing From You is a rather loose affair, with even Williams acknowledging at one point that the various threads don’t always weave together. He gets off-track talking about his football kit collection and leaves the PowerPoint behind altogether; the rest of the show is about basketball and condiments. It’s all great stuff, but the title only holds up till the end if you really cling to mayonnaise as a Marxist metaphor. Williams’ Little Andromeda audience is consistently supportive and would probably have followed him down even his angriest train of thought.
Williams’ interactions with that audience are further evidence that he is fantastic with people. He meets his nerdy collection match in an Air New Zealand fanatic who may have obtained suspicious merchandise. Much like the Feilding-Marton switchup of New Zealand Today, Williams fails to locate one of his neurodivergent ‘genius fans’ from the Taskmaster NZ following and instead meets a police firearms officer, which sends Williams on an excellent crowdwork spin about being on a first date. Williams is at his best when caught off guard, so crowdwork is his superpower: he can talk to anyone about anything and it just works.
All-crowdwork shows are becoming more popular these days, led by American comedians like Jeff Arcuri and Matteo Lane, and the Dropout stand-up series Crowd Control. That format works, and it would work especially well in an intimate comedy club space like Little Andromeda. Williams would be the best candidate for it. If he can get just two words out of an audience member – “yes” and “no” – and make the interaction hysterically funny, then he’s safe to ditch the PowerPoint and focus on the people.
Guy Williams: Rich People Are Stealing From You runs at Little Andromeda until Wednesday 11 November, with an extra show added but limited tickets left.
