Grab your bingo card and get ready for The World Buskers Festival

Brush up on your bingo lingo because your favourite host, Keith "The Numbers" Preene, is returning to Christchurch.

Mega meat packs, stand-up comedy, and of course a spot of bingo are all on the cards in the show Keith Preene's Golden Goose Bingo, which will hit the Isaac Theatre Royal during the 2017 World Buskers Festival.

The annual festival opens on January 19 and runs until January 29. The 2017 programme, featuring 55 performers, has the tagline "Taking Back the Streets". It is moving back to the old days of being on streets around the city instead of its temporary post-quake home in North Hagley Park.

Preene is the alter ego of Christchurch performer Shay Horay, who is excited about performing his show in a big venue in his hometown.

“To get the chance to play the Theatre Royal and have everyone come and watch - it’s going to be a celebration.''

Horay says this version of the show, which he first developed about eight years ago, will be a revamped, deluxe edition befitting the glamorous surroundings of the Isaac Theatre Royal auditorium. A new set is being built and the production values are going to “go through the roof”. “Everything is going to be about 200 per cent bigger. It’s going to be pretty spectacular.”

There’s a beer-meets-fireworks “beerotechnics extravaganza” – where a chilly bin full of cans of Rheineck explodes to music - and the promise of a mega platinum meat pack prize for a lucky bingo winner.

Keith Preene is inspired by television gameshow hosts of the 1970 and 80s heyday such as Selwyn Toogood, Horay says. He’s a character who had his first taste of fame on the Caroline Bay Soundshell stage and is now settled in the “big smoke” of Rolleston.

“He rates himself as a Kiwi icon. He can push boundaries but he’s generally pretty likeable, and he likes to do a bit of dancing now and then,” Horay says.

Horay himself is currently honing his skills at a theatre school in Melbourne which focuses on character development as well as clowning techniques. All of his shows are character driven, with the exception of his other stage identity, Rubber Band Boy. As Rubber Band Boy he set a new Guinness World Record in 2010 for the number of rubber bands stretched over his face – it was an impressive 71.

Horay was born in Timaru and has been a full-time performer since he was a teenager, touring festivals in Europe, Britain, Australia and Canada. He plans to take Keith Preene’s Golden Goose Bingo to Britain next year.

It will be Horay’s 20th anniversary year of taking part in the World Buskers Festival, which makes him a nearly 38-year-old veteran. As well as performing his own show, Horay will be hosting Comedy Club nights during the festival at another venue.

He has fond memories of the Isaac Theatre Royal and remembers looking out at a full house when he made his debut as an 18-year-old in Canterbury Operatic’s production of Hair 20 years ago.

On that occasion he was naked and covered in glow in the dark paint while doing somersaults on a net.

He says Keith Preene will be (mostly) decently clad, apart from his figure-hugging, gold dancing pants. “He doesn’t mind showing a bit of leg but he’s an honest man if you get my drift.”

• Keith Preene’s Golden Goose Bingo is on at the Isaac Theatre Royal, 7.30pm on January 27 and January 28. The World Buskers Festival runs from January 19 to January 29, 2017 and the programme will be released on November 1. It will be delivered to Christchurch residents’ mail boxes from around that date.