The Lyttelton Arts Festival is about to kick off with a whole lot of palaver.

Scores of local talent will be performing over the 17-day festival through dance, theatre, music, and comedy.

Comedian Shay Horay opens the festival tonight, Friday, with Palaver.

“I call it Lyttelton’s version of Graham Norton. Basically it’s a sit down and it’s a chat. It’s an interview that could potentially be about two-and-a-half hours of absolutely nothing but B.S.,” said Horay.

The marketing calls the show “conversational and unpredictable and it’s your chance to get to know our celebrity special guests up-close and personal”.

Horay said, “So far in the Palaver history books we’ve heard first-hand about Deacon from What We Do in The Shadows’ struggle with goat stealing, Marlon Williams told us all about his first meeting with Lady Gaga, and Wilson Dixon shared the realities of having a jealous horse.”

But it’s not all fun and games. Horay does his homework.

“I do my research, but also because it’s quite a relaxed environment, and I try and keep it kind of really informal means things sort of pop out that wouldn’t normally come out, or you end up going to places and that’s where the absolute gold comes out.”

Tonight Horay will be interviewing entertainer Janice Gray, to which he said, “She was my first drama teacher, so that’s pretty cute.”

“She used to have this thing where she’d go, ‘Uh, what’s your name? You’re quite good.’ And I’d go, ‘Shay.’ And she’d go, ‘I’ve got a cat called Shay. She’s a she-Shay. She’s a she-Shay, Shay’. And I was quite young and I’m going, ‘I’m not a girl!’ recalled Horay.

These kinds of conversations and sharing the stage with Gray many times over the years, which was always “such a treat” for him, Horay is looking forward to the show.

He said Gray has many “phenomenal stories” from both on and off the stage, including a chook she keeps tucked up in her bedroom.

“We’ll also probably talk about the trials and tribulations of being in your 80s and on Facebook. She’s been the victim of quite a lot of scammers … and she’s hitting it head on, thinking ‘I’m going to play with the Prince of Persia who currently needs $40,000 to fuel his jumbo jet…’ and I say, ‘Janice, you haven’t given them money have you?’ And she goes, ‘Well, a couple of them have got some, yeah,’ tells Horay.

“I don’t think of Janice as 35, 40 years older than me, you know, I think of her as a peer,’ he said.

“Having done these shows quite a lot, some of them can go quite long because it’s a long-form concept. And when it finishes the audience doesn’t get up. They just stay sitting there. They’re just so comfy after listening to two people chatting in a lounge like they were part of the conversation,” Horay said.