“The bit about it that made me laugh the most is that I'd written a big joke about my dad having a crush on Kate Winslet in Titanic, which I remember so specifically,” he says. Peter told Eli, now 32, the night before he opened his 2017 festival show, titled The Year of Magical F. He went silent on me, didn't talk to me for a day, and then the next day, he was like, ‘let's go out for dinner,’ and he's been very supportive ever since then. “Going back to that moment, he was going through so much more in his mind than: 'My son is gay’,” Eli says. “It was a complete surprise,” he says, “but made everything click into place as well” – in particular, the moment he came out to dad Peter Matthewson. The Christchurch-raised comedian understands that reaction all too well. * New series Funny As celebrates New Zealand comedy * YouTube star Lele Pons recalls walking in on her dad sleeping with another man * These are the funniest people in New Zealand, according to the experts In a recording of the show, gasps are audible around the room as Eli, with a sly smile, reveals the news. Where it truly soars, however, is in Eli’s deft blending of humour and pathos, which mostly hinges on a key bombshell that arrives roughly two-thirds of the way into the show: that ten years after Eli came out to his dad, his dad came out to him.
