Her solo show, "Heritage 101", was awarded Best Show Concept at the Oddfellows NZ International Comedy Festival in 2005, during which time she also hosted the Comedy Convoy throughout NZ. Other recent festivals include the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe and the 2004 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and every NZ International Comedy Festival since it's inception 12 years ago.
Michele is the winner of the NZ Comedy Guild Awards as Best Female Comedian 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, and was a regular on television’s Pulp Comedy for the past nine years. She hosted the Laugh! Festival Big Comedy Gala 2000 on TV2, has hosted the female comedians' showcase Divas annually in both Auckland and Wellington, and hosted New Zealand’s comedy Oscars, The Billy T Awards on TV2 in 1998. Her earlier work is currently screening on the Comedy Channel in Australia.
She has several years’ experience of performing at corporate functions as a host and entertainer. Michèle has several times presented the NZ Chamber Music Awards, and the NZ Tourism Awards where her “professionalism, expertise and wit” as MC were acknowledged as “major factors in the success” of the events. Other clients have included finance brokers, publishers, travel companies, secondary school teachers, truck drivers, pharmaceutical companies and produce growers. She has performed in many celebrity debates and many are repeat performances.
With a degree in English Literature and Drama (1983), Michèle was for two years the Auckland Correspondent for the highbrow "Sunday" radio programme, and is a regular book reviewer on National Radio's Nine till Noon programme, and social commentator on the Panel with Jim Mora. She also appears twice weekly on VivaFM with Simon Dallow. With a NZ Certificate in Journalism (1979) she’s a freelance journalist for a number of national magazines and newspapers including Next, On Holiday, She, Pet, Bride & Groom, and a columnist for NZ Political Review.
In 2003, Michèle toured New Zealand in the sell-out, big theatre season of the stage play, "Mum's the Word" (Volcanic Productions) alongside international actors Blythe Duff (Taggart) and Victoria Alcock (Bad Girls), and NZ actors Jackie Clarke, Tahei Simpson (the Matrix) and Rebecca Hobbs (Shortland Street).
Michèle visited East Timor in March 2001 where she entertained NZ and United Nations troops - an experience she described as “life-changing and world-expanding”. In January 2002, Michèle performed a special workshop and show for the teenage Afghani refugees rescued from the Tampa.
As a television scriptwriter, Michele completed an animated children’s programme, “Tamatoa the Brave Warrior”, which screened on TV2. She has also been a scriptwriter for Shortland Street, NZ's most successful long-running soap, and has contributed to a number of television sketch comedy shows as both a writer and comic actor.
She is the President of the NZ Comedy Guild and on the Board of the NZ Comedy Trust which administers the annual International Comedy Festival in New Zealand. For her work in supporting and assisting comedians, Michèle won the Best Industry Friend Award 2003 from the NZ Comedy Guild.
Television credits include: What Now?, the Video Dispatch, Pulp Comedy, Shortland Street, A Bit After Ten, Strassman, Kiwi Shorts, Letter to Blanchy, Issues, Comedy Central, That Comedy Show, Really Living, a regular slot in 1998 as a rugby reporter for Friday Night Football on Sky Sport, and an endless list of game shows such as Ready Steady Cook and Give Us a Clue.
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Testimonials
"Fabulous! She was talked about all weekend!"
- Kerry Tilby - Exult Ltd
"French and Saunders all rolled into one… cajoling the audience along on a journey, combined with biting wit and sarcasm…"
– Dominion Post
"Right on the button… truly insightful… What more could you ask for?"
– Capital Times
“Sassy... confident... snide... outrageous and probably libellous...”
- NZ Herald
“Tight, taut, and very, very funny.”
- Bay of Plenty Times
"Effortless style…"
- Dominion Post
“A’Court shot straight from the lip and came out swinging... clearly the crowd favourite.”
- Otago Daily Times
“Comedy that packed a punch... One of the top shows of the Fringe.”
- Capital Times
“Finally, a show that lives up to its publicity... Talented performer... perceptive student of the human condition.”
- Daily Telegraph
“Hits the ground running a comical gauntlet of innuendo and punchy improvising that quickly builds a rapport with the audience.” - Dominion “Has personality to burn...”
- Capital Times
“Masterful... Willingness to tackle controversial political issues with confidence and flair... Seasoned and talented professional... What a good stand-up show should do.”
- Salient
"No topic was too taboo for A'Court, from politics… to her ex-husband. The beauty myth, botox and liposuction got serves worthy of Pete Sampras."
– Otago Daily Times
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