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Scott blanks welcome to my podcast thank
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you very much Dom it's great great to be
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here it's great to have you here Scott
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blanks um The Godfather of New Zealand
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comedy you've been called to some people
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it's actually a split uh the ones that
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I've helped um get anywhere with my
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advice or what support I call me the
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Godfather of Comedy and then there's
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another Bunch that call me the
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gatekeeper the gatekeeper sounds really
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intimidating that's those are the ones
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that never quite made it um would you
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say uh if for anyone that's watching or
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listening to this podcast that is maybe
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um a fan of Joe Rogan there's someone
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that he mentions a lot um it's a lady
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that's had a huge influence on his
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career and many other comedians in the
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states are you sort of like the Mitsy
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shore of New Zealand oh Mitsy from The
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Comedy Store in La yeah I met her once
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many years ago not that she took any
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interest in meeting me um I said hello I
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I run a comedy club in New Zealand and
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you could just see her eyes glaze over
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she was going this is not going to make
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any difference to my business uh and so
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but I I did go into The Comedy Store
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that night and um uh I think I saw
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Richard prior that night being wheeled
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in in a wheelchair carried on stage by a
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bunch of helpers sat in the chair he
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mumbled for about half an hour we all
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respectfully listened and laughed when
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we thought we were supposed to laugh
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because there was a lot of security
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standing around around the room sort of
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intimidating you so you knew you just
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had to laugh it was well past as used by
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date unfortunately but it was an
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experience of The Comedy Store in LA and
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I met Mitsy and she is famous I haven't
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ever thought of myself as being a Mitsy
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Shaw though would that by the way that
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was a great story that just came out of
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a Richard what year was this oh this
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would have been um uh
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mid90s yeah
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uh very much at the end of his career um
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uh so it was mid to Lish 90s just as we
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were establishing the classic yeah yeah
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cuz he's he's phenomenal I'm I'm a bit
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I'm 51 so it's not if I get to say I'm a
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bit young but I'm a bit young to
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appreciate Richard Pry but one of my um
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favorite movies that me and my siblings
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used to hire and know over and over
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again from the vide to when we were
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growing up was Brewster's Millions all
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right which is one of his but phenomenal
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comedian but you you watch his routin
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now and it's um yeah a lot of his jokes
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it's quite quite sad like it was a you
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know jokes about his own um sort of life
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and a lot of it was very TR J yeah I
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mean that's the thing about that
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comedians they get to that point in
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their career where um you know they
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start start telling the truth and from
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the 70s and 80s weren pretty for some
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people yeah and uh he would have been
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one that had you know he he was own
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undoing I mean his his his drug taking
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and whatever certainly fueled his
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lifestyle um and not that he wasn't the
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only one back then of course yeah so
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you've never been compared to Mitsy Shaw
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no one's ever said that no thank you do
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is is that a good thing I feel like
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that's uh just in terms of um like what
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you've done by setting up this comedy
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business in New Zealand and just the
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influence that you've had on the not
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just the industry in general but just
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thousands of individuals as well yeah
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there's um funny enough if you travel
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around the world there are sort of Home
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comedy clubs in a lot of places of
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course The Comedy Store in La is sort of
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First Generation Um I also met the guy
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who ran the Improv in La which was sort
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of the comedy stores main competition
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they both alongside each other and both
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he and Mitsy were um were sort of
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Legends um and and did act a little bit
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like Godfathers in the in the Maron
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Brando sense um I also met Don who run
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runs The Comedy Store in London um again
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I mean his son now runs it and but he
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Don is still around he's older than I am
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and um he was back in the 70s when um
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the young ones and things were starting
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to emerge and he worked very closely
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with those guys getting them on stage in
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The Comedy Store people like Alexis s
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which was the new generation of
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Comedians and quite frankly the same
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generation that inspired us here so
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every city seems to have like a home
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comedy club and each of those comedy
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clubs tends to have a personality behind
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them um who runs them yeah yeah well
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Brendan love grve um a very famous New
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Zealand comedian who you've had a huge
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influence on he once said Scott should
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be kned for his services to Comedy um
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this is this is just setting the scene
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of who we who we're talking with um and
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it's been reported that you've seen more
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Live Comedy than any other New Zealander
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uh I would say so yes I mean I I've been
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I my first foray was back in the 80s
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with the group funny business so that
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was very much part-time hobbyist because
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there wasn't an industry that we were
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sort of thinking we were going to trade
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into but they ended up doing three TV
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series which was more successful than a
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lot of the lot of the Contemporary
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commedians so funny business 3 TV series
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um uh back in the ' 80s so started
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watching comedy then but once we opened
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the classic it um yeah became much more
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regular and of course the part of that
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is the raw comedy quest which is
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watching people who don't know what
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they're doing first timers and I've been
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that's been now running for next year
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will be the 30th Anniversary so that's
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30 years of the raw comedy Quest yeah
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you so the classic uh you set up in 1997
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What did comedy and new center look like
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before you started the classic well I'm
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thinking is like bity James mcell and
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gadsby Hudson and Hall that was coming
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out of the 80s um the there were quite a
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few TV comedians funny business got
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their three TV series we used to tour to
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universities on orientation weeks that
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inspired a group of lads at um at Massie
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University down there in paly um and
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they formed a group called facial dbx
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and you will know some of the names from
00:05:47
this group I mean not in that group but
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attached to it the Corbett Brothers
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Jeremy and Nigel um John Bridges who
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went on to make seven days uh the
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project um and Patty Go show John was a
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member of facial dbx yeah it was on IC
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TV back in the day yeah and I went to IC
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TV so we there were five or six people
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in facial dbx they were inspired by
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funny business at an orientation gig and
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then in the early 90s facial dbx and the
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remainder of funny business merged
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together to form a kind of super group
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called Comedy Fest we spent five years
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developing standup in Oakland uh and
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that was when it was really starting to
00:06:25
look like oh here comes an industry
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because the Comedy Festival which was
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run by a different Bunch started at
00:06:30
exactly the same time so after 5 years
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of doing that everyone just looked at
00:06:34
each other and said uh what next and the
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obvious thing was let's open our own
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venue yeah the obvious yeah sort of
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obvious why um why why have you never
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had to go at comedy yourself um too busy
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I do have a theater background but I
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spent my 20s doing musicals yeah
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Westside Story yeah dancer I was a
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dancer singer later actor and then I
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started directing musicals and directing
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plays I really like that directing role
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you know it's fun being the performer
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but it's really creative being a
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director and I suppose that's the role I
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fell into very much with the comedy
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community is directing traffic and and
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providing a stage for people to do
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something give it a go have it you know
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get leave their comfort zone get on
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stage and try and be funny I mean that I
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actually really enjoy that part of the
00:07:24
industry
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yeah so so it's it's not fear or
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anything that you've never had a go it's
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just that you you get more joy out of um
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well it's a commitment thing if I if I
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was giving it a go I'd have to be
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thinking about doing it as a profession
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if I did that I'd have to give up a lot
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of other things because of the
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commitment required I mean I watch every
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year we get 100 plus people enrolling
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for raw comedy Quest right and that gets
00:07:50
cut down to about six or seven who will
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make the final and of those six or seven
00:07:55
each year maybe one or two will go on to
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actually ply a as a comedian and get
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paid for doing it so that's one or two
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from 100 so think of the equation there
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2% yeah do you want to you know are you
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prepared to commit to that kind of
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outcome I I was too busy doing other
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stuff I so I quite enjoyed that not
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putting myself on the line and having to
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commit to that level well why do you
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love comedians so much like youve you've
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you've it's been like a life of service
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really like helping well remember that I
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heard this way way back find a job you
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love and you never have to work another
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day and you life which is exactly what I
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found you know I've never done a day's
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work in my life um by the way that is
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not true get into that I I did I did a
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few professions but but more recently I
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feel like I'm really doing something I
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love doing therefore it's getting up in
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the morning and doing it i' never once
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go Oh hell I've got to do this job again
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yeah no I I love it too much and um the
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thing I get the biggest Buzz out is of
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is watching people who aren't comedians
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who think they might be comedians come
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along get right outside their comfort
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zone get on stage and have a go and then
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having a little bit to do with
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developing them towards being pro
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comedians these are everyday people they
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haven't gone to drama school they
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haven't gone to any other art school
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they're just everyday people who think
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oh I'm going to give that a go and some
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of them become full-time professional
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comedians um and are touring the world
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you know performing all over the place
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look at someone like Sam Wills the boy
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with tape on his face he's had about a
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over 10 years of residency in Las
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Vegas um and he was a kid from Christ
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Church
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yeah yeah there's so many so many
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questions about that we'll get into
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there'll be a chapter of that later on
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like um s aspiring comedian about um you
00:09:49
what they can learn from you you know a
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man that's seen it all um first of all
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let's go back let's go back to the
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beginning so born in 1959 in ockland yep
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yeah yeah yeah the love of Comedy where
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did that come from albums early on like
00:10:04
my first record I ever bought um horrify
00:10:07
my elder brother who was a contemporary
00:10:08
music critic and and writer and
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journalist and for Hot Licks magazine in
00:10:13
Oakland and the first album I ever
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bought was Fred Dag's Greatest Hits so
00:10:19
phenomenal album he looked at his
00:10:20
younger brother and I think gave up at
00:10:22
that point he went okay that's you um
00:10:25
and then soon after that I think there
00:10:27
was uh um
00:10:29
uh Mario Lanza's Greatest Hits an opera
00:10:33
singer there's another weird one for you
00:10:35
but the third album was a Monty Python
00:10:36
album um I think it was uh um matching
00:10:40
tie and handkerchief followed by live at
00:10:42
Drury Lane and I was a montypython geek
00:10:46
um strangely my sons have become them
00:10:50
too they love Monty Python and uh uh how
00:10:53
how old are your sons and 13 did you
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introduce them yeah um uh tis butter
00:10:58
scratch is the line of our family um in
00:11:01
fact we've come up with a concept for
00:11:03
next year's Armageddon that revolves
00:11:05
around the um tis butter scratch sketch
00:11:07
on the Holy Grail movie so you're going
00:11:10
to see a costumed Army Galloping with
00:11:13
coconuts through amaga but that's next
00:11:14
year we forget about that for the moment
00:11:16
um so uh the montypython and there was a
00:11:20
group of like-minded kids maybe four or
00:11:22
five of us who used to get together in
00:11:24
dark rooms and listen to Monty Python
00:11:26
albums and recite um the sketches we'd
00:11:29
know the sketches word by word for word
00:11:32
and that was probably rough roughly
00:11:34
around 12 13 years of age yeah very
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formative
00:11:38
years yes I suppose that planted the
00:11:40
seed and then um so you finished school
00:11:43
you get an accountant accountant I I
00:11:45
went through Secondary School focused on
00:11:47
accountancy I left um I was I had
00:11:50
skipped a year very early on back in the
00:11:52
primers year year two three I skipped
00:11:55
one of those years so I was always the
00:11:57
youngest in my class so I completed the
00:12:00
sixth form which is now what year 12 um
00:12:03
I completed that when I was still 16 um
00:12:07
so I left school I didn't do the seventh
00:12:09
formal year 13 I left school went to ATI
00:12:11
so I was still still 16 in and going
00:12:14
into Queen Street and going to a ATI um
00:12:18
and at the end of that year um I was I
00:12:22
turned 17 that year and I started work
00:12:24
at Price Waterhouse so at 17 I was going
00:12:26
to town in my suit and tie doing
00:12:29
part-time um accountancy and being an
00:12:31
auditor for price waterhous and like the
00:12:34
accountant accountancy version of Doogie
00:12:36
haer I know it was I felt I felt I never
00:12:39
thought about it but everyone I worked
00:12:41
with was over 2021 they were all could
00:12:43
go to licensed premises so Friday night
00:12:45
drinks was spent these guys smuggling me
00:12:48
into the Royal International on Victoria
00:12:50
Street and um because and pretending
00:12:52
that I was their age and and the B and
00:12:54
turning a blind eye mind you ID back in
00:12:56
those days was a piece of paper so you
00:12:58
know no photographic ID so they couldn't
00:13:00
really say I wasn't um 20 or 21 whatever
00:13:03
the drinking age was there I was 17
00:13:05
years of age dressed in a suit Friday
00:13:07
night drinks and Green Street yeah
00:13:09
that's right that was my first driver's
00:13:10
license as well it was like a giant bit
00:13:11
of waxed paper and it was very easy to
00:13:13
itch the numbers out
00:13:15
onth yeah you could if you if you were
00:13:17
clever with a bit of paper you could
00:13:18
duplicate it and change the dates on it
00:13:20
very quickly we shouldn't be talking
00:13:21
about things like that Tom well it's
00:13:23
it's an ID hack that nobody can use
00:13:25
anymore anymore no no um so from there
00:13:28
you ended up up at um a company called
00:13:30
kiraj jodian which which I remember but
00:13:32
um I suppose for anyone that doesn't
00:13:33
remember it's probably like HS of today
00:13:36
yeah Event Cinemas whatever there was
00:13:38
they owned one side of the street
00:13:39
Amalgamated C cinemas open the other so
00:13:42
I gave up accountancy and um I realized
00:13:44
that wasn't a profession I wanted to run
00:13:46
with because I'd started doing amateur
00:13:48
Dramatics and musicals and I met all
00:13:50
these like-minded people and I thought
00:13:52
oh hold it there's something else out
00:13:54
here so I gave up the accountancy and
00:13:56
started my own little company called
00:13:57
scot-free promotion I was 19 then and um
00:14:01
hiring myself out to create sort of
00:14:03
create events to promote things and the
00:14:05
first person who hired me was a lovely
00:14:07
guy called Ry kraff who also went to San
00:14:10
College he was another San College old
00:14:12
boy like me um and he employed me to
00:14:16
help him put on promotions for movie
00:14:19
releases and very quickly I think I did
00:14:21
that for him for about two years and
00:14:23
then he quit and said you should take my
00:14:25
job and I said I don't know anything
00:14:27
about what you do I mean you're an
00:14:29
office and you know you're the marketing
00:14:30
manager for Kira jod and he said my boss
00:14:32
is an idiot I'm not saying you're stupid
00:14:35
but he will employ you because he's an
00:14:36
idiot and he doesn't know any better so
00:14:38
I applied for the job and got it and
00:14:40
became the marketing manager for Kera
00:14:42
jod and film Distributors for 10 years
00:14:45
and that one of the early movies that I
00:14:47
helped promote was secret policeman's
00:14:50
ball suddenly we all got to see Billy
00:14:52
conell Alexis s u Monty Python um some
00:14:56
of the young ones all in this movie and
00:14:59
I went wow so what is this about uh and
00:15:03
it really affected me I went okay now
00:15:06
I've seen something else um so uh that's
00:15:09
when funny business turned up you know
00:15:12
um we we uh I was working for Cara
00:15:14
jodian and at night we'd all hang out at
00:15:16
retro nightclub which um some people may
00:15:18
remember in oconnell Street and uh and
00:15:21
Graham who ran retro decided on a
00:15:23
Wednesday night let's have a comedy
00:15:24
night try and fill the club up on an off
00:15:26
night and a lot of the people that
00:15:29
regularly went to the club all had a go
00:15:30
at telling a joke I did I got up and
00:15:32
told a couple of jokes so I have done it
00:15:35
um uh wasn't you yeah but you you I mean
00:15:38
you didn't persist with it no not at all
00:15:40
you just enjoyed being oh I was just
00:15:41
like more of a fan yeah I was more a
00:15:43
case of seeing all these like-minded
00:15:44
people and and and there were quite a
00:15:46
few who turned up to that club never
00:15:48
been to the club before and did told
00:15:50
jokes some of them were original
00:15:52
material some of them were joke tellers
00:15:54
I mean um Willie dwit back then he was
00:15:56
William mki but he got we adopted the St
00:15:59
name Willie D so Willie won that
00:16:01
competition that was his first big leap
00:16:03
into comedy but we also met Dean Butler
00:16:06
uh Peter Murphy Ian harcour Chris hegan
00:16:09
and they were the core of funny business
00:16:12
um so uh we spun out of that competition
00:16:15
and started running Wednesday nights at
00:16:17
The Winds of Castle in Parnell every
00:16:19
Wednesday we ran a comedy night we
00:16:20
didn't think there was anything wrong
00:16:21
with doing that lots of people including
00:16:24
the um Liv sound who owned the baned PA
00:16:27
system with 36 channels um said well you
00:16:30
can use our PA and we went oh thanks
00:16:32
yeah and they were sort of looking at us
00:16:33
and I went I said I only need two
00:16:35
channels so I would sit at the mixing
00:16:38
desk with 36 channels and I'd just have
00:16:40
the two first two sliders going mic mic
00:16:43
mic and music mic and music I'd be doing
00:16:46
that and this empty desk otherwise yeah
00:16:49
so so funny business so I can I can
00:16:51
vaguely remember them so they had like a
00:16:53
few TV series right three TV series yeah
00:16:55
I remember um like one song in
00:16:59
particular Norman the [ __ ] Norman the
00:17:00
[ __ ] they the one thing they did was
00:17:02
sketches and a lot of music um they
00:17:04
didn't do standup comedy as such that
00:17:06
was the sketches and music and you can
00:17:08
go to YouTube search funny business New
00:17:11
Zealand you'll see Norman the Mormon
00:17:13
you'll see k um you'll see uh what other
00:17:17
another great song oh they did the New
00:17:19
Zealand national anthem um bunch of guys
00:17:21
standing on top of Mount Eden at the
00:17:23
crator singing their version of a New
00:17:25
Zealand national anthem uh one I posted
00:17:27
yesterday I bought a lounge Suite
00:17:29
um that's a great clip I bought a lounge
00:17:31
suite and that's uh that I posted is it
00:17:34
a song or it's a song will he sings it
00:17:36
um and it's about uh his first job
00:17:38
earning some money and he goes out and
00:17:39
his friends are going out and buying
00:17:40
cars and you've got this it's a great
00:17:42
music video very funny he goes out and
00:17:45
buys his first Lounge
00:17:46
Suite that's I mean it sounds just got
00:17:49
to see it to believe it yeah yes so oh
00:17:52
yeah yeah will will he D so you how's he
00:17:54
now uh he head us ups and down he put a
00:17:56
book out a couple of years ago
00:17:58
experiences drug issues and look he'll
00:18:01
probably be listening today um uh
00:18:04
listened to this podcast and we go hi
00:18:05
Willie um we love him you know he was
00:18:08
always um a bit on the edge uh and at
00:18:11
some point in his life went a little bit
00:18:13
off the edge and uh but he's he's
00:18:15
getting by um it's not easy when you've
00:18:18
had a stroke and you've lost quite a lot
00:18:20
of the use of one side of your body um
00:18:23
but he's having to deal with it so he
00:18:26
is so funny business from is that where
00:18:30
the seed was sort of planted for you to
00:18:31
start up your own comedy car yeah well
00:18:33
we were running it um as a sort of
00:18:35
professional group you know we sold
00:18:37
tickets at the Windsor Castle we had we
00:18:39
had income from it wasn't much um and we
00:18:42
used to just split that pretty much
00:18:43
evenly between all the members of the
00:18:45
group um uh so that and they toured and
00:18:49
they they did stuff they got you know
00:18:51
you could easily get it wrong um we got
00:18:53
hired for a couple of corporates which
00:18:54
was just awful uh you know funny
00:18:57
business was not suitable corporate
00:18:59
audiences at all Dean Butler back then
00:19:02
was very edgy and some of the things he
00:19:04
did certainly uh didn't fly very easily
00:19:08
with corporate audiences so I'm glad we
00:19:09
didn't pursue that too much further um
00:19:12
but that was definitely the first foot
00:19:13
into the comedy industry um and I didn't
00:19:16
know that it was going to continue uh it
00:19:18
actually I drifted away and was focusing
00:19:20
on on the movie stuff um I didn't get
00:19:22
too involved in the lat stages of the um
00:19:25
the 80s when funny business were doing
00:19:27
the TV series um they were doing their
00:19:29
sort of own thing uh but Willie asked me
00:19:32
to come back and help when they joined
00:19:34
up with facial dbx and said look we've
00:19:36
got a whole bunch of performers here
00:19:37
we're all keen on starting something
00:19:39
regular but we do need someone to run
00:19:42
the business side of it and do the
00:19:43
promotions that's what I was bought back
00:19:45
into do yeah the behind the scenes um
00:19:48
yeah and I left kaj jodian at that stage
00:19:50
which was a company that was falling
00:19:52
apart um and so I'd sort of gone back to
00:19:54
doing my own thing managing people um
00:19:57
promotions for film companies
00:19:59
freelancing yeah big thing suddenly
00:20:02
freelancing became a thing and that's
00:20:03
what I did uh but and they basically got
00:20:05
me to freelance for them helping them
00:20:08
promote the comedy and it wasn't the
00:20:09
only thing I was doing but it grew and
00:20:11
it became the only thing I did th this
00:20:14
must have been um a mortifying time for
00:20:16
appearance here's here's their son he's
00:20:18
got an accountancy degree he's a young
00:20:20
man at um price waterhous and he's into
00:20:22
the movie business and then he's getting
00:20:24
out of the movie business into the
00:20:25
comedy business they must have been
00:20:26
terrified like what's our son doing SE
00:20:29
because I look back now on the
00:20:30
directions of my life and my father
00:20:32
passed away when I was 12 and a very
00:20:34
formative part of your life to lose your
00:20:36
father um and and although I was the
00:20:39
youngest son I became the man of the
00:20:40
family and my other two brothers sort of
00:20:42
grew up and drifted off overseas and I
00:20:45
was left here with my mom and and I was
00:20:47
the man of the family and I spent it's
00:20:49
why I was you know in a suit at 17 on
00:20:52
Queen Street because I had to get out
00:20:53
and earn a living um mom was supporting
00:20:57
herself and a bit of me but I had to
00:20:59
start earning money so that got me
00:21:01
working and it got me thinking outside
00:21:03
the square I never had a father who sort
00:21:05
of reigned me in um and uh I don't know
00:21:09
if that helped CH the direction of my
00:21:11
life but not having someone telling me
00:21:13
what was the right thing and wrong thing
00:21:14
to do because Mom didn't she sort of
00:21:17
kind of just supported any of my
00:21:19
decisions so I could make sweeping
00:21:21
decisions like leaving the accountancy
00:21:23
profession which um although it
00:21:27
horrified a few of the of the fathers
00:21:29
that were had been supporting our family
00:21:31
cuz one of them had got me the job at
00:21:33
price waterhous and suddenly I turned
00:21:35
around and said thanks Alan for getting
00:21:36
me that job but I'm leaving price
00:21:38
waterhous and he's going I sort of
00:21:40
pulled a few strings and I went no I'm
00:21:42
sorry I'm going off on my own and yeah
00:21:45
you so you I I sort of did make
00:21:46
decisions like that maybe arbitrarily
00:21:49
you losing losing your dad at 12 what
00:21:51
sort of impact did that have on you on
00:21:52
you that was well you had to grow up
00:21:54
yeah you the two things is that you you
00:21:57
had to make you you couldn't ask someone
00:21:59
for advice um so you very quickly start
00:22:03
developing you know your own life with
00:22:06
you know just yourself um and I think it
00:22:10
had a huge impact in hindsight um that I
00:22:13
didn't have someone just telling me
00:22:15
right and wrong uh not that I was I
00:22:17
wasn't a bad kid certainly never went
00:22:19
off the rails uh but when it came to
00:22:22
making career decisions and things I
00:22:24
just they were my decisions yeah yeah
00:22:26
just sort of missing that sort of Rudder
00:22:28
in a way yeah yeah and is it something
00:22:30
that um this this was a long time ago
00:22:32
for you I'm guessing this was like the
00:22:34
early
00:22:35
1970s um but given your your son's age
00:22:39
so recently they've been the same age
00:22:40
you were when you lost your dad is that
00:22:42
something that came back to the front of
00:22:44
your mind it did when I I reached his
00:22:46
age of about 45 when he passed away and
00:22:49
when I got to 45 I went okay I've got
00:22:51
here um I didn't even have kids at 45 so
00:22:55
I'm a late starter um and so I had
00:22:59
Nicholas is 15 so um he was born um in
00:23:03
when I was 50 so my uh 50 was uh I'm you
00:23:07
know I'm now a gold card I'm now 65 are
00:23:10
you yeah and um to work for free I've
00:23:13
got I can I I don't but I can um so I've
00:23:15
got a 15-year-old who and they look up
00:23:17
to me and I'm well aware that I'm in a
00:23:20
way it's I'm lucky kind of Lucky still
00:23:22
to be here although you expect to live
00:23:24
that long these days but when you've had
00:23:25
a father who passed away at 45 you don't
00:23:27
expect it you don't take it for granted
00:23:29
I don't take it for granted so I do en
00:23:31
enjoy um that's been very important to
00:23:33
me in the last sort of five 10 years
00:23:36
that I've been careful to divide my time
00:23:38
between say comedy and my family so my
00:23:41
family are are as important well are
00:23:43
more important to me than comedy yeah
00:23:45
yeah so your wife Bridget you you guys
00:23:47
met at a a wedding for one of the dean
00:23:50
Butler's wedding yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:23:51
yeah one of the funny business guys and
00:23:53
was also on radio hii for a number of
00:23:54
years I was not expected to turn up to
00:23:56
that wedding because I was so married to
00:23:58
the CL classic that people said to Dean
00:24:00
uh you'll you'll never get Scott to come
00:24:02
to your wedding it's a Saturday he'll be
00:24:04
at the club you know you you you you're
00:24:06
you're dreaming um and I didn't even
00:24:09
RSVP I just turned up at the wedding and
00:24:12
they went oh my God Scott's come to D
00:24:14
wedding and and Bridget was a bridesmaid
00:24:17
at that wedding she had nothing to do
00:24:18
with the comedy industry she came from
00:24:20
the Hawks Bay so um and and so people go
00:24:24
Bridget and Scott's got a girlfriend and
00:24:26
she's got nothing to do with comedy
00:24:28
what was the um what was yeah what are
00:24:30
your Recollections of meeting was it
00:24:32
like love at first sight or H it was D
00:24:34
on the Dance Floor i i i my um secret
00:24:38
passion was dancing I was dancing since
00:24:40
I was 12 or 13 right through secondary
00:24:42
school I belonged to the jazz dance
00:24:44
group Horizon um I don't think my
00:24:47
motives were exactly pure because I
00:24:49
looked at all the boys in the first 15
00:24:51
and went great 30 guys get to hang out
00:24:54
together the whole time and share a
00:24:57
dressing room I'm in the dance group
00:24:59
Mike and I my friend Mike two of us and
00:25:02
20 girls not just 20 girls 20 beautiful
00:25:05
girls who can dance and I said I think
00:25:07
I'll keep this to myself but I reckon
00:25:09
this is the best uh deal here um and
00:25:12
that right through my life I well until
00:25:14
I was about 30 I was dancing a lot and
00:25:17
and dancing with a lot of really
00:25:18
fabulous ladies so so you're at this
00:25:21
wedding and are you just pulling out are
00:25:22
you are you just pulling out the aame on
00:25:24
the dance I'm on the dance FL I'm string
00:25:26
I'm Every Move I can make uh and uh
00:25:30
Bridget loved dancing with me and um
00:25:33
that I tell you what it yeah love at
00:25:35
first sight when did you guys get
00:25:36
married uh
00:25:38
2005 right yeah right yeah and then it
00:25:41
was um yeah I I don't know if you want
00:25:43
to talk about this or not um but in uh
00:25:46
February 2008 you guys had a a daughter
00:25:49
yeah yeah Kate and unfortunately she
00:25:51
died the day before she was due um and
00:25:55
again an incredible experience and
00:25:57
sometimes you can take a big picture
00:25:59
look and go you're put on this Earth to
00:26:01
experience everything it can throw at
00:26:02
you and then you learn something from
00:26:05
everything that's throwing at you you
00:26:06
learn lessons um and you know I firstly
00:26:11
I at at the age of 48 or so I wasn't
00:26:13
expecting even to have children so to
00:26:15
lose your first one you go oh my God was
00:26:18
that my last chance um you know and
00:26:20
Bridget was getting older too she was um
00:26:22
turning 40 and we're going okay this may
00:26:25
have been our only chance and to lose
00:26:27
her the day before she was due you know
00:26:30
like nine months um and it was you know
00:26:34
it was huge but what was beautiful was
00:26:37
the way it brought together the comedy
00:26:38
industry and you suddenly go oh okay now
00:26:40
I realize what's so special about this
00:26:42
Bunch we're not just an industry we are
00:26:44
a community and when something like that
00:26:46
happens a community bands together and
00:26:49
supports that's includes the staff and
00:26:51
The Comedians and you got this beautiful
00:26:53
thing where they all supported us for
00:26:55
months not you know for weeks and months
00:26:57
and we did did fundraisers for The
00:26:59
Midwives macking in for the midwives
00:27:01
macking in for the midwives we did
00:27:02
fundraisers for The Midwives at the
00:27:04
hospital who took qu care of us so that
00:27:05
we could buy them lots of equipment for
00:27:07
their staff room and stuff which they
00:27:09
didn't have that wouldn't necessarily be
00:27:11
funded by the med the health industry
00:27:14
you know good TVs stereos coffee
00:27:16
machines all sorts of things so um and
00:27:19
so it was a beautiful experience and um
00:27:22
it could have been uh if we hadn't had
00:27:25
the two boys subsequently yeah it
00:27:27
probably could have been much bigger
00:27:28
Line in the Sand um but it wasn't we we
00:27:33
had Nicholas we had Matthew so we sort
00:27:34
of managed to continue our lives and
00:27:36
we've now got two beautiful boys but you
00:27:38
you know a Scottish comedian called
00:27:40
Janie Godley she passed away two days
00:27:42
ago from cancer um aged 63 two years
00:27:45
younger than me and she passed away uh
00:27:49
two two days ago she came to New Zealand
00:27:52
um that year after we lost Kate uh she
00:27:55
came to the Comedy Festival and we
00:27:57
already knew her she'd been before she
00:27:59
came again and she was an amazing person
00:28:02
to deal with cuz her life experience was
00:28:04
incredible she was raised sort of in a
00:28:06
gangster family in Glasgow she was um uh
00:28:10
abused and molested by her uncle um she
00:28:13
had to deal with that through her life
00:28:15
the thing she said to my wife Bridget
00:28:17
which she said she had applied to
00:28:18
herself was that no matter what happens
00:28:21
the the abuse and and stuff that she
00:28:23
suffered the loss of Kate you must not
00:28:26
let that be the thing that defin the
00:28:28
rest of your life you must be prepared
00:28:31
to move on and grasp the rest of your
00:28:33
life and live it which is what Janie had
00:28:36
done and uh and my wife Bridget and
00:28:38
myself really took that on board that we
00:28:40
must almost honor the memory of Kate and
00:28:43
live on and live large and do the things
00:28:45
we wanted to do including having two
00:28:47
more children and it was a we just
00:28:49
recalled that advice a couple of days
00:28:51
ago um and I mentioned that Janie gave
00:28:54
us advice that only Janie Godly could
00:28:56
have given us about not letting you your
00:28:58
life be screwed up by the bad things
00:29:01
yeah well thanks for sharing that that's
00:29:03
really powerful yeah that's
00:29:06
um yeah um when I was married to JJ we
00:29:09
went through we were unable to have kids
00:29:11
so we went through years and years of
00:29:12
fertility treatment and IVF and uh the
00:29:14
closest we got was um you know having
00:29:17
some embryos that get you know replanted
00:29:20
and and they divide in you um so like by
00:29:23
legal definition it's called a
00:29:24
miscarriage when we lost the baby but
00:29:25
we're still talking in the first week um
00:29:28
to take a baby to full tomm and then
00:29:29
lose it like I can't imagine just how
00:29:31
well you can imagine what Nicholas our
00:29:33
second one was like that Journey that
00:29:35
9mon Journey was so stressful because of
00:29:39
course we sort of knew that we could
00:29:41
lose Nicholas up till the last day so
00:29:43
the day he was born was like wow you
00:29:46
know you was scared to do anything
00:29:49
scared to move yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:29:52
yeah all right I um yeah thanks for
00:29:54
sharing that it's intensely personal I
00:29:56
appreciate it and really good lessons in
00:29:58
there as well well that's the thing I'm
00:30:00
sort of thinking today what are people
00:30:01
want what could I possibly know about
00:30:03
for instance well that's a life
00:30:04
experience comedy experience that would
00:30:06
have any interest to people out there
00:30:08
but then a lot of the lessons we've I
00:30:10
learn in the comedy industry apply right
00:30:12
through your life not just to Comedy
00:30:14
yeah or also you're just you're just an
00:30:16
interesting guy that's um had a
00:30:18
fascinating life and you've done um yeah
00:30:21
like the impact you've had on the comedy
00:30:22
scene and just as a small business owner
00:30:24
in New Zealand like there's there's
00:30:25
lessons here for anyone in any walks of
00:30:27
life so what's the juice of life I I've
00:30:30
I've discovered over the years um that
00:30:32
making a difference to other people and
00:30:35
then allowing them to acknowledge that
00:30:37
is really the juice of life you can be
00:30:39
very very happy person just making a
00:30:41
difference to people and then giving
00:30:43
them the opportunity to say thanks you
00:30:45
should always do that you shouldn't um
00:30:47
suppress that feedback um because some
00:30:49
people need to do that themselves so um
00:30:52
and that's why I think I I posted in
00:30:56
after the loss of Janie I did say that
00:30:58
you know if you want to know what a
00:30:59
mortal life is it's the difference you
00:31:01
make to the people you leave behind
00:31:03
that's how you gain immortality is the
00:31:05
difference you've made to the people
00:31:06
that are continuing to live who will
00:31:07
still talk about you for years if not
00:31:10
decades afterwards you
00:31:12
know yeah that's so true I yeah that's
00:31:15
so true like I'm I'm an atheist so you
00:31:18
unfortunately I don't I don't believe in
00:31:20
an afterlife I think we're like a
00:31:21
computer and when you're gone you're
00:31:22
gone but yeah we're dust we're we're
00:31:24
dust but some of those some of that dust
00:31:26
is memories and some of some of it's the
00:31:28
impact you just imagine if that dust
00:31:31
could just sort of seep into your body
00:31:32
it's it's in there you know yeah the
00:31:34
bigger that yeah the bigger a hole you
00:31:37
leave on on the lives of the people that
00:31:39
are left behind um I think that says
00:31:41
that says a lot lot about you I think
00:31:43
ultimately that's what all any of us
00:31:44
want is not not to be forgotten
00:31:45
immediately yeah you you you can have a
00:31:47
very happy day when you wake up and go
00:31:49
God I've made a difference today to five
00:31:51
people yeah yeah all right let's talk
00:31:53
about the birth of the classic so um
00:31:55
October 1997 um the CL opened at 321
00:31:59
Queen Street where it still is to this
00:32:01
day yes um yeah did you did you imagine
00:32:05
27 years ago would still be there and
00:32:07
you'd still be there 27 years later no
00:32:10
did you see there's a 5year plan or I
00:32:12
look I I can't I got a feeling that we
00:32:14
sort of had a business plan but you had
00:32:17
to have a business plan to get a bank
00:32:18
account and even and and um the the guy
00:32:21
from the ASB was very supportive I um
00:32:24
wish I can remember his name now uh was
00:32:27
it Craig I think um he no it wasn't
00:32:29
Craig was someone else but he he sort of
00:32:31
said we're not going to get an overdraft
00:32:32
but you know we we'll keep an eye on you
00:32:34
and help you out um the suppliers you
00:32:36
know the the the council had to give us
00:32:39
a tenancy it's it's a council property
00:32:41
but mind you the the tenant beforehand
00:32:43
was an adult cinema so it wasn't much of
00:32:46
a a you know it was a bit of an upgrade
00:32:48
for them wait wait I'm going to pause
00:32:50
you there what what it so like a movie
00:32:51
theater that just play played pornos
00:32:53
yeah in the 70s and ' 80s early ' 80s it
00:32:55
was the Classic Cinema I went there and
00:32:56
saw Westside Story 1979 with the cast of
00:32:59
the musical I was doing you know we saw
00:33:01
Westside Story on the big screen that
00:33:03
was to inspire us as we were going
00:33:04
forward to do a live show um but and
00:33:07
later on he lost uh access to all those
00:33:10
reels of classic movies so he did the
00:33:12
next best thing which was to get um
00:33:14
video cassettes of porn and he would
00:33:17
play that all day continuous sex movies
00:33:19
we've got the promotional board at the
00:33:21
club that still there that says
00:33:22
continuous six movies at 112 5 and8 I
00:33:26
mean this is this is this is pre
00:33:27
internet but you could still get like
00:33:29
VHS movies from from behind the salon
00:33:33
doors at video easy didn't do and some
00:33:36
of the men didn't do that they went and
00:33:38
they wanted to be like a a community
00:33:40
experience and the stag party sharing
00:33:42
the uh sharing the room with other stag
00:33:44
parties and Men watching movies on the
00:33:46
big screen before you go off to a strip
00:33:47
club um that's so Bleak I know and that
00:33:50
but the thing is that was the tenant
00:33:52
that that the council had to deal with
00:33:54
um and he had look he had a penny rent
00:33:58
no one was really valuing the properties
00:33:59
much they all had um Heritage things on
00:34:02
them so I don't know if the council knew
00:34:03
what to do but Les Mills was the mayor
00:34:06
of Oakland at the time sir Le Mills and
00:34:08
and so we sort of went to his people and
00:34:10
said we would like to raise the moral
00:34:13
fiber of 321 Queen Street by developing
00:34:16
it into a comedy club um if you listen
00:34:19
to Comedy it's not necessarily raising
00:34:21
the moral fiber yeah but compared to but
00:34:23
compared to ER Cinema so they they
00:34:25
didn't think twice about it they they
00:34:27
booted him out and um we took over the
00:34:29
whole building and um and developed the
00:34:32
the firstly The Silo theater in the
00:34:34
basement which is now the basement
00:34:35
theater and then we developed the
00:34:37
classic upstairs six months later as we
00:34:39
waited for um Jan griffed to leave the
00:34:42
building and Retreat to the Hollywood in
00:34:44
Avendale which was his other Cinema
00:34:46
which wasn't an adult cinema and Jan
00:34:48
Griff did is to be uh applauded for all
00:34:51
the great work he did for the cinema
00:34:53
industry he wasn't proud of the adult
00:34:55
cinema but the income from the adult
00:34:57
cinema helped fund the Hollywood in
00:34:59
Avendale which is also still going today
00:35:02
as you'll know um and has a very fine
00:35:04
pedigree in the local um film exhibition
00:35:06
industry was the the porn Cinema
00:35:08
lucrative did it do quite well uh well
00:35:11
enough I don't know well he didn't have
00:35:12
to pay much rent I don't think so yeah I
00:35:15
I've got no idea what the bottom line of
00:35:17
it was um so but anyway it was there
00:35:21
until weed took over the building and
00:35:22
turned it into a comedy club yeah and
00:35:24
and you're still there now um we almost
00:35:26
weren't though after 3 years we had to
00:35:28
voluntarily liquidate the business
00:35:30
because to open it we um we went into a
00:35:33
fair amount of debt uh to fit it out and
00:35:36
everything we just didn't have enough
00:35:37
cash reserves so in the first three
00:35:40
years we scrambled to try and cover that
00:35:42
Capital outlay we never really quite got
00:35:44
there and of course fell into all the
00:35:46
traps you do which included debt to the
00:35:49
irid um money we owed our investors
00:35:52
which included me and and a bunch of
00:35:54
people mostly family and friends I think
00:35:56
Jeremy Corbett was the the one who lost
00:35:58
the most money in the voluntary
00:35:59
liquidation and he didn't mind one bit
00:36:02
yeah we all had shares in it so we all
00:36:04
we all had shares and and um and we so
00:36:07
we voluntarily liquidated which means we
00:36:09
had to give up our ownership of the
00:36:11
business and we passed half the business
00:36:13
over to a trust and the other half fell
00:36:16
to me that was the the risky part the
00:36:18
production of Comedy both at the classic
00:36:21
and beyond that was considered the
00:36:23
greatest risk and I took that on um just
00:36:26
individually with a new company and and
00:36:28
Trust ran the classic as a comedy venue
00:36:31
and so we did that in
00:36:33
2000 um and I can remember New Year's
00:36:37
Eve
00:36:38
2001 going uh at home on my own
00:36:42
listening to you two as we contemplated
00:36:45
the loss of the business completely and
00:36:47
I was uh I had you two cranked up full
00:36:49
bore I was renting and raving around the
00:36:52
house thinking of what the hell we can
00:36:54
do and suddenly my accounting background
00:36:57
came to me and I went voluntary
00:36:59
liquidation with a friendly Liquidator
00:37:01
in other words our Liquidator no one
00:37:03
else's Liquidator it's been done so many
00:37:06
times in business since so that we Could
00:37:08
reconstruct the company and hang on to
00:37:10
it which is what we did um and that went
00:37:14
on for another three years until I
00:37:16
bought the classic off the trust so I
00:37:19
had two companies the production company
00:37:21
and the company that ran the classic
00:37:23
which was sort of like a hospitality
00:37:25
company and that's what happened in 20
00:37:28
3 um and so on my own since
00:37:33
2003 why why did it end up in
00:37:35
liquidation was we ran out of money we
00:37:37
just we ran to too much debt we had we
00:37:38
owed the
00:37:40
IID H I think we owed the IID about
00:37:43
$30,000 or something and in in tax not
00:37:46
paid and that's it's a it's a pitfall of
00:37:49
most companies the first debt you will
00:37:51
incur when you're running out of cash as
00:37:53
a debt to the IID it seems to be that
00:37:55
that's the thing people think the first
00:37:56
people I'm not going to pay um uh is the
00:38:00
and the IID realized we sat down with
00:38:03
their people talked about the company
00:38:05
said what we wanted to do in the
00:38:06
restructure and what they did is they
00:38:08
said okay we're going to be keeping an
00:38:09
Eagle Eye on you but we're going to give
00:38:11
up that debt you owe us um and we're
00:38:14
going to let you start again that's
00:38:16
effectively what they do and I I look
00:38:18
they do it all the time yeah was that
00:38:20
when they had the ad campaign it's our
00:38:21
job to be fear probably I don't think it
00:38:25
what will we do with this Ed campaign
00:38:26
tell you you know you've got to all
00:38:28
credit to them they're not they're not
00:38:30
the you don't hear about them being nice
00:38:31
guys you know they but they're also not
00:38:34
necessarily the bad guys they just have
00:38:37
their line and you can always sit down
00:38:39
with them and go I've screwed up and and
00:38:42
they'll give you the opportunity to pay
00:38:43
off debts to help you know they will do
00:38:46
everything they can to keep you in
00:38:47
business but was the was the issue
00:38:50
though that like no what you people
00:38:52
weren't used to seeing comedy so no one
00:38:53
was going to shows was it were we we we
00:38:57
were topheavy with you know maybe too
00:38:59
many chiefs in the industry not um okay
00:39:02
too many cooks whatever and the cleanup
00:39:05
the cleanup to get it set up will cost
00:39:06
you more than what you anticipated yeah
00:39:07
so so when it it came back to you know
00:39:10
probably in hindsight when we got to
00:39:11
2003 and I was in charge of well sort of
00:39:15
overseeing the classic and running the
00:39:16
comedy it was one person you know as
00:39:18
opposed to the panel of people we' had
00:39:20
beforehand and I just think that was
00:39:22
probably the reality of it that we
00:39:24
needed to strip it back to just the
00:39:26
essential ele you know we had Big Dreams
00:39:29
not all Big Dreams pay off though
00:39:32
yeah yeah so when did it become easy or
00:39:35
easyier I I think it's worth pointing
00:39:37
out um to set up this podcast there's um
00:39:40
there's uh like an email inbox info
00:39:43
classic. co.nz or whatever um so I
00:39:45
messaged that inbox and um got a got got
00:39:48
a reply a couple of hours later from you
00:39:50
yeah so you are still very very Hands-On
00:39:52
I'm the only one there's no I'm the only
00:39:54
full-time employee of both comedy. co.
00:39:56
inz Productions and the classic I only
00:39:58
I'm still the only full-time employee um
00:40:01
the rest are part-timers who work at the
00:40:02
classic but I I run the production
00:40:04
company on my own has it been a good
00:40:07
living or is it a labor of love uh
00:40:09
always a labor of love but you asked me
00:40:11
of I'm going to give a big plug here you
00:40:13
asked me which at which point did it get
00:40:16
easier when I got married to Bridget
00:40:18
who's an occupational therapist and if
00:40:20
you know
00:40:21
OTS um OTS know how to organize stuff
00:40:25
they also really good at fixing stuff
00:40:28
she's much better at making stuff
00:40:30
building stuff out of Kit sets than I
00:40:32
ever was so if you buy one of those
00:40:34
things online and it gets delivered
00:40:36
Bridget is the one probably going to be
00:40:38
assembling it um she also I think
00:40:41
disassembled me and reassembled me and
00:40:43
said look you know you've got something
00:40:45
here but we've got to do it properly so
00:40:47
she really got me uh focused in the
00:40:50
right direction um and uh brilliant
00:40:53
because she if anything Bridget's coming
00:40:55
into the company made the big difference
00:40:58
she now she doesn't work as much for the
00:41:00
company now but she did for about 3
00:41:02
years during that period that when I
00:41:04
took over on my
00:41:06
own it's amazing how life works out day
00:41:09
like you know that that wedding where
00:41:11
none of your friends thought you were
00:41:12
going to that day like how different
00:41:13
would your life like had you not gone to
00:41:14
the wedding that day exactly that that
00:41:16
happens all the time you cross paths
00:41:17
with people and you go you can't believe
00:41:19
that suddenly that person you've crossed
00:41:21
paths with is the it's such a turning
00:41:24
point in your life I've got that I I
00:41:26
look back at lots of turning points you
00:41:28
know um uh that I go that was a
00:41:31
Cornerstone or turning a corner in my
00:41:33
life and getting married definitely was
00:41:35
yeah yeah just puts your I was going to
00:41:38
say puts your life on a different path
00:41:39
but it's on the same path but it just
00:41:40
sort of maybe like course corrects or
00:41:43
just yeah it's amazing it's really
00:41:45
inspiring um okay so you mentioned
00:41:47
before your retirement age now like are
00:41:50
you slowing down what are
00:41:51
you not really because as I said it's
00:41:55
it's job I love doing and anything it I
00:41:58
wouldn't want to stop doing it because
00:42:00
it really makes your day it puts puts a
00:42:02
big kick in your step every day because
00:42:04
I get to sit there and think of things I
00:42:06
might want to do with um local comedians
00:42:09
or even now I'm planning the
00:42:10
international comedians that are coming
00:42:12
to the Comedy Festival next year and um
00:42:14
and to me being able to do that is so
00:42:17
much fun including we're we're looking
00:42:19
at a tour with the boy with tape on his
00:42:23
face coming back from Las Vegas
00:42:24
headlining the festival that won't be
00:42:26
announced yet you've heard it for the
00:42:27
first time maybe um it's not it's not
00:42:30
signed and sealed yet but that really
00:42:32
gives me a kick because um Sam who is
00:42:34
tap face was a kid we found on the
00:42:36
streets busking on the streets of Christ
00:42:38
Church who then went on to develop the
00:42:40
tape face show at the classic toured the
00:42:43
world of it stormed the Edinburgh Fringe
00:42:45
stormed America's Got Talent he went
00:42:48
viral With viral he's been back on the
00:42:50
best of America's Got Talent a number of
00:42:52
times has a residency in Las Vegas like
00:42:55
if there's a kid I've made a different
00:42:57
too Sam would be one and here we are
00:42:59
talking about him coming back to do a
00:43:01
little tour of the country in May next
00:43:02
year that is the juice yeah you can you
00:43:06
can see your eyes light up when you talk
00:43:08
about um yeah about some of these people
00:43:10
that you've seen um you know I suppose
00:43:12
from the beginning of their career and
00:43:13
you've watched them develop um it's a
00:43:15
real sense of Pride eh yeah well also
00:43:17
it's not just the locals it's the
00:43:19
Internationals we've had here who who um
00:43:23
still keep in touch um and still talk
00:43:25
about their visit to the New Zealand
00:43:27
International Comedy Festival and
00:43:28
particularly their visit to the classic
00:43:30
and some of them say there is not
00:43:32
another comedy club in the world like
00:43:34
the classic they said you go to most
00:43:35
places and it's competitive there's no
00:43:38
love lost between the headliners and the
00:43:40
new faces um uh here they come in and
00:43:43
they go my God there's there's a
00:43:45
community at this comedy club and and
00:43:47
the headliners sit down with the raw
00:43:49
Comedians and give them time and support
00:43:52
and they said that does not happen
00:43:54
anywhere else in the world particularly
00:43:56
in places like America where it's dog
00:43:58
eat dog and they and so they talk about
00:44:01
the club Stuart Lee who you know is one
00:44:03
of my favorite UK Comedians and if you
00:44:05
don't know Stuart Lee just search Stuart
00:44:07
Lee and watch his Clips he's Absolute
00:44:09
Comedy gold well he published his novel
00:44:12
and um his book of his life and he said
00:44:15
his two favorite comedy clubs in the
00:44:17
world uh the stand in Edinburgh which is
00:44:20
absolutely you know a classic um again
00:44:23
it has one person behind it um and the
00:44:26
classic in in New Zealand and that
00:44:28
Stuart's two favorite clubs in the world
00:44:30
um James acter who you may know um was
00:44:33
in the recent Ghostbusters film has has
00:44:36
got amazing podcasts and toured he's
00:44:39
been here five times and I toured him
00:44:41
here five times and he said in his book
00:44:45
I mean I I hate blowing my own horn but
00:44:48
he published in his book that his
00:44:49
favorite producer in the world is me and
00:44:51
with just little old me in New Zealand
00:44:53
he gets he's produced all over the world
00:44:56
yeah and and thank you for um as you put
00:44:58
it blowing your own horn because this is
00:44:59
like a culture and environment that you
00:45:01
have um been the architect of entirely
00:45:04
oh well I just love all you yeah I love
00:45:06
meeting these particularly going to
00:45:07
Edinburgh Fringe which I've done I mean
00:45:09
I've been there about 14 times and you
00:45:11
go to the Edinburgh Fringe and you go
00:45:13
around all these tiny little venues and
00:45:15
you spot new Talent before their bigger
00:45:18
names you see them doing maybe their
00:45:19
first Fringe and I have the opportunity
00:45:21
to say to them after that Fringe or
00:45:23
while we're there would you like to come
00:45:25
to New Zealand next year to the comedy
00:45:26
FES
00:45:27
and their eyes light up they go
00:45:30
what they've never left the UK they've
00:45:33
never done comedy outside the UK and
00:45:35
they get to come to New Zealand they
00:45:37
think it's fantastic Simon Pig who you
00:45:39
know the actor Simon Pig came here in
00:45:41
the mid90s uh first time he had left the
00:45:44
country came here did The Comedy
00:45:46
Festival we sent him back and his agent
00:45:48
got in touch and said Scott what have
00:45:51
you all done to Simon cuz he left here a
00:45:54
nice boy he's come back with white
00:45:55
peroxide here and tattoos and we went
00:45:58
yep that's
00:46:00
us and then there's been a lot like that
00:46:03
over the years um Tommy Tian um was
00:46:05
another one he was here the same year as
00:46:07
Simon um Dave Gorman who had never left
00:46:10
the UK came here uh and Ross Noble he
00:46:14
was another one yeah he yeah yeah Ross
00:46:17
um and we've had lots of famous faces
00:46:20
drop in yeah they were already famous
00:46:22
but they they hear about the classic
00:46:23
from all these people in the UK and they
00:46:26
often get in touch and and say look I'm
00:46:27
going to be down the road playing spark
00:46:29
Arena but could I come in the night
00:46:31
before and do 10 minutes and I go yep
00:46:33
sure oh like heard drop some names oh
00:46:35
Ben Elton he's he's popped in um uh John
00:46:39
Bishop who's coming here shortly um uh
00:46:42
alen Davies was one of our first acts
00:46:44
that we ever produced International acts
00:46:46
we ever produced when he was young now
00:46:48
of course he's um he's big time and you
00:46:50
see him on Qi I don't even know if he
00:46:52
does as much live work Alan Davies Bill
00:46:54
Bailey um was another one who came to us
00:46:56
early on in his career incredible um and
00:46:59
I'm trying to think of the people the
00:47:00
sneaky people who have dropped him more
00:47:01
recently um you know funny enough I'm
00:47:04
not I'm not thinking of the names
00:47:06
because they just pop in do a spot and
00:47:07
they've gone you know wa why do they
00:47:09
yeah if they're doing shots back in why
00:47:10
do they want to come in and do a
00:47:11
10minute Sit is it like sharpen them if
00:47:13
they've never done New Zealand before
00:47:15
they just want to make sure that new
00:47:17
zealanders will understand their accent
00:47:20
sometimes it is just that they just they
00:47:22
come in and they've got a 10-minute what
00:47:24
they call like highlight set and they
00:47:26
just want to know they might just be
00:47:28
trying out a dozen different references
00:47:30
that they use in their act they just
00:47:31
want to make sure that the punch lines
00:47:33
the references the accent connects with
00:47:35
a New Zealand audience that's all they
00:47:37
want to do yeah yeah wow that's so cool
00:47:40
yeah one of the um yeah one of the best
00:47:42
shows I've seen there like I I bummed
00:47:43
into ree Derby and he said to me oh um
00:47:46
I'm doing a thing at the classic tonight
00:47:47
you should come along it's just a
00:47:48
low-key thing and it was um I've never
00:47:50
seen anything like this before it was
00:47:52
just him with a bunch of notes and he
00:47:54
was sort of like um running through
00:47:56
basically triing jokes cuz he was
00:47:57
working on a a DVD at the time um so it
00:48:01
was just sort of I don't know if you
00:48:02
call it refining your SE or what it's
00:48:04
called but that's what he was doing and
00:48:05
the audience was sort like guinea pigs
00:48:07
and it was um that's big Wednesday
00:48:09
that's big Wednesday is fresh Comedy
00:48:10
Night with Pros trying out new material
00:48:12
you have a dozen comedians on stage the
00:48:15
raw comedians who have got it right at
00:48:16
the open mic they graduate up to Big
00:48:18
Wednesday so they get their first big
00:48:20
Wednesday they'll be sharing the stage
00:48:22
with a variety of pros of different
00:48:24
levels all trying out new stuff and I
00:48:26
think think the bigger the pro the more
00:48:28
casual they will be about it to the
00:48:30
point of having a list of notes and
00:48:31
things yeah he he just didn't even
00:48:33
didn't even care if it was uh funny or
00:48:35
if it didn't work or not it was um I
00:48:37
almost got used at the end of the night
00:48:39
he was using the audience but um in the
00:48:41
best possible way it was it's a it's a
00:48:42
comedy trick too that if you lower the
00:48:44
expectations of the audience it's much
00:48:47
easier to be funny so if you say to an
00:48:49
audience okay I'm here now re Derby for
00:48:52
the next uh seven minutes I'm trying out
00:48:54
new stuff I've never done before and
00:48:56
I've got a list that I've rented on what
00:48:58
you've done there is completely lowered
00:49:00
the expectations of the audience they're
00:49:01
going okay we're not going to see
00:49:02
polished re stby we're not going to see
00:49:04
material that's proven we when in fact
00:49:07
we should expect not to laugh that's
00:49:10
comedy goal if you can take that away
00:49:12
from an audience to the point where they
00:49:14
don't expect to laugh then there's only
00:49:16
one place for them to go yeah and that's
00:49:18
to laugh and they will laugh so much
00:49:20
easier at all the jokes if they weren't
00:49:22
expecting to laugh in the first
00:49:25
place yes so for you um we talked before
00:49:28
about the receivership thing um would
00:49:30
that be the biggest challenge biggest
00:49:31
challenges you've ever gone through I'm
00:49:32
thinking like because there's been CO as
00:49:34
well Global financial crisis we're in a
00:49:36
recession at the moment yeah the I mean
00:49:38
Co came along and by that stage I had
00:49:41
sort of learned that you've got to I'm a
00:49:43
I'm an optimist so the basic rule of an
00:49:46
optimist is that soon as you're
00:49:47
presented with a problem it's not a
00:49:49
problem it's an opportunity and that's
00:49:51
what I look at every problem as an
00:49:53
opportunity and if I can't then someone
00:49:56
you know I need to be reminded to do it
00:49:58
because that's the key to overcoming any
00:50:00
problem is to go okay here's a problem
00:50:03
covid pandemic closed down for God knows
00:50:06
how long what's the opportunity here
00:50:09
well the opportunity was do you know
00:50:11
what we haven't painted the club for for
00:50:13
10 years 15 years we haven't fixed
00:50:16
things so we spent though all those all
00:50:20
that downtime repainting the club we
00:50:22
didn't change the daycor we just gave it
00:50:24
fresh colors fresh coats of paint we
00:50:26
changed a few things but I got a lot of
00:50:28
work done I got all the work done in
00:50:30
that club that I had been putting off
00:50:32
for probably years all done during
00:50:34
lockdown so there was an opportunity for
00:50:37
made out of a problem uh that comes
00:50:39
along all the time you know like Global
00:50:41
financial crisis um I'm sure we
00:50:44
reinvented the wheel during that time
00:50:46
and we reinvented the wheel when we
00:50:47
liquidated in 2001 so that's what you
00:50:50
continually are doing going okay how can
00:50:52
we turn this to a positive do you get
00:50:54
stressed by anything business related
00:50:56
out you oh yeah uh I was I had an
00:50:59
anxiety attack on last Friday night um
00:51:02
just about uh it was a hard week we had
00:51:05
small audiences I was going we haven't
00:51:07
had small audiences for for quite some
00:51:09
time not since preco who what are these
00:51:12
small audiences oh my God it's the Down
00:51:14
Season the off season's here we haven't
00:51:16
had an offseason what am I I'm and I had
00:51:18
an anxiety attack about oh I've
00:51:20
forgotten what to do with the off seon
00:51:23
and um and uh and also I had the whole
00:51:25
festival planning stuff going on in my
00:51:27
head about you know big commitment to
00:51:29
The Comedy Festival in May next year all
00:51:31
that planning is done now all the deals
00:51:33
are done every all the venue hire
00:51:35
agreements everything's done now and I'm
00:51:37
going oh my God so much work to do and
00:51:39
business is not right and so massive
00:51:41
anxiety attack um prompted by I'll admit
00:51:45
freely here prompted by having a gin on
00:51:48
Friday night I gave up alcohol four
00:51:50
months ago um just because I knew it was
00:51:53
a healthy thing to do and I wanted to
00:51:54
see what it was like you know here's an
00:51:56
opportunity
00:51:57
I didn't have a problem drinking but I
00:51:59
wanted to see what would happen if I
00:52:00
stopped drinking and so I hav't had a
00:52:03
and so last Friday
00:52:04
night my wife Bridget was away for a
00:52:07
girls weekend and and she was telling me
00:52:09
Oh we're just having a gin and I went
00:52:12
I'm home with the boys we're watching a
00:52:14
movie I think I'll have a gin and I
00:52:16
actually think it backfired on me and at
00:52:19
midnight I'm having this massive anxiety
00:52:21
attack can't go to sleep because of all
00:52:23
these things that are going on and I
00:52:25
went oh no I was at the
00:52:28
Gin well yeah it probably was you know
00:52:30
yeah people talk about um a thing called
00:52:32
anxiety which usually happens the day
00:52:34
after drinking well there you go I but
00:52:36
that was a few hours I see you didn't
00:52:38
even get to enjoy the uh the bars of
00:52:40
intoxication all no I hated it I boy if
00:52:43
anything underlined the fact you've done
00:52:44
the right thing it was that having that
00:52:46
gin i' sudden woke up the next morning
00:52:48
go that was it I'm not going to have the
00:52:51
social gin anymore um so you think
00:52:53
you're off the booze now oh I had four
00:52:54
months I haven't even thought twice
00:52:55
about it I feel years younger yeah yeah
00:52:58
yeah it's great well what's the biggest
00:52:59
difference everyone talks about the
00:53:00
sleep how your sleep improves oh God
00:53:02
last night I think I slept about 10 or
00:53:04
11 hours um I woke up this morning going
00:53:07
I hope I it felt like I'd slept for two
00:53:09
days it was fantastic but uh yeah great
00:53:12
sleep um uh also just funny enough that
00:53:16
you get a lot of sort of aches I think
00:53:19
it's just the alcohol in your body you
00:53:21
wake up and go oh my God I'm achy what's
00:53:22
that about and I and that's all gone uh
00:53:26
so oh like inflammation or something
00:53:27
maybe yeah I think so yeah yeah it might
00:53:29
be sort of inflammation I'm sure the
00:53:31
liver hates
00:53:32
alcohol I don't think I'm the first to
00:53:34
realize that yes some doctors say that I
00:53:37
think they do that it's a theory um yeah
00:53:39
I'm I'm yeah I'm constantly I I love my
00:53:42
red wines P pen on Wes in particular I'm
00:53:44
constantly like re-evaluating and
00:53:46
reassessing my relationship with alcohol
00:53:47
because I know I drink more than what I
00:53:48
should and yeah do you go to I I love it
00:53:51
when you go to the doctor and the and
00:53:52
you going for I go for an annual checkup
00:53:54
you know you do at my age and um and the
00:53:57
doctor will say to you and how many
00:53:58
standard drinks would you have a week
00:54:01
and firstly you're saying to yourself oh
00:54:02
my God how big is a standard drink I've
00:54:05
got no idea I know it's not my poor um
00:54:09
you know you that that I I stopped using
00:54:11
a nip measure a long time ago and uh and
00:54:14
you you and so they know too that you're
00:54:16
thinking this and so you go um uh six
00:54:21
and you know the doctor's going that's
00:54:23
12 if nobody is telling the truth
00:54:27
about their consumption and a standard
00:54:28
drink yes as I said I'm a Wine Drinker
00:54:31
um if you go to a restaurant um yeah the
00:54:33
sort of poor they give you in a wine
00:54:35
glass it's a standard drink and it's
00:54:36
like a you're like what is this it's
00:54:38
well you know you they give you that
00:54:39
they have that big glass and they give
00:54:41
you they give you the standard drink and
00:54:42
you go no I don't want to taste it I
00:54:44
want to drink it you go they go no no
00:54:46
that's the poor you're thinking that's
00:54:48
that's that taste you do when you sort
00:54:49
of put it in your mouth swi it around
00:54:50
and spit it out suddenly you realize oh
00:54:53
the the the glass sizes I'm having at
00:54:55
home that's definitely more one standard
00:54:56
drink oh that's good yeah no one no one
00:54:59
who gives up alcohol um ever sort of
00:55:01
regret sort of misses a day like every
00:55:03
single person that you speak to that's
00:55:05
giving up alcohol the I'm not I I've
00:55:07
mentioned it only because I think it uh
00:55:10
you were talking about things like that
00:55:11
but I'm I don't preach it you know I'm
00:55:13
quite happy to say to someone I did it
00:55:16
um I don't tell everyone else they have
00:55:17
to do it you know it's it's your own
00:55:19
decision it's much easier when it's your
00:55:20
own decision yeah yeah yeah I love that
00:55:23
and I mean if anyone chooses to become
00:55:25
like an anti antio Crusader like you
00:55:27
know fair play to them as well but um
00:55:30
yeah as long as you're doing it just for
00:55:31
you I suppose that's yeah well it's a
00:55:32
danger of the workplace you know where I
00:55:34
work um I've got to be careful I don't
00:55:35
drink the
00:55:36
profit and so uh in a way it's good and
00:55:40
I turned up at work the other night and
00:55:42
I said to cam the bman um he he said the
00:55:45
usual and I said look could you boil the
00:55:46
kettle I've bought a licorice tea bag
00:55:48
I'm going to have a licorice tea well
00:55:50
did that c that was a good joke that got
00:55:52
a lot of laughter that night right that
00:55:55
one down um yeah when you walked into
00:55:58
pod lab today we we offered you a drink
00:56:00
and you gave us your coffee coffee and
00:56:02
tea schedule so you got um two coffees
00:56:04
before midday it's very very structured
00:56:07
two coffees before midday Y and then
00:56:09
three teas one one first thing in the
00:56:11
morning that's the lemon and ginger this
00:56:13
is going to sound weird um an Irish
00:56:16
Breakfast at about 3 in the afternoon
00:56:17
and a licorice tea at around about 8
00:56:19
9:00 at night you ever mix it up and you
00:56:21
know I do look the licorice tea friends
00:56:24
of mine drink licorice tea and they
00:56:25
drink it day and I go no no no licorice
00:56:27
tea is too exotic that's an evening tea
00:56:31
you can't drink Exotic Tea in the middle
00:56:33
of the day that's like having a wine at
00:56:35
midday and they just look at me like I'm
00:56:37
some sort of weird Nutter I think so I
00:56:39
like to savor my licorice tea at night
00:56:42
uh now we're talking teas we're just
00:56:44
we're going to be changing the world out
00:56:46
there do just just a couple of Boomers a
00:56:48
couple of Boomers talking about our cup
00:56:49
of tea habits yeah um also what does
00:56:51
like an average um average day or week
00:56:53
look like now like how how many times a
00:56:55
week are you at the class I try and go
00:56:57
I'll be there a couple of times a week
00:56:58
at least um and I do work some shifts
00:57:00
like uh my staff all have um we tend to
00:57:03
employ creative people so a lot of them
00:57:05
um are currently in their exam periods
00:57:08
at University I've got two kids who are
00:57:10
at the South Seas Film School we've
00:57:12
employed a lot of people from the South
00:57:13
Seas film school over the years a lot of
00:57:15
people from the mains music school when
00:57:17
it was running uh also just University
00:57:19
students and um they all have their exam
00:57:21
season so while their exam seasons on I
00:57:23
tend to be covering shifts front of
00:57:25
house I don't do bar shifts I don't
00:57:28
pretend I know how to pour a drink um so
00:57:30
I I'll I'll I can manage the place and I
00:57:32
can do front of house um so I sometimes
00:57:35
can be there two or three nights a week
00:57:37
and then there'll be another week where
00:57:38
I don't go there at all yeah and are you
00:57:41
when the comedians are on like are you
00:57:43
busy working but keeping an ear on them
00:57:45
or are you watching them yeah they say
00:57:47
when they hear me laughing they know
00:57:48
that's going wrong that's a big joke in
00:57:50
the club that if if you can hear me
00:57:52
laughing in the club probably only me
00:57:54
laughing the comedian on stage know
00:57:57
whoop W I've just done something wrong
00:57:59
oh CU it means no one in the crowd is
00:58:00
laughing and no but it's often because
00:58:02
the comedians gone and done some of
00:58:04
their best material and misdelivered it
00:58:07
and mistimed it and hasn't got the laugh
00:58:09
they were expecting and there's nothing
00:58:10
funnier than looking at a comedian's
00:58:12
face trying to carry on from a point
00:58:14
where they've just delivered one of
00:58:15
their great punch lines and no one's
00:58:17
laughed and and and you go and I'm at
00:58:19
the back in his sterics watching it go
00:58:21
wrong and they go oh no he was watching
00:58:24
oh god um but I I sometimes just keep my
00:58:27
ear out that's sometimes I don't have to
00:58:29
sit because I'm really lucky people go
00:58:31
how do you know what's funny and
00:58:33
particularly you know I I I I admit at
00:58:35
65 how am I going to know that that a
00:58:38
comedy that a 20 25 year old is doing is
00:58:41
funny because they're going to say well
00:58:42
you know you're not in touch with that
00:58:44
generation but I don't have to be
00:58:46
because I've made sure there's a room
00:58:47
full of people doing that job for me so
00:58:50
I can sit at the back of the room and
00:58:51
just listen to the crowd and the crowd
00:58:53
do not lie and I've told the comedians
00:58:56
there are so many different types of
00:58:58
laughter there's the laughter of pity
00:59:00
which comes from an audience going oh
00:59:02
they're trying hard you know we'll give
00:59:04
them a bit of pity laughs and you know
00:59:06
and it's painful and then there but it's
00:59:09
the Applause breaks it's the
00:59:10
uncontrollable laughter that that
00:59:12
culminates in an Applause break no
00:59:14
audience will give an Applause Break um
00:59:17
uh that's planned they that'll be the
00:59:20
bit they didn't know was coming that's
00:59:22
when they'll applaud a comedian so
00:59:24
you're listening often for Applause
00:59:25
breaks and those Applause breaks will
00:59:27
filter through the floors and through
00:59:28
the walls I don't even have to be
00:59:30
sitting in the room I could be sitting
00:59:31
in the front bar and alsoo all of a
00:59:33
sudden you hear there's massive Applause
00:59:35
break coming from the venue and you know
00:59:37
that comedian has just really
00:59:39
[Music]
00:59:41
killed does anyone do that real early on
00:59:45
you you do your raw comedy nights like
00:59:48
is you must have seen people over the
00:59:49
years that come along and they just kill
00:59:51
it immediately and you just know they've
00:59:52
got something special they are the
00:59:54
legends there are people who take two
00:59:56
years of raw comedy to even get close to
00:59:58
getting it right and then we've got
00:59:59
comedians who turn up and do one heat
01:00:03
and they from that heat they make the
01:00:05
semi-finals they get through the
01:00:07
semi-finals they go to the final and on
01:00:08
an odd occasion that person will win the
01:00:11
raw comedy quest with their third gig
01:00:13
it's happened I think twice mare um won
01:00:17
it in 2011 with his third gig in that
01:00:22
final were people like Pac CII Eli
01:00:24
matthewson Tim bat James R um Sam Smith
01:00:29
who does a lot of TV andz comedy work
01:00:31
yeah co-winner of the um the the traitor
01:00:34
last year as well all of them were in
01:00:35
that final M third gig won the quest um
01:00:39
and he now lives in the states still
01:00:40
does a bit of Comedy he's got a big
01:00:42
management company he manages talent in
01:00:44
Los Angeles now um so uh Mo's one um
01:00:48
I've had a few Joel McCarthy keep an eye
01:00:50
on him he made the finals he didn't win
01:00:53
it but he made the final with about his
01:00:54
third or fourth gig um and he's in the
01:00:57
Comedy Festival next year at the classic
01:00:59
Melanie bracewell she won the RO comedy
01:01:02
Quest and her career is just gone taken
01:01:04
off now yeah can yeah do you have to be
01:01:08
funny to be a good comedian or is this
01:01:10
some people that you've seen that are
01:01:11
like um total [ __ ] but they've had a
01:01:14
really good work ethic um and a really
01:01:16
good attitude and they've uh taught
01:01:18
themselves funny yeah at the two ends of
01:01:19
the spectrum there are the people who
01:01:20
are great writers and you you can be
01:01:22
watching them on stage and go that was a
01:01:24
really nicely written bit of Comedy but
01:01:27
not performed very well at the other end
01:01:30
of the spectrum you've got natural
01:01:32
performers with huge stage presence but
01:01:35
lacking a bit of material and on the odd
01:01:37
occasion we put those two parties
01:01:38
together we go you need to talk to them
01:01:40
and you need to talk to that one sit
01:01:42
down work together and that happens so
01:01:46
the person with all the presence and can
01:01:48
learn a bit of craft from a good writer
01:01:51
and the person with the CRA with the
01:01:52
craft can learn a little bit from the
01:01:54
person with the Performing ability and
01:01:56
the presence um so you you it's great
01:01:59
and then some people just have enough of
01:02:01
either to move ahead you know they've
01:02:03
got both things yeah have you ever had
01:02:06
to have a petty conversation with
01:02:07
someone where you pull them aside and
01:02:08
say listen you know you've been coming
01:02:10
here every Wednesday night for the last
01:02:12
four years it's just not going to it's
01:02:14
not getting better it's not going to
01:02:15
work I I think um I've don't I've never
01:02:18
told someone to stop yeah uh uh but I
01:02:23
think they get most people when they
01:02:25
been gigging for quite a while they get
01:02:27
to understand the rhythms of how the
01:02:29
classic is programmed and how I produce
01:02:32
and they will soon glean from that where
01:02:35
they sit in the greater scheme of things
01:02:38
and they will realize they don't
01:02:39
necessarily sit in the the professional
01:02:43
um going next level group okay cuz
01:02:46
they're not moving through the ranks or
01:02:47
the you see comedians going next level
01:02:50
and sometimes you'll see a young
01:02:51
comedian go next level and there'll be
01:02:53
another Bunch who started before that
01:02:55
comedian going hold it how come they're
01:02:58
getting ahead particularly you know the
01:03:00
benchmarks in the industry like they're
01:03:01
getting nominated for a billy award how
01:03:03
come they're getting ahead how come I'm
01:03:05
not getting ahead and I think the
01:03:07
realization might just filter through oh
01:03:10
maybe it's me you know then it's not the
01:03:12
industry ganging up on me it's me not
01:03:14
realizing that I just I can't go next
01:03:17
level because I just haven't quite got
01:03:19
the gear I haven't quite got the
01:03:21
performance that's going to take me
01:03:22
there that doesn't stop you performing
01:03:24
because we have lots of different you
01:03:26
can perform at and I've got hobby
01:03:28
comedians people who have perfectly good
01:03:30
day jobs who never attend to tour the
01:03:32
world they you know they've got families
01:03:34
they've got day jobs neither of which
01:03:36
they want to sacrifice at all but they
01:03:38
just love doing comedy and they they
01:03:40
will perform regularly they just may
01:03:42
never headline or they may never may
01:03:45
never do their own one hour show in The
01:03:46
Comedy Festival and they're happy with
01:03:48
that they are happy with that because
01:03:50
their number one pleasure is getting on
01:03:51
stage and making people laugh quite
01:03:53
frankly I don't know many comedians that
01:03:55
do it for the money they do it for that
01:03:58
beautiful moment when the audience is
01:04:00
laughing at something that they've
01:04:01
crafted and constructed and performed
01:04:03
themselves and you know that is that's
01:04:06
gold for people yeah that feeds the soul
01:04:08
yeah you you have very few do it for the
01:04:10
money but um you you almost
01:04:13
single-handedly have created a pathway
01:04:15
where it is a career option for some
01:04:16
people you know what I mean yeah um
01:04:18
about the best I pay as rent money you
01:04:20
know I would tell you probably never buy
01:04:22
a house from the money you earn from the
01:04:23
classic but by that stage if you if
01:04:25
you're a headliner at the classic you're
01:04:27
already moving on to the to the to the
01:04:29
big pain gigs um things like podcast Dom
01:04:32
like you're doing you those are the big
01:04:33
pain gigs um and and all those TV shows
01:04:37
that you see people doing um you know
01:04:39
that M guy Montgomery his career in the
01:04:41
last year or so has just gone through
01:04:43
the roof you know the with the guy
01:04:45
Montgomery spelling be there's a prime
01:04:47
example of someone who came through raw
01:04:49
comedy I don't know if guy made the F he
01:04:51
might have made the final I thinking
01:04:53
back when that was he might have made
01:04:55
the final didn't win it he was he was
01:04:57
took a while to just find his comedy
01:04:59
voice that's the hard part finding your
01:05:01
voice and when they find it they really
01:05:04
start to work and then he just started
01:05:06
opening doors and then he he took the
01:05:09
move to Australia he got management over
01:05:11
there he did the guy Montgomery spelling
01:05:13
be here recently it got picked up by
01:05:15
Australian TV he's performed it live in
01:05:17
the UK now wouldn't be surprised if the
01:05:20
UK are looking at it as well so yeah
01:05:23
yeah I I saw an I was in Sydney in
01:05:24
September I saw an said that on TV and
01:05:26
it was [ __ ] good yeah it was really
01:05:28
good great series because it's not about
01:05:30
being comedian it's not about comedians
01:05:33
it's about spilling yeah oh know it was
01:05:35
incredible um so are there many people
01:05:38
like him where you you know you're not
01:05:42
you're not sort of thinking to yourself
01:05:43
that guy's got something that guy's
01:05:44
going to be the next big thing no I I I
01:05:47
would never pretend to say that that I
01:05:49
had uh everything to do with guy
01:05:51
Montgomery success at all is that all I
01:05:53
did was provide him with a stage to try
01:05:55
and develop what he was doing which is
01:05:57
all I do is I put them on the stage some
01:05:59
of them become more commercially viable
01:06:01
some of them move on to headliner and
01:06:02
you know you can you can pay them for
01:06:04
doing 30 minutes and closing a show
01:06:06
other times you're just paying them for
01:06:07
10 or 15 minute spots obviously that's
01:06:10
slightly less money um but all you're
01:06:12
doing is giving them the stage what they
01:06:14
do with it after that I I can't be too
01:06:16
responsible for where they go after the
01:06:18
classic guys done a brilliant job of
01:06:20
taking himself Next Level Next Level and
01:06:23
Next Level again um there are some
01:06:26
comedians who have left New Zealand and
01:06:27
gone to the UK and all they're doing is
01:06:29
working the pro circuit in the UK but of
01:06:31
course the pro circuit in the UK there
01:06:33
are hundreds of classics there's not
01:06:35
just one classic like we've got in New
01:06:37
Zealand there are hundreds of Classics
01:06:39
you can be doing comedy four nights a
01:06:42
week um doing headliner or well pained
01:06:46
spots all over the UK and making a good
01:06:48
living out of it yeah how long do you
01:06:51
think the uh average sort of
01:06:52
apprenticeship is like how how many five
01:06:54
years 5 years 5 years before you can
01:06:56
probably expect to be a regular Pro um
01:06:59
it can be up to 10 years before you'll
01:07:00
make a headliner probably eight years
01:07:03
I've had some good people who made
01:07:04
became Headliners um and and sometimes
01:07:07
people don't realize how long comedians
01:07:08
have been in the industry they go God
01:07:10
they're an overnight success story and
01:07:12
I'll go actually they did the raw comedy
01:07:14
Quest 10 years ago it's the the iceberg
01:07:17
isn't it yeah you see the bit out of the
01:07:18
water but you see yeah um okay well
01:07:22
let's run through some names and um um
01:07:25
if there's a story about the first
01:07:26
impression of these people let me know
01:07:28
Guy Williams yeah well I mean guy uh he
01:07:31
is an unusual person and as he's turned
01:07:33
out and he's admitted more recently in
01:07:35
his comedy you know um neurodiverse not
01:07:39
something that he was aware of years ago
01:07:41
something he's discovered and uh it
01:07:43
might account for some of the crazy
01:07:45
comedy that he has done um so he is he's
01:07:49
not uh he can be an acquired taste for
01:07:53
some audiences um he seems to poiz
01:07:56
people but that's not necessarily his
01:07:57
Live Comedy work that's done that tends
01:07:59
to more be his television work and he
01:08:01
seems to have audiences that love hate
01:08:03
him um sometimes it's really cool to see
01:08:06
a live audience come and see him and you
01:08:07
can hear people afterwards go oh he's
01:08:10
nothing like he is on TV he's actually
01:08:11
he's really funny here isn't he uh Rose
01:08:14
Meto yeah well Rose was in the Raw
01:08:16
comedy Quest I think she was runner up
01:08:18
her year um and so she did a little bit
01:08:21
of Comedy but she's typical of she
01:08:23
wasn't really a classic stand-up iian
01:08:25
she did a bit of work but she wasn't as
01:08:28
comfortable on a standup stage as she
01:08:31
was on a theater stage so she started to
01:08:33
do a lot more of her comedy and theater
01:08:35
but she took off to the UK and that's
01:08:37
where her career has taken off she
01:08:39
hadn't made the same inroads here before
01:08:41
she left New Zealand no I think she was
01:08:43
doing like some sketches and stuff on
01:08:45
John on Ben before going to the UK and
01:08:48
then again that was all essential
01:08:49
experience I mean she should look back
01:08:51
and she won't resent those years she'll
01:08:53
call those basic training and she got to
01:08:55
the UK with some skills but also she's
01:08:58
far more exotic in the UK than she is in
01:09:00
New Zealand and that's often the case
01:09:03
that a New Zealand comedian is just like
01:09:04
oh yeah we've got lots of those here and
01:09:06
then they go to a foreign market and
01:09:08
they're they're really exotic you know
01:09:10
in the UK the New Zealand accent and the
01:09:12
New Zealand personality um um Celio
01:09:15
Sullivan who won our raw comedy Quest I
01:09:17
think back in about
01:09:19
2000 um yeah around he was an early
01:09:21
winner and he's in the UK now and also
01:09:23
around Europe touring show called the
01:09:26
idiots guide to New Zealand and um and
01:09:29
it's a live show that takes advantage of
01:09:32
all the crazy idiosyncrasies of been a
01:09:34
New Zealander and it's a 60-minute live
01:09:36
show which he's done at the Edinburgh
01:09:38
Fringe now for two or three years and
01:09:40
that's a what a great show for a kiwi to
01:09:42
do in a place like Europe or England
01:09:44
where everyone's craving odd information
01:09:47
about New Zealand who would have thought
01:09:49
there was a market for it there is okay
01:09:52
um Ben Hurley first impressions of him
01:09:55
oh Ben's got a great story because he
01:09:57
was in he never even went through the
01:09:58
raw comedy Quest because back when he
01:10:00
started doing comedy there was a thing
01:10:02
called pulp comedy the TV series
01:10:04
actually did 13 series on television
01:10:07
initially with Mike King hosting um Paul
01:10:09
ego hosted a few Brendan loveg Gro
01:10:11
hosted a couple um Ben Hurley came along
01:10:14
and within a a year or two of of
01:10:17
starting he skipped the raw comedy Quest
01:10:19
and got straight onto pulp comedy the TV
01:10:21
show for the three minute opening spot
01:10:23
like the the new faces slot but the rule
01:10:26
was if you done pulp comedy the TV show
01:10:28
you couldn't enter the raw comedy Quest
01:10:30
so he hosted the grand final of the raw
01:10:32
comedy Quest a couple of weeks ago uh
01:10:35
and one of the things he told the
01:10:36
audience is he told them that story he
01:10:38
said I didn't even have to do this I
01:10:40
went straight to television of course he
01:10:42
would of course he' say that he's an
01:10:45
outlier though right like yeah yeah um
01:10:48
Ura cson yep another one who her she
01:10:51
started late the year she began she was
01:10:53
working in advertising um she did the
01:10:56
raw comedy Quest but she had a little
01:10:58
bit to learn so she she made it to the
01:11:01
final on about her maybe her third gig
01:11:04
so she went through the did a couple of
01:11:05
Heats did the semi-finals she made it to
01:11:07
the final but she didn't win it um but
01:11:11
by the end of the following year she was
01:11:13
a full-time Pro comedian so she didn't
01:11:16
have to wait long she was just on such a
01:11:18
fast track um if she had entered the raw
01:11:21
comedy Quest the following year she
01:11:22
would have walked away with it uh but
01:11:24
she carried on really quickly to become
01:11:26
a full-time Pro comedian and she left
01:11:28
advertising yeah phenomenal so um yeah
01:11:31
from South Africa moved to New Zealand
01:11:33
and advertising just thought she'd give
01:11:35
comedy obviously I don't know maybe
01:11:36
people had told her she was funny and
01:11:38
she should give it a go but a lot of
01:11:39
people would hear that and it doesn't
01:11:41
have the same outcome well no because we
01:11:43
we get a lot of people from advertising
01:11:44
entering the Roy comedy Quest
01:11:46
copywriters now copywriters just
01:11:48
naturally you know they're writing funny
01:11:50
lines or great copy all the time that's
01:11:52
what their job is but not all of them
01:11:54
are natural perform perers so sometimes
01:11:56
they'll come along going I write the
01:11:57
funniest lines they all make it to TV
01:11:59
and you go yeah but can you stand on
01:12:01
stage and deliver them and not always
01:12:03
the case and sometimes their ego works
01:12:06
against them I think the advertising
01:12:08
advertising industry does a good job of
01:12:10
inflating the egos of some of their
01:12:11
creatives oh so if the audience doesn't
01:12:13
laugh at there's something wrong with
01:12:14
the audience rather yeah yeah and they
01:12:16
and they they don't really can't aren't
01:12:19
prepared to open themselves up to that
01:12:21
kind of judgment from a bunch of
01:12:22
amateurs in the audience what do you
01:12:24
guys know what would you know you be a
01:12:27
Maya pay me quarter of a million a year
01:12:28
to write these I can't think of like um
01:12:31
many many other Industries where you
01:12:33
know there's that saying the customer's
01:12:34
always right in standup comedy like the
01:12:36
customer is always right they laugh or
01:12:39
they don't right one of the most
01:12:40
essential things with open mics is not
01:12:42
to have open mics with an audience full
01:12:43
of comedians unfortunately that's often
01:12:45
what happens so one of my major goals
01:12:48
when I first started out doing the raw
01:12:50
comedy Quest I said the most important
01:12:52
thing is to make sure we have a real
01:12:53
audience that's not just an audience
01:12:56
full of comedians judging the comedians
01:12:58
on stage you got to have real punters so
01:13:00
that the comedians have honest feedback
01:13:03
from a live audience that um helps them
01:13:06
direct
01:13:07
them yeah um oh just a thought so
01:13:10
there's a few female names I've read out
01:13:12
there um and I'm guessing you and the
01:13:14
classic have had like quite a big job in
01:13:16
educating audiences that women are funny
01:13:19
and women can be funny um and would that
01:13:21
be a fair thing to say like before the
01:13:24
classic came along there was maybe the
01:13:25
top twins who else uh well when we first
01:13:27
started the classic we we'd growing out
01:13:29
of kitty O'Brien's Tavern which we've
01:13:31
been using for 5 years down there at
01:13:32
Victoria Park markets um and we had I'm
01:13:36
thinking three comedians we four uh
01:13:39
three or four we had Michelle a court um
01:13:42
the the fabulous Cal Wilson who
01:13:44
unfortunately passed away last year rest
01:13:46
in peace yeah and um Jan Marie uh and
01:13:49
Jack Tweety and you couldn't think of
01:13:52
four more diverse ladies in
01:13:55
for very different styles um but
01:13:58
Michelle was probably the first uh and
01:14:01
she was pregnant with her daughter
01:14:02
during those years um and so she told
01:14:05
all the stories and we support you know
01:14:07
the the the the comedians that were
01:14:09
around really um helped her and
01:14:12
supported her and also basically taught
01:14:14
the audience how to behave Michelle was
01:14:17
very good at taking care of herself she
01:14:18
always has been um but she knew that she
01:14:21
was a rare breed um so we had to very
01:14:25
slowly educate our audiences that yeah
01:14:28
uh New Zealand woman are funny not just
01:14:30
New Zealand woman all sorts of diversity
01:14:33
now can be seen on our stages the my
01:14:36
goal is that I don't want to be seen
01:14:38
doing what I call positive um diversity
01:14:40
programming which is I don't put a
01:14:43
female comedian on a lineup because oh
01:14:45
gosh we've got to have a female comedian
01:14:47
on the lineup or we have to have someone
01:14:49
who's diverse in any way um persons of
01:14:52
color neurodiverse I want every one of
01:14:55
them to be on the lineup because they
01:14:57
deserve to be there because they're
01:14:58
funny enough to be there it's not a very
01:15:00
powerful thing for a female comedian if
01:15:03
for some reason they think they're on
01:15:04
the lineup because they're female that's
01:15:06
that's a not a strong position to be
01:15:08
coming from every one of them wants to
01:15:10
go the reason I'm on this comedian is
01:15:11
because I'm on this show is because I'm
01:15:13
as funny as everyone else on the show
01:15:16
and that is really important that myself
01:15:18
and the industry uh working along those
01:15:21
lines so that the audiences are been
01:15:23
told no this is not a show about quota
01:15:26
this is a show about quality and
01:15:28
everyone on this lineup is quality I
01:15:31
love that that's a very brave thing to
01:15:32
say though yeah no I I tell you what
01:15:34
it's easy in my business I find it easy
01:15:37
at the classic because that's my head
01:15:39
yeah you know that's the only way I
01:15:41
operate it's not necessarily the way all
01:15:43
parts of the industry operate yeah I've
01:15:45
actually heard Seinfeld in an interview
01:15:47
say a similar thing similar sort of
01:15:49
phrasing to that um let's run through
01:15:52
another another few names and the first
01:15:53
impressions of them um
01:15:56
Dy Henwood yeah well D's hilarious D
01:16:00
wasn't a stand-up comedian so he
01:16:02
appeared from Wellington um this crazy
01:16:04
Little Theater boy um Turned Up from
01:16:06
Wellington to Oakland came up to Kitty
01:16:08
O'Brien's did he enter the Royal comedy
01:16:10
Quest he might have um he turned up um
01:16:14
the son of people from Court theater you
01:16:17
know he was a theater boy um he didn't
01:16:21
really know what stand-up comedy was but
01:16:22
he went on stage and just did die you
01:16:25
know and character stuff all character
01:16:27
stuff um he kept on doing that he came
01:16:29
came up with um P Funk chainsaw which
01:16:32
was dler pro wrestler um that's what he
01:16:34
did on the Classic Stage when it first
01:16:36
opened P Funk chainsaw just for
01:16:38
diversity he came up with um John the
01:16:40
bank teller so he was a bank teller from
01:16:42
paliston North I think um that was his
01:16:44
other character uh and all
01:16:47
character-based
01:16:48
never just real die on stage and it
01:16:53
started to become a the albatross around
01:16:56
his neck this character stuff he was
01:16:58
trapped in character and uh and I I
01:17:02
remember talking to him about it and
01:17:03
saying look to to get Next Level you're
01:17:06
going to have to be yourself um you know
01:17:09
you these characters are like a fourth
01:17:11
wall it's like you between him and the
01:17:14
audience with these characters we want
01:17:16
to see real die and um and he started to
01:17:21
do that so I thought okay what he's
01:17:23
really good with is talking to the crowd
01:17:25
so I gave him um one night he hosted a
01:17:27
raw comedy Quest heat um Ben Hurley was
01:17:31
supposed to be hosting that heat but he
01:17:33
didn't uh for some reason Ben cancelled
01:17:36
I said well I'll get D at short notice
01:17:38
give him a crack at hosting a raw comedy
01:17:39
Quest heat um in the Heats that night
01:17:43
was a young boy from Channel 4 C4 TV and
01:17:47
one of the presenters from C4 uh and so
01:17:50
Andrew Schusterman who we all you know
01:17:52
in the industry shy shy bought the staff
01:17:55
along to watch their boy compete in the
01:17:57
Raw comedy Quest shushy didn't come to
01:17:59
the classic very often if at all he's
01:18:01
sitting at a table in the audience
01:18:03
waiting for his guy to come on D Henwood
01:18:05
comes out hosts um the show and shy went
01:18:08
oh who's this guy I could use that and
01:18:12
he gave Dy his first TV series insert
01:18:15
video here that was that was it dy's
01:18:18
whole life whole career changed in that
01:18:21
one moment when Ben Hurley didn't turn
01:18:23
up and D hinwood did and shy Saum so
01:18:26
there you have a single moment where D's
01:18:29
life turned on a dive like that and
01:18:31
thankfully it was a happy ending for
01:18:32
being hly as well well didn't managed to
01:18:34
carry on yeah yeah but that was
01:18:36
incredible I love that story because I
01:18:38
often tell comedians you never know
01:18:40
who's going to be in the room so do not
01:18:42
turn down a gig no matter how ordinary
01:18:45
the gig might be if someone says hey
01:18:46
come along um do a spot you never know
01:18:49
who's in the room and whether they could
01:18:50
make a difference yeah yeah it's funny
01:18:53
completely different industry but um
01:18:55
a few weeks ago on the podcast I had um
01:18:56
Christian Kullen the former all black on
01:18:58
the podcast and he said the same sort of
01:19:00
thing and he said it's a message he
01:19:01
gives to his kids all the time like you
01:19:02
never know who's watching and the
01:19:04
example he gave is uh one of his first
01:19:07
um games he was playing for horof fena
01:19:09
against counties and this was when joner
01:19:10
was playing and he said his team was
01:19:12
down by like 100
01:19:14
pound but he managed to either I don't
01:19:17
know tackle Jonah or score a triy
01:19:18
whatever and one of the old black
01:19:19
selectors was there and they saw him and
01:19:21
they saw some promise so even though his
01:19:22
team was getting their ass CED uh that's
01:19:24
that's exactly the cas you know you
01:19:27
never know who's watching um it's a
01:19:29
great lesson about don't phone it in
01:19:32
because you might just screw things up
01:19:34
if you found it in yeah um what about re
01:19:37
stby oh crazy was so he he's got a
01:19:39
military background did he do some
01:19:41
comedy in Christ Church or was his first
01:19:43
stuff at the uh we went to in the mid90s
01:19:47
um before we opened the classic uh we
01:19:50
were producing the comedy at kitty
01:19:51
O'Brien's we went down uh um we took
01:19:54
Mike King Andrew Clay on a tour to
01:19:57
Christ Church and we also took Brendan
01:19:59
lovegrove um sugar and spice comedy duo
01:20:02
and Tay RAR and I think Jack Tweety so
01:20:05
we talked the youngsters of comedy and
01:20:06
these two mainstream Headliners um King
01:20:09
and clay and we put on shows some at
01:20:11
court theater for the youngsters and in
01:20:13
the pubs and clubs for Mike and Andrew
01:20:15
and we thought while we were there let's
01:20:17
have a open mic comedy competition and
01:20:21
one kid turned up who was in the army or
01:20:24
just maybe just coming out of the army
01:20:26
who um who did Frank Spencer
01:20:29
impersonations so his whole thing was
01:20:31
dressing up in Frank Spenser from some
01:20:33
mothers do have him and just basically
01:20:35
doing oh bet some mothers do have him on
01:20:38
stage and that was the first time we
01:20:40
ever saw Rees Darby and sure enough he
01:20:43
carried on doing that sort of stuff
01:20:45
moved to ockland you never knew where to
01:20:47
put Rees Derby because he wasn't a
01:20:49
standup comedian he was sort of this
01:20:51
weird hybrid of theater and standup Lots
01:20:54
lot of character lots of noises and
01:20:56
sound effects yeah robots jetpacks
01:20:59
dinosaurs honestly we you didn't know
01:21:01
quite know where to put Reese in the
01:21:03
lineup you couldn't open with them it
01:21:04
was too odd you couldn't close with them
01:21:06
it wasn't headline it was somewhere in
01:21:08
the middle but it was a welcome change
01:21:10
of pace so you've got six or seven
01:21:12
standup comedians on a bill there's
01:21:13
nothing better than chucking something
01:21:15
at the audience which freshens the
01:21:17
pallet halfway through the show that was
01:21:19
Reese you'd throw them out there the
01:21:20
audience go what the hell was that bits
01:21:23
of it were hilarious and then but then
01:21:25
Reese went on he went to the Edinburgh
01:21:26
finge and did shows there but what he
01:21:29
had done has got to know Flight of the
01:21:31
Concords and so when fight of the
01:21:33
Concords did their TV series they made
01:21:36
reys um Murray the manager oh yeah and
01:21:40
the um and the BBC Radio series they did
01:21:42
before that yeah well that's the thing
01:21:44
they did the radio series they went they
01:21:46
the fly of coods went to The edur Fringe
01:21:49
that Reese was there at the same time
01:21:50
doing his Oddball thing down the road
01:21:52
Flight of the Concords were buried in a
01:21:54
basement venue that dripped water from
01:21:55
the ceiling no no one knew who flood of
01:21:57
the Concords W they had never been to
01:21:59
Edinburgh no one rated them nothing and
01:22:02
then all of a sudden Daniel kitson who
01:22:05
was a comedian's comedian started
01:22:07
talking about Flight of the Concords and
01:22:09
the reviewer from chal went along to uh
01:22:13
chle was a website that and that it was
01:22:15
new back then but it was reviewing
01:22:16
comedy shows the reviewer from chal went
01:22:18
along and went into the room to watch
01:22:20
Flight of the Concords and he said in
01:22:22
his review he said I knew I was a about
01:22:24
to see something special because over
01:22:26
half the room were British comedians
01:22:29
there's no way all those comedians would
01:22:32
go to a show unless they knew it was the
01:22:34
thing to see in Edinburgh and sure
01:22:36
enough that year flood of the Concords
01:22:38
just took off the BBC approached them
01:22:40
about radio series they went yep and
01:22:43
then and they said and the they went
01:22:45
through the script and they said okay we
01:22:48
need a manager uh as part of the
01:22:50
storyline and the BBC wanted to cast a
01:22:52
British comedian as the manager and of
01:22:54
the Concord said no we've got the
01:22:56
manager it's Rees from New Zealand um
01:22:59
and they went oh no no no he no one
01:23:01
knows him we need names we need some
01:23:03
famous people in the series because
01:23:04
you're unknown Flight of the Concords
01:23:06
just put their foot down said no Reese
01:23:09
will be the manager and when the same
01:23:11
thing happened when they made the TV
01:23:12
series they said uh because it was made
01:23:16
in America and um HB yeah we got we've
01:23:19
got to have some got to have some famous
01:23:20
faces in it and Flight of the Concords
01:23:23
once again put their foot down no ree
01:23:25
Darby will be the manager and you know
01:23:28
he's never looked back I love that so
01:23:30
much they've um they obviously always
01:23:31
had that because um yeah before they
01:23:33
went to to the UK uh TV and Z were
01:23:36
looking at doing a show with them yes um
01:23:38
and they oh that's great that's that's
01:23:40
gold comedy gold in New Zealand I won't
01:23:42
try and tell the you try and tell the
01:23:43
story oh no there was just it was just
01:23:45
it's always a famous story about how New
01:23:47
Zealand television is never ahead of the
01:23:50
the game yeah uh and how the famous
01:23:52
people sort of they're like they always
01:23:53
miss out which is n strictly true but
01:23:55
that was a big one yeah I think the
01:23:57
executives at TV and Z wanted to like
01:23:58
rewrite it or do something differently
01:24:00
and they look the series they were
01:24:02
offering was a typical TV sketch Series
01:24:05
where Flight of the Concords would have
01:24:07
been sort of a sidebar characters in a
01:24:10
with a lot of other comedians doing
01:24:11
sketches it wouldn't have been the show
01:24:13
they made in New
01:24:14
York yeah this was probably the time of
01:24:17
um like Peak uh cultural cringe in New
01:24:21
Zealand with with comedy like how how do
01:24:23
you think we shock that we we shock
01:24:27
that remember this only only too well
01:24:29
like it was um I don't know there was
01:24:32
something about comedy on New Zealand TV
01:24:33
like it was kind of kind of cringy or we
01:24:36
felt embarrassed about our comedy you
01:24:39
know how you Chang that yeah keep on
01:24:41
doing the same thing for 30
01:24:43
years eventually the generation that
01:24:46
doesn't think New Zealand comedy is
01:24:47
funny will retire if not die um and a
01:24:51
new generation will become the employers
01:24:54
of New Zealand comedy and the new
01:24:56
generation are raised in an environment
01:24:58
where there is a home of Live Comedy
01:25:00
where there are New Zealand comedians
01:25:01
touring all the time where there was a
01:25:02
Comedy Festival on that's that's all
01:25:05
that happened the generation that didn't
01:25:07
think New Zealand comedians were funny
01:25:08
moved on and their kids and a newer
01:25:11
generation took over and they love New
01:25:13
Zealand comedy yeah I love that hey just
01:25:16
looping back to the the the Wellington
01:25:18
guys so talking about um Flight of the
01:25:20
conqu before and I suppose we can lump
01:25:22
um tiger into that set as well did you
01:25:24
have much to do with do they were they
01:25:26
classic kids or was Wellington a
01:25:28
completely differentt definitely was a
01:25:30
different breeding ground for comedy I
01:25:31
love it outside the gene pool of Oakland
01:25:33
comedy so Wellington and Christ Church
01:25:35
otago they all create their own kinds of
01:25:37
comedians because they different genetic
01:25:39
pool I mean the the um uh the tyer and
01:25:43
Germaine were part of a sketch group um
01:25:46
and they bounced out of that scratch
01:25:49
group and tyer and Germaine did um The
01:25:52
Untold Tales of Mai which was such a
01:25:54
funny show and I produced that in the
01:25:57
Comedy Festival at the herald theater
01:25:58
here that bought it up from Wellington
01:26:00
put it on there um and uh it just got
01:26:04
such a great reaction and it was just
01:26:06
another Launchpad for those guys I mean
01:26:08
they quickly moved on um and tier's
01:26:11
career took off but he was never a
01:26:13
stand-up comedian tyer was a real he was
01:26:16
as odd if not more odd than Reese Darby
01:26:18
his standup was well he was an anti-st
01:26:21
standup so what he would do is
01:26:22
destructure the art form he would
01:26:25
deliberately break all the rules well
01:26:27
guess what he does in Hollywood
01:26:29
deliberately breaks all the rules so
01:26:31
that's taer shtick he he looks around
01:26:33
sees what everyone else is doing and
01:26:35
then goes great my opportunity here is
01:26:36
to change this and that's what he is a
01:26:38
game changer yeah actually since we're
01:26:40
on him um I heard you or read you in an
01:26:43
interview talking about um what you've
01:26:44
done with the classic like I think the
01:26:46
phrase you use was something like
01:26:47
creating a good room yeah um and and
01:26:49
then you explained what a bad room was
01:26:51
and I saw him maybe 10 years ago 12
01:26:54
years ago I don't know hosting the vone
01:26:56
newand music awards and he completely
01:26:58
bombed ter it was terrible but it's um
01:27:00
yeah the problem was not tier it was the
01:27:02
room the wrong Environ I hate corporate
01:27:04
gigs that's a corporate gig yeah yeah no
01:27:07
it's um because that no one in the room
01:27:09
has invested in the show they're all
01:27:11
there to feed their own Egos and win
01:27:12
prizes it's really hard to the the best
01:27:15
thing you can possibly try and do is not
01:27:16
be funny and that's Corbett's advice you
01:27:19
know Jeremy Corbett would would succeed
01:27:21
on a gig like that before anyone else
01:27:24
because Jeremy always said the last
01:27:25
thing you want to do is look like you're
01:27:26
trying to be funny what you have to do
01:27:28
is connect to the audience um and then
01:27:31
when you're funny it's least expected so
01:27:33
corporate comedies in Minefield best to
01:27:35
stay away from what you do want very
01:27:37
simply is you want everyone in the room
01:27:38
watching you want everyone in the room
01:27:40
being able to hear the show you don't
01:27:42
want dog legs in the room with audience
01:27:45
members hidden around a corner anything
01:27:47
like that everyone in the room and most
01:27:48
importantly the people in the room have
01:27:50
invested in the show in some way the
01:27:52
obvious thing is a $5 $10 15 20 $30
01:27:55
price whatever as long as they've paid
01:27:57
something to be in the room they've
01:27:59
generally made a commitment to watch the
01:28:01
show
01:28:03
yeah yeah I love that that's so good and
01:28:05
um yeah Jeremy Corbett uh potentially
01:28:09
one of the most like a lot of people
01:28:11
listening to this or watching this will
01:28:12
just know him as the guy from seven days
01:28:13
yeah um but he's phenomenal on stage
01:28:16
I've been in situations where I've been
01:28:17
like out at dinner with him and then you
01:28:19
know 20 minutes 30 minutes after the
01:28:21
meal he's on stage and he's just so
01:28:23
relaxed he talking about some of the
01:28:25
stuff that happened over dinner Andy
01:28:27
just like so relaxed on stage think of
01:28:30
what a survivor in a changing media
01:28:32
World Corbett is because he came out of
01:28:35
University um uh graduated from
01:28:38
University with alongside the facial dbx
01:28:40
boys came to ockland um he got a job as
01:28:44
a roving reporter on one of the regional
01:28:47
news shows doing funny bits to which of
01:28:50
course lots of people have done since
01:28:51
but that was his thing I think I
01:28:53
remember that Clark be on um on one of
01:28:56
Julie Christie shows I think was there
01:28:58
that's right and and so he did that he
01:29:00
he got onto radio so very quickly got
01:29:02
onto the mor FM breakfast show where and
01:29:05
mor FM breakfast kept him well employed
01:29:08
what for 15 years com K Corbett and and
01:29:11
and Corbett and ego Paul ego ended up on
01:29:14
that show um Jeremy is one of the you
01:29:17
know you talk a real Survivor in a
01:29:19
changing media world because even in the
01:29:21
last 12 months You' go wow we we haven't
01:29:24
seen the the um changes like we have in
01:29:27
the last 12 months to New Zealand media
01:29:29
but guess what shows still going next
01:29:31
year and guess who the host of that show
01:29:33
still is next
01:29:34
year yeah so there you go so he's still
01:29:38
there and uh still totally chill about
01:29:41
it yeah totally laidback yeah yeah the
01:29:44
the most lovely laid-back guy and such
01:29:46
good attitude like I remember a
01:29:47
conversation I had with him about radio
01:29:49
one day and I think had just signed like
01:29:50
a three or 5e contract for Mor FM and I
01:29:53
I said to him something like that God
01:29:55
aren you that's a long time to lock it
01:29:56
in aren't you worried like and I was
01:29:59
like what if you get sick of it in a
01:30:00
year or two years and he's like well
01:30:02
it's a contract but you know it's
01:30:03
performance-based contract so ultimately
01:30:05
like if I don't if I don't want to be
01:30:06
there then I can be a real pain in the
01:30:08
ass if I want to be yeah I thought oh
01:30:11
that's really cool I never thought about
01:30:12
it that way yeah um what are your
01:30:15
thoughts on um like woke culture and
01:30:18
cancel culture well again that sort of
01:30:20
comes back to the whole diversity thing
01:30:21
in comedy as well I don't think you you
01:30:24
don't want to be doing positive woke
01:30:26
programming positive woke material um
01:30:30
you want it to be there because it suits
01:30:32
the audience and Suits the show like it
01:30:35
it's just part of the show and it's
01:30:37
amazing how if you tell an audience
01:30:39
you're going to go to a woke comedy show
01:30:41
they'll go you'll get half the people
01:30:43
who go finally I can go to a woke comedy
01:30:45
show and the other half of the audience
01:30:47
are going the last thing I want to do is
01:30:48
go to a woke comedy show and you've got
01:30:51
so now if you don't tell anyone that's a
01:30:53
woke comy show but you just educate the
01:30:55
comedians who are pretty sharp people
01:30:58
that they'll soon work out what
01:31:00
content's going to work and what not
01:31:01
what you want to make sure is that the
01:31:03
audience they're performing to is a good
01:31:04
cross-section of people that you would
01:31:06
find in society today which means you've
01:31:09
got the whole audience monitoring each
01:31:11
other and I've seen hilarious situations
01:31:14
where there's one table in the room who
01:31:16
get offended by a comedian on stage on
01:31:19
behalf of another table in the room but
01:31:22
the other table's going uh no we don't
01:31:24
need you to get offended on our behalf
01:31:26
we don't mind this this is funny and the
01:31:29
people who are going well we you should
01:31:30
be offended by it they go no I think
01:31:32
that's for us to decide we can decide
01:31:35
for ourselves what's funny and what's
01:31:37
not we don't need to be told by other
01:31:40
members of the audience we're quite
01:31:42
bright and that's the way comedy should
01:31:44
be it'll be everyone gets to make up
01:31:46
their own mind no one is told what they
01:31:48
can and cannot laugh at yeah and if you
01:31:50
don't want to see a certain comedian
01:31:52
don't complain about them just don't pay
01:31:54
money and don't go and see them yeah
01:31:56
what are your thoughts on um I mean this
01:31:58
is topical at the moment by the time
01:32:00
this episode comes out it'll be old news
01:32:02
but um Tony hinchliff and um his joke at
01:32:05
uh Donald Trump's conference the Pu is
01:32:08
that is that a bad room wasn't even
01:32:09
funny joke no I I didn't actually see it
01:32:11
as a joke it looked like a um it looked
01:32:14
like a statement of um sort of I know
01:32:17
demographic statement he was sort of
01:32:19
going oh these are the kind of people
01:32:20
that I think live in Puerto Rico you go
01:32:23
but that's not funny
01:32:24
and also he Wasing down so Golden Rule
01:32:27
and comedy don't punch down particularly
01:32:29
if you're Donald Trump who doesn't know
01:32:31
any other way but to punch down or punch
01:32:33
anyone he doesn't punch down he punches
01:32:35
everywhere at once um but then don't
01:32:37
employ he says he had no idea who this
01:32:39
guy was and he' had no idea he was going
01:32:41
to be on the bill [ __ ] you know
01:32:44
there's no way Donald Trump just yeah
01:32:46
put anyone on before me I don't care you
01:32:47
guaranteed he knew exactly what was
01:32:49
going on there um but I didn't think the
01:32:51
guy was funny no he he is very funny
01:32:54
though have you heard of kill Tony kill
01:32:56
Tony it's like a I heard of it not I've
01:32:58
seen it's like a 60c comedy that him
01:33:00
yeah oh okay right K Tony yeah know he's
01:33:02
he's he's one of like Joe Rogan sort of
01:33:04
protes or whatever he's very good so I
01:33:06
wanted I mean that was a bad line but uh
01:33:09
I thought maybe that's an example of a
01:33:11
bad room as well uh you well like a
01:33:13
comedian on stage at uh I mean political
01:33:17
rallies is that the right place to put a
01:33:18
comedian on you're not there for the
01:33:20
laughs I don't think um are there any
01:33:23
Twins and comedy um that you see coming
01:33:25
through now that excite you um well we
01:33:28
just had a raw comedy Quest recently and
01:33:30
um and it really put a kick in my step
01:33:33
you know I've done 30 years of raw
01:33:35
comedy quests and I've seen some that
01:33:37
were like oh yeah that great winner
01:33:38
great winner but boy not a lot of depth
01:33:40
this year and um and I was thinking this
01:33:43
year I was going oh God how much depth
01:33:45
have we got and then I saw the final and
01:33:47
I went oh my God that was one of the
01:33:49
best finals I have seen in years and
01:33:52
I've gone ahead and I've nearly every
01:33:54
particularly local Oakland based
01:33:56
comedian that was in the final I've
01:33:57
already organized the next two or three
01:33:58
months of Comedy including the winner
01:34:01
and you talk about about woke or
01:34:04
whatever um the winner was a very n very
01:34:07
neurodiverse autistic boy Jasper who's
01:34:10
just a revelation because he doesn't
01:34:13
know what he's going to do the audience
01:34:15
certainly don't know what he's going to
01:34:16
do I've never sat in the room and felt
01:34:18
so dangerous um and that danger trans um
01:34:21
manifested itself as huge laughter
01:34:24
because the audience was so much on the
01:34:25
edge of their seats they thought this
01:34:27
boy does not know what he's going to say
01:34:29
next we know we we could be in a
01:34:31
dangerous situation here and I was
01:34:33
watching Jasper and I suddenly what
01:34:35
Jasper has material he's been hiding
01:34:38
this for the last three or four months
01:34:40
doing Heats it's been very hard to spot
01:34:42
his material and all of a sudden at the
01:34:44
final it all came together just a six
01:34:47
minute set nice little bits crazy links
01:34:50
no Segways off on a tangent the audience
01:34:54
were in hysterics and um and the judges
01:34:57
I remember afterwards we were going
01:34:58
looking at me going I said who was your
01:35:00
favorite had four judges all four said
01:35:03
Jasper and but they looked at me and
01:35:05
said what are we supposed to do with
01:35:06
them and I said that's not the bit that
01:35:08
matters you just have to decide who was
01:35:10
the funniest person tonight and they
01:35:12
said well it's Jasper and I said he wins
01:35:14
and Jasper won and now I've got this
01:35:17
Grand Adventure over the next year as we
01:35:19
try and find out what Jasper's going to
01:35:21
do next because we've got no idea I love
01:35:24
that having that happening right now is
01:35:26
so cool God you still get really excited
01:35:29
about young Talent don't you emerging
01:35:30
Talent yeah I mean Jasper you can tell
01:35:34
um that he's never done anything like
01:35:36
this in his life before um uh probably
01:35:39
getting a job is challenging and keeping
01:35:41
a job is probably challenging we're you
01:35:43
know I haven't really had a chance to
01:35:44
sit down with him and talk about his
01:35:46
life other than get him on stage and
01:35:48
perform but you go that's fantastic to
01:35:51
see someone grasp that opportunity and
01:35:53
go with it that's that's the reason
01:35:54
we're here you know that's the reason
01:35:56
the classic exists is to launch people
01:35:58
um whether they be polished you know
01:36:01
comedians with huge futures or whether
01:36:03
they just be someone living in the
01:36:05
moment yeah what about um uh Tik Tok and
01:36:08
other social media how how has that if
01:36:11
at all changed comedy in New Zealand I'm
01:36:13
sure there are people you could get on
01:36:14
here or tell you uh that have changed
01:36:17
their lives and their careers but I
01:36:18
don't watch I haven't watched any Tik
01:36:20
Tok that I'm aware of occasionally see
01:36:21
Clips I don't even know they're on Tik
01:36:22
Tok and I don't follow social media to
01:36:25
that degree um I can't be bothered with
01:36:27
Instagram and a lot of them use
01:36:29
Instagram stuff um I use a bit of
01:36:32
Facebook to promote my shows and even my
01:36:34
kids say oh Dad Facebook oh my God
01:36:38
you're so old and I go hey I come from a
01:36:41
time when there was Telex machines you
01:36:43
know I I I remember when we started
01:36:45
comedy I didn't even have a mobile phone
01:36:48
and and I didn't have a computer cuz I
01:36:50
didn't know how to use one when I
01:36:51
started doing comy yeah
01:36:54
um and they think it's hilarious that
01:36:55
I'm on Facebook you know but but social
01:36:57
media definitely there are comedians
01:37:00
making big inroads on Tik Tok and social
01:37:02
media and
01:37:04
Instagram um what about some of the
01:37:06
worst stage bombings you've ever seen oh
01:37:08
I tell the story about the boy in the
01:37:10
Raw comedy Quest who um came to the club
01:37:13
quite confident I don't remember his
01:37:15
name and I wouldn't say it if I did he
01:37:17
was confident he came in he was focused
01:37:20
he was with his girlfriend um this is a
01:37:23
story I tell when I gather the finalists
01:37:26
before every year I gather them and I
01:37:28
tell them the story um just to try and
01:37:30
relax them and he went on stage and he
01:37:33
was doing what he thought was funny and
01:37:35
the audience just stared at him with
01:37:37
sort of a glazed look and he was getting
01:37:39
nothing he certainly wasn't getting what
01:37:41
he thought he was going to get from an
01:37:42
audience and it started that the
01:37:44
atmosphere the tension started to grow
01:37:46
because you could sort of see he was
01:37:48
expecting laughter and the audience
01:37:49
weren't giving it the tension grew and
01:37:51
it grew and then he just stopped talking
01:37:53
he looked at the audience and he threw a
01:37:55
live mic against a brick wall and if you
01:37:58
know the sound that makes yeah bigger
01:38:00
than that when you've got an amplified
01:38:02
sound system he threw the live mic
01:38:04
against the brick wall stormed off the
01:38:07
stage tipped over the punter sitting in
01:38:10
the front table in his chair who was one
01:38:11
of our absolute regulars tipped him over
01:38:14
on the on the floor stormed out of the
01:38:16
club out the front door and walked down
01:38:18
Queen Street I I rushed to the front
01:38:19
door to see where he'd gone I went oh
01:38:22
dear and he didn't say anything to
01:38:23
anyone he just left we never saw him
01:38:25
again about 2 minutes later his
01:38:27
girlfriend came out of the venue like
01:38:29
she didn't leave straight away she sat
01:38:30
there for two or three minutes then she
01:38:32
finally came out and she said to me I
01:38:35
better go and see how he
01:38:38
is she should have been on stage the
01:38:41
timing is everything great timing and
01:38:43
she went out the door we never saw them
01:38:44
again yeah oh my God that is amazing
01:38:48
that would have been amazing if he set
01:38:49
that up so deliberately bombed on stage
01:38:53
CER these days there would have been
01:38:54
someone with a camera on that and we
01:38:56
would have had footage of it yeah do
01:38:58
people film and all the time now yeah
01:39:00
comedians all and they're desperately
01:39:01
looking for that bit of crowd work so
01:39:03
they run the cameras on their sets not
01:39:05
so much to record their sets although we
01:39:07
do say it's a good idea to record your
01:39:08
sets go home and review them because
01:39:10
sometimes there'll be bits you'll go oh
01:39:11
that's the funny bit that's not but also
01:39:14
they're filming crowd work and you'll
01:39:16
notice online now you get lots of
01:39:17
comedians posting little 30- second
01:39:19
clips of showing how they can deal with
01:39:22
audience members in the moment it's
01:39:24
spontaneous oh crowd workor is and
01:39:26
interacting with the crowd dealing with
01:39:27
hickers dealing with hickers or
01:39:29
provoking comments from the audience and
01:39:31
then running with it as material
01:39:33
yeah um what about so first I'm thinking
01:39:36
if I ever had a got stand up comedy i'
01:39:38
be you no you sure you've never been up
01:39:40
there once you had no no I'd be I'd just
01:39:44
be I'd be too nervous I think and I
01:39:46
think that would be my downfall you must
01:39:47
see um people that just look look like a
01:39:50
lamb that's ready to go to the slaughter
01:39:52
well you get interesting thing is you
01:39:54
get these young guys who and girls you
01:39:56
know people in their late teens early
01:39:57
20s who haven't got a huge amount of
01:39:59
life experience who go on stage and do
01:40:01
standup comedy and sometimes they're
01:40:03
just channeling their influences which
01:40:05
will be comedians that they've watched
01:40:07
probably a lot of on online or on TV and
01:40:10
you'll see the style you go ah that
01:40:11
person's watched a whole lot of too much
01:40:13
Chelle that person's watched a lot of
01:40:15
Stewart Lee you know and you're watching
01:40:16
them on stage pausing for effect without
01:40:19
any effect or James acter he's got a
01:40:22
style which I've seen comedians try and
01:40:24
copy Ross Noble and Ross Noble makes it
01:40:26
look so easy and you see them and and
01:40:29
they're the young ones then you get
01:40:30
older ones who go I'm going to give
01:40:32
comedy a go you know on their it's on
01:40:34
their bucket list um middle-aged sort of
01:40:37
Kickback kind of like in their late 30s
01:40:39
40s going I'm going to give that thing a
01:40:42
go which I always threaten to give a go
01:40:45
and they're the interesting ones because
01:40:46
sometimes they've got Wicked stories
01:40:48
because they've got life experience
01:40:50
they'll talk about their great big OE
01:40:51
overseas they'll talk about having kids
01:40:53
raising children um Adventures they've
01:40:57
had even even boring lives you know
01:40:59
nothing else other than watching TV life
01:41:01
experience which they some of them can
01:41:03
turn into great comedy um so it's
01:41:06
interesting the contrast of someone
01:41:07
without the life experience who's sort
01:41:09
of trying to come up with something
01:41:11
someone who's got a wealth of material
01:41:12
but is learning how to perform it maybe
01:41:15
that's the thing they'll be lacking is
01:41:16
that performance yeah that's that's ftic
01:41:18
I suppose um would Suzanne Paul fit into
01:41:21
that category she did the raw comedy she
01:41:23
made the final yeah and you know you
01:41:25
going she can't she we had to treat her
01:41:28
as if she was no one it was really
01:41:30
important we didn't we didn't want to
01:41:32
give her special treatment we had to
01:41:34
just look at her and go just imagine
01:41:35
this middle-aged woman has turned up to
01:41:37
do stand-up comedy she had funny stories
01:41:40
and of course she had the easy part
01:41:42
which was the audience knew who she was
01:41:44
so she could do funny stuff about um
01:41:47
Natural Glow so she was sort of doing
01:41:50
comedy about Natural Glow you know and
01:41:52
the funny products she done and her TV
01:41:54
career and whatever and her unusual life
01:41:57
and the audience just loved it so she
01:41:58
made the final but she didn't win you
01:42:00
you say um you couldn't treat her any
01:42:02
different but I mean you could but you
01:42:04
know as we said earlier it's the
01:42:06
audience that dictates isn't it yeah if
01:42:08
the audience didn't like her she
01:42:09
wouldn't you I didn't put her in the
01:42:10
final to to boost the profile yeah um
01:42:13
what about kiwi audiences in general are
01:42:15
they kind or cruel very honest
01:42:17
International comedians come here go oh
01:42:19
my God you know these audiences are so
01:42:21
honest you know you know when funny the
01:42:23
audiences will tell you but also they'll
01:42:25
tell you when you're average uh and so
01:42:28
it's really good that our audiences are
01:42:29
so honest because it makes great
01:42:31
comedians yeah and when you go on stage
01:42:33
how long do you have to win the
01:42:35
room uh about less than 30 seconds you
01:42:39
know you can tell you can sometimes
01:42:40
watch a raw comedian Go on stage and
01:42:43
you've never seen before and and um I I
01:42:46
mean this is by no means arrogant
01:42:48
because I can be proven wrong which is
01:42:50
good but sometimes you can watch the
01:42:51
first 10 to 15 seconds and know that
01:42:54
this person's got something just by the
01:42:56
way they approach the room and what they
01:42:58
what they open with and you you can
01:43:00
instantly see stage presence so you go
01:43:03
great well I can't wait to see if
01:43:04
they've got material because they've got
01:43:06
stage presence it's there in the first
01:43:07
10 to 15 seconds so you instantly you're
01:43:10
watching them for longer than you
01:43:11
normally would and go great and so now
01:43:13
we often say to comedians you've got to
01:43:15
get the first 30 seconds right because
01:43:17
if you don't get the first 30 seconds
01:43:19
right the next uh 5 minutes 10 15 30 30
01:43:23
minutes could go horribly wrong yeah
01:43:25
yeah what what do you mean stage
01:43:26
presence just the is it like a the rule
01:43:29
is Ben hurly summed it up this is a
01:43:32
great line this is a great piece of
01:43:33
advice you have to tell the audience
01:43:35
you're funny not ask them if you're
01:43:37
funny can see the difference there
01:43:40
because there's nothing worse than
01:43:41
someone who comes out who's sort of
01:43:43
pleading for some laughter and and you
01:43:45
can sort of feel from their comedy that
01:43:47
they're not sure whether they're funny
01:43:48
and they're not sure whether what
01:43:50
they're about to say is going to get a
01:43:51
laugh as opposed to a comedian who comes
01:43:53
out and tells you they're funny you
01:43:56
don't doubt it for a minute in fact you
01:43:57
find yourself laughing at some really
01:43:59
lame punch lines because the confidence
01:44:02
and the delivery is so strong that you
01:44:04
don't doubt for a minute that you're
01:44:06
watching a comedian yeah can the
01:44:08
audience just smell fear yeah smell fear
01:44:10
that's exactly the line smell fear and
01:44:12
you you got to tell the comedians when
01:44:14
they're starting out you have to
01:44:15
disguise the fear and so don't tell the
01:44:19
audience this is really
01:44:20
hurting because the audience will feel
01:44:22
the pain and they'll clam up then again
01:44:25
you can sometimes play that card
01:44:27
beautifully and go oh this is my first
01:44:30
time please go easy on me and the
01:44:32
audience will go oh yes we will and the
01:44:35
and you'll find that the comedian is
01:44:36
actually playing that card deliberately
01:44:39
and the audience jump on board they're
01:44:41
going let's support this comedian Let's
01:44:43
help them all the way I could argue that
01:44:45
Jasper who won the raw comedy Quest
01:44:47
immediately got that because he came out
01:44:48
and went um okay so I'm autistic and uh
01:44:52
this could go horribly wrong and the
01:44:54
audience are going well okay we'll see
01:44:56
if we can help you not make it go
01:44:58
horribly wrong Great Space to start from
01:45:00
because the audience immediately are on
01:45:02
side you know so sometimes you can play
01:45:04
that card to your benefit how how many
01:45:06
people do it once and then it's like no
01:45:08
never again yeah yeah yeah we I mean I
01:45:10
say about 100 plus will enter the raw
01:45:12
comedy Quest some of them will only come
01:45:14
once some of them will come two or three
01:45:16
times throughout that year and if they
01:45:18
don't make the semi-finals you'll find
01:45:19
that they drift away so um yeah there's
01:45:22
there's plenty people like I mentioned
01:45:24
those people before who particularly I
01:45:26
find that what I call the both male and
01:45:28
female middle-aged and their 30s and 40s
01:45:30
it's on their bucket list and once
01:45:32
they've done one gig it's off their
01:45:33
bucket list and you don't see them again
01:45:36
yeah wow you think it potentially you
01:45:38
could be bitten by the bug though oh
01:45:40
yeah that's the the adrenaline rush of
01:45:41
getting it right is huge I mean I often
01:45:43
say I'm a drug dealer I pedal adrenaline
01:45:46
so so when people uh people get hooked
01:45:49
on that Adrenaline Rush from being
01:45:51
Comedians and you've got them
01:45:53
you know I'm their dealer yeah it's a do
01:45:55
Hut yeah yeah yeah yeah um what's the
01:45:58
difference between being a hickler and
01:45:59
just being an obnoxious [ __ ] well the
01:46:03
positive hickler will contribute to the
01:46:04
show by saying something that's
01:46:05
intelligent and and also will get into a
01:46:08
dialogue so if the comedian comes back
01:46:10
at them there's actually some banter but
01:46:13
then you've just got an idiot who who's
01:46:14
too drunk and sometimes you can't even
01:46:16
tell what they're saying they're just
01:46:17
making noises you know and also they're
01:46:20
trying to impress their mates they're at
01:46:21
a table stag parties are the worst or
01:46:23
hens Knights funny enough hens Knights
01:46:24
just as bad as stag parties where
01:46:27
there's someone at the table trying to
01:46:28
impress their mates um and uh and you
01:46:32
know you just have to deal with it um
01:46:33
Stuart Lee in his book said that I I
01:46:36
identified a really interesting thing
01:46:38
for him when he was here because the
01:46:40
English rugby team were here touring um
01:46:43
or The Barbarians were touring and
01:46:44
Stuart had come out here to get away
01:46:46
from the English audiences for a while
01:46:48
went on stage here and there was a big
01:46:50
group of rugby supporters from the
01:46:52
english team in the audience and he said
01:46:54
I can't believe I've traveled 12,000 M
01:46:58
and I've still got you people in the
01:47:00
audience um and he was trying to deal
01:47:03
with them and he sort of dealt with them
01:47:04
and he came off stage and he said ah a
01:47:06
nightmare I said I'll tell you what you
01:47:08
missed there Stu there were the the
01:47:10
thing is you were trying to get you were
01:47:12
targeting the person as if they were the
01:47:14
alpha male of the group I said the alpha
01:47:16
male was sitting there with his arms
01:47:18
folded uh he never said a thing I said
01:47:21
sitting next to him was a Delta
01:47:23
the Court Jester who was yelling and
01:47:26
speaking to you and feeding back because
01:47:28
he was trying to impress the alpha in
01:47:30
the group and Stuart said to me Scotty I
01:47:33
have never thought of that before he
01:47:35
said that's a great insight for dealing
01:47:37
with groups you've got to tell what
01:47:39
you're dealing with whether you're
01:47:40
dealing with an alpha or whether you're
01:47:41
dealing with a court jester who's trying
01:47:43
to impress the rest of the group he said
01:47:45
because that'll help you control
01:47:47
whatever's going on so I said oh I can't
01:47:49
believe I've told Stuart something that
01:47:50
he hadn't do off do you do you you or
01:47:53
your staff ever intervene or do you just
01:47:55
let the ecosystem sort itself no no no
01:47:57
that's the thing about our staff is that
01:47:59
unlike a lot of comedy clubs our staff
01:48:01
will go down and they'll they'll they'll
01:48:03
say to the people you know please be
01:48:05
quiet sometimes people react straight
01:48:06
away and go yep sorry we didn't realize
01:48:08
that we thought we were supposed to chip
01:48:10
in and and crowd crowd work yeah yeah
01:48:13
that's the problem about all that Social
01:48:14
Media stuff is they think that's a
01:48:16
comedy gig now audience is going oh
01:48:18
comedy gigs are just the comedian
01:48:20
yelling at us and US yelling back at the
01:48:22
comedian no that's not what a comedy
01:48:23
show is but sometimes you do have to
01:48:25
remove people um and you we just say
01:48:28
look if you sometimes it's just people
01:48:30
talking and they've come along and
01:48:32
they've got a night out but they're
01:48:33
catching up with friends and they want
01:48:34
to catch up and talk to their friends
01:48:35
and you go great you can do that in the
01:48:37
front bar we've got a you can go and sit
01:48:39
out there chat to your heart's delight
01:48:41
and not interfere with the show for all
01:48:43
the other people in the room that have
01:48:44
come to watch it it's so rude it is yeah
01:48:47
yeah and phones turn your phones off oh
01:48:50
yeah yeah it's funny since you've been
01:48:52
there you started I'm guessing um what
01:48:55
was there like um like was it brick
01:48:57
phones no maybe but it was phones that
01:48:59
could literally just make phone call
01:49:01
people would bring their Telex machines
01:49:02
into the gig and you could hear the
01:49:04
paper going through the printer as
01:49:06
you're trying to playing the fa yeah
01:49:07
playing with the fax machine at the gig
01:49:09
terrible nothing really in a room full
01:49:10
of fa machines no but the difference
01:49:12
between when you started and now it's
01:49:13
like people have got their phones on and
01:49:15
on them all the time oh we had to give
01:49:17
people a separate table for their phones
01:49:19
back in the ' 80s you know the brick
01:49:20
phone oh
01:49:22
big storage lock is there a rack or
01:49:24
something to put them on no but of
01:49:26
course not everyone had phones but of
01:49:28
course nowadays phones are are dangerous
01:49:30
because the audience tries to record the
01:49:32
sets on stage comedians don't want the
01:49:34
audience randomly recording their
01:49:35
material so you have to run around the
01:49:37
room telling people to put their phones
01:49:39
down all the time yeah and with your raw
01:49:41
nights do you do like do you make a
01:49:43
habit of giving pep talks to firsttime
01:49:45
comedians to put them or anything you
01:49:47
too much information you know every one
01:49:49
of them is dealing with a different set
01:49:50
of circumstances some are really
01:49:52
confident about their first gig others
01:49:54
are so nervous that they're not going to
01:49:56
hear anything you say to them so I've
01:49:57
learned that I don't give any feedback I
01:50:00
I'll leave it weeks if not months before
01:50:02
I start giving feedback most of the
01:50:04
finalists who are just in the Raw comedy
01:50:05
Quest who have been gigging for a year I
01:50:08
gave them their first bit of written
01:50:09
feedback in after they had been in the
01:50:11
final you know I just said this is what
01:50:13
happened to you in the final if you want
01:50:15
to know what went wrong what went right
01:50:17
this is what we identified as from the
01:50:19
judges and I just fed that back to them
01:50:22
so that'll be the first time they've
01:50:23
heard from me so generous of you to do
01:50:25
that though now how do you how do you
01:50:26
councel someone who bombs if someone
01:50:29
like bombs real badly and then they they
01:50:30
come to you like it I always give people
01:50:32
a second gig that's the most important
01:50:33
thing I tell them I say you this this is
01:50:36
not a onetime only opportunity I said if
01:50:38
this goes horribly wrong tonight I'll
01:50:40
let you on again if you want to so don't
01:50:42
think you'll being judged tonight and it
01:50:44
takes the pressure off if they go Oh you
01:50:45
mean if I get it horribly wrong tonight
01:50:47
you'll give me a second gig and I go yep
01:50:49
and they go phew and suddenly they don't
01:50:51
have to try so hard
01:50:53
yeah I think that's good if you know
01:50:54
that failure is not fatal yeah I think
01:50:57
that's good but that's the same that
01:50:58
would you know that's one of those
01:50:59
things that applies if you any employer
01:51:01
don't do a make and break thing with
01:51:03
people because you know you've got to if
01:51:06
anything let them relax into the job
01:51:08
give them a preparation period something
01:51:10
you never fire someone after their first
01:51:13
day yeah you got to know that failure is
01:51:15
like a stepping stone to success if they
01:51:17
might learn something a comedian learns
01:51:19
something from every gig that's another
01:51:20
thing I say to them you need to learn a
01:51:22
lesson from every gig you do just walk
01:51:24
away with one thing you know it might
01:51:27
just be one little bit of material it
01:51:28
might be the way you hold the microphone
01:51:30
it might be the way you stand or move or
01:51:33
not move you know is do you need to
01:51:35
animate yourself more find out next time
01:51:37
go out do a complete opposite to what
01:51:40
you did last time and if you stood still
01:51:42
last time in front of the microphone
01:51:44
stand next time take the mic out of the
01:51:46
stand and walk around the stage and do
01:51:48
exactly the same set and see if it's any
01:51:49
different yeah yes speaking of the
01:51:51
microphone so David Chappelle is famous
01:51:53
for like cracking himself up and like
01:51:55
banging himself on the thigh with his
01:51:57
microphone like do you see young
01:51:59
comedians coming on stage and you can
01:52:01
you can tell almost immediately who they
01:52:02
the Chappelle yes you maybe not
01:52:05
necessarily Chelle but you can tell who
01:52:07
they he's he's a major influence on
01:52:09
young comedians no um when they start
01:52:11
smoking on stage in the classic yeah
01:52:12
poor um poor mic technique is the first
01:52:15
thing that people get rid of and they'll
01:52:17
generally be taught that really quickly
01:52:18
in fact we always do a brief orientation
01:52:20
on their when they come in I don't do it
01:52:22
but my tech does all my tech does is
01:52:24
take them around the room show them the
01:52:26
Green Room show them the stage show them
01:52:27
the microphone and then the simple thing
01:52:29
he say says to them when you come out
01:52:32
decide whether you want to hold the
01:52:34
microphone and get rid of the mic stand
01:52:36
or stand and leave the mic in the stand
01:52:39
but don't do both so because of course
01:52:41
what some people do is they'll take the
01:52:42
mic off the stand and then they'll try
01:52:44
and hide behind the mic stand and you've
01:52:46
never it's nothing funnier than watching
01:52:48
a person who's as wi as a person try and
01:52:50
hide behind a microphone that's thin as
01:52:52
the mic stand that's thin as a mic stand
01:52:54
yeah but that's what they try and do
01:52:56
yeah just make yourself small make
01:52:58
yourself very small um what's one piece
01:53:01
of advice you would give to anyone
01:53:02
wanting to give stand up comedy a go um
01:53:05
firstly uh don't Bank everything on that
01:53:07
first gig um write some material and um
01:53:11
and don't try and write too much just if
01:53:14
anything less is more so don't go out
01:53:16
with 10 minutes of material if you've
01:53:18
never done a gig before go out with
01:53:20
three or four minutes just get the first
01:53:21
three or four minutes right and then
01:53:23
build on that some people turn up and
01:53:25
they go oh I've only got 6 minutes on
01:53:27
Raw but I've written 15 minutes and you
01:53:29
go you I know you've written 15 minutes
01:53:31
but you've never performed 15 minutes
01:53:33
you know why would you bother we're not
01:53:35
even looking at the stage but it'll be
01:53:37
two or three years before I ask you to
01:53:39
do 15 minutes just do four or five
01:53:41
minutes the first time yeah uh and are
01:53:44
there any absolute cornerstones of doing
01:53:46
a good set um it depends on whether
01:53:49
you're raar or Pro there is one of my
01:53:52
one it's all about expectations so an
01:53:54
open mic audience is expecting nothing
01:53:57
so that's the great space that's left
01:53:58
for a raw comedian coming out on an open
01:54:00
mic going right you people are expecting
01:54:03
nothing I'm going to give you nothing
01:54:06
and and anything else is a bonus that is
01:54:08
the starting point with Pro comedians I
01:54:11
always say find out exactly what gig
01:54:13
you're on right find out who the audien
01:54:16
is just get a little bit of background
01:54:18
to why this audience is in the room you
01:54:20
know what's the gig is it a paid gig are
01:54:23
you being paid to perform really
01:54:25
important because if you are don't take
01:54:27
any risks with material do exactly what
01:54:29
you've been paid to do but also find out
01:54:32
what the expectations of the audience
01:54:33
are if the audience have paid $100 a
01:54:36
ticket you better get your game right
01:54:38
because they're expecting $100 worth of
01:54:41
Comedy better be there in the show um
01:54:44
but if they've paid $5 you've got a bit
01:54:46
more room to
01:54:47
wriggle also the guy who or the the
01:54:50
person male or female who booked you for
01:54:52
the show find out what their
01:54:54
expectations are and this is a lesson I
01:54:56
also tell my children about their when
01:54:58
they're working for people including me
01:54:59
when they're working for me I go work
01:55:01
out what the expectations of your
01:55:03
employer is and then exceed them by 10%
01:55:06
so don't know exactly what the person
01:55:07
paying you to do the gig or asking you
01:55:09
to do the gig is expecting of you look
01:55:12
at the running order you're in the
01:55:13
middle of the running order you've been
01:55:14
given six minutes everyone else on the
01:55:16
running order has got 10 or 15 minutes
01:55:19
you are the new person
01:55:22
leave that gig being too good to ignore
01:55:25
in that six minutes get it right so
01:55:28
you'll know that the um the person doing
01:55:30
the gig is not expecting you to headline
01:55:32
they're not expecting you to close the
01:55:33
show and completely wipe the floor you
01:55:35
know you're not Brendan love grve um
01:55:38
your new face just deliver on the on
01:55:41
what that person expects and exceed it
01:55:43
by 10% and they'll ask you back and
01:55:45
every time they ask you back they'll ask
01:55:46
you to do another a few more minutes and
01:55:49
every time they ask you back you exceed
01:55:50
their Expectations by 10%
01:55:53
[ __ ] you've got so much IP don't you
01:55:55
well that applies to any job in the
01:55:56
world that you do if you were you know
01:55:58
if someone said Dom I want you to do a
01:55:59
podcast you go great what's your
01:56:01
expectations of that podcast you would
01:56:03
find out what it is and then you'd make
01:56:04
sure you exceed that by 10% you got a
01:56:07
happy boss then I love that it's a good
01:56:08
rule for life I was just about to wrap
01:56:10
up but you you mentioned Brendan love gr
01:56:12
and we haven't um mentioned him at all
01:56:13
apart from at the very beginning when um
01:56:15
I read a quote that he said you should
01:56:16
be kned for services to Comedy I've got
01:56:19
a I've got a um order of New Zealand
01:56:20
Merit that's that's something is it near
01:56:23
enough near oh that must have been um
01:56:25
yeah how was that was that beautiful
01:56:27
when was that uh that was in 19 sorry
01:56:30
2015 I think 20 it was then 16 um was it
01:56:35
that long ago oh maybe not I've
01:56:37
forgotten but the most important thing
01:56:39
for me is that I got to go to government
01:56:40
house and take my mom and my brothers uh
01:56:43
to government house oh my God you know
01:56:45
that was Mom's moment in the in the to
01:56:48
take her baby boy to government house to
01:56:50
get a medal from from well from the
01:56:52
queen but from the from the governor
01:56:54
general so she just wore her best outfit
01:56:57
and came along and had tea in government
01:56:59
house and to me that that was the
01:57:01
biggest joy of the whole thing that's
01:57:03
what it's all about isn't it yeah yeah
01:57:05
so yeah it's it's tangible proof that it
01:57:08
worked out good like turning you back on
01:57:09
the accountancy career yes yeah yes it
01:57:12
was and what about your kids they're at
01:57:14
that age now your teenage boys have they
01:57:16
expressed any sort of interest in comedy
01:57:18
or well Nick works as a barback at the
01:57:19
club so he cleans glasses on a Saturday
01:57:21
night um and he gets paid for doing that
01:57:23
and not allowed to serve alcohol
01:57:25
obviously but he's allowed to wash
01:57:26
glasses restack restock um my youngest
01:57:29
can't wait to do that job but I've told
01:57:32
him he has to wait another couple of
01:57:33
years um but Nick doesn't do it because
01:57:35
he's got any interest in comedy he's
01:57:37
doing it to finance a very expensive
01:57:39
hobby called Warhammer um where he has
01:57:41
to buy models and paint them and they're
01:57:43
quite expensive and so that's he loves
01:57:45
that but it was interesting I had him
01:57:47
watch the raw comedy Quest final and I
01:57:49
said to him afterwards I'd really like
01:57:50
your feedback and had really good
01:57:53
feedback about every act in the final he
01:57:55
also he also picked the winner but he
01:57:57
said he knows who was going to win but
01:58:00
was another guy that he liked better and
01:58:02
I thought this is a 15-year-old who I
01:58:05
haven't taught him anything and he's
01:58:06
already a really good judge comedy yeah
01:58:09
do you think there's there might be like
01:58:10
a succession plan there with the classic
01:58:12
um no I I I maybe more so I think my
01:58:15
youngest is more likely to find it the
01:58:17
kind of thing he might like to do Nick
01:58:18
already got his master plan at 15 um but
01:58:22
that's fine uh you know I don't expect
01:58:24
them to do it if they want to if they
01:58:25
want to help me out if they want to run
01:58:27
with it I I tell you what there are a
01:58:29
lot of producers Club managers and
01:58:31
things around the world whose kids now
01:58:33
work for them and have taken over their
01:58:36
businesses that's the same I got wow
01:58:38
this will not be the first if they did
01:58:40
happens all the time because it is such
01:58:42
a cool industry to be part of and the
01:58:44
kids grow up watching their parents do
01:58:46
it and they get to see how much parent
01:58:48
how much fun their parents are having
01:58:50
and also get to see how happy their
01:58:52
parents are why wouldn't you want to do
01:58:54
something that makes your parents happy
01:58:56
yeah yeah yeah how long are you going to
01:58:58
keep doing it well it doesn't hurt yet
01:59:00
you're going to doesn't hurt
01:59:02
yet well yeah no but but it seems like
01:59:05
you you love it so that's not really a
01:59:06
job you know as we said before you know
01:59:08
if you find something you love and you
01:59:09
don't work a day in your life um yeah
01:59:11
would would would you be happy to die at
01:59:12
the classic well what I did is at the
01:59:14
25th anniversary we had a big party at
01:59:16
the club all the comedians came industry
01:59:18
came and they all sitting in the in the
01:59:20
auditorium I got up and did my spe and I
01:59:22
got them all to get their phones out
01:59:23
this was at the 25th I said right take
01:59:26
out your phones right Open up The Diary
01:59:28
now scroll through to the first weekend
01:59:30
in October
01:59:31
2047 that's the 50th anniversary of the
01:59:35
classic could you all please put that
01:59:36
party in your diary now and I will see
01:59:39
you there and I tell you what there was
01:59:41
a weird feeling in the room because no
01:59:43
one in that room had ever scrolled
01:59:44
through the 2047 and put a diary entry
01:59:47
to remember the classic comedy club's
01:59:49
50th birthday on the first weekend of
01:59:52
October 2047 it sounds like something
01:59:54
out of Back to the Future or or Blade
01:59:56
Runner um and and you go yeah I'll see
01:59:59
you and I said I'll see you all then I
02:00:01
didn't say what I'd be doing but I fully
02:00:03
expect an invitation to the party how
02:00:05
year you be in your 80s I'll be 80 um uh
02:00:09
oh yeah in my 80s yeah wow um sh it's
02:00:14
been a this been a great chat fun thanks
02:00:17
so much um yeah what about a book you
02:00:20
ever going to write a book have you
02:00:21
thought about writing a book like me
02:00:23
asked but these days this is podcast and
02:00:25
things are a new book you know people
02:00:27
are far more likely to listen to your
02:00:29
podcast and they out to read my book you
02:00:32
yeah I mean I've really enjoyed this
02:00:33
chat because I think um you're just
02:00:34
you're like you're a fascinating guy and
02:00:36
you've done this um you know incredible
02:00:38
service for New Zealand comedy um you've
02:00:40
ran this little business which you
02:00:42
started from scratch and you've done it
02:00:43
forever um but also just a treasure
02:00:45
Trove of information here for anyone
02:00:47
that wants to give standup comedy a go
02:00:49
from a man that's um seen and heard it
02:00:51
all it's easy to come down and watch and
02:00:53
if you ever think you want to do it the
02:00:55
first thing to do is to come and watch
02:00:56
don't make you don't make your Open Mic
02:00:58
the first time you've ever visited the
02:01:00
classic oh my God come and watch a whole
02:01:02
lot of people getting it right and wrong
02:01:03
because you learn as much watching
02:01:05
people make mistakes as you do watching
02:01:07
people get it right yeah that's the
02:01:09
simple uh you know that applies to any
02:01:11
job my God you know you watch someone
02:01:12
play rugby badly you'll soon go well I
02:01:14
won't do that if I want to be an all
02:01:15
black so well Scott blanks The Godfather
02:01:19
of New Zealand comedy thank you so much
02:01:20
for coming on my podcast pleasure Dom
02:01:22
thank you very much for having me yeah
02:01:24
and we just wait there just got a quick
02:01:26
set of questions J we've just got this
02:01:27
quick set for
02:01:30
Generate
02:01:31
okay Scott blanks so the um show is
02:01:36
sponsored by the generate kiwi sa scheme
02:01:38
and they've challenged me to give
02:01:39
$20,000 to a bunch of Charities by
02:01:42
giving every guest the opportunity to
02:01:44
donate $500 to their favorite charity as
02:01:47
long as you answer just a simple set of
02:01:49
questions so what um can you think of a
02:01:51
charity you'd like to support or we can
02:01:53
do it at the end uh yeah yeah okay yeah
02:01:55
okay Scott blanks what is some kiwi saer
02:01:58
advice you'd give to your younger
02:01:59
yourself or your boys um right I have
02:02:03
never been on kiwi saver um because I
02:02:07
could never afford it to and then it
02:02:10
just seemed like one thing you go well
02:02:11
there's no point in starting this so
02:02:12
late in life but I think you can always
02:02:14
start kiwi sa I think my problem was oh
02:02:17
no I'm too old to be on kiwi saver uh
02:02:19
but all my staff and are on kiwi and and
02:02:22
it's it's automatic these days and I
02:02:24
know my boys will be as well um so uh
02:02:28
it's but my advice would be yeah play a
02:02:31
long game and I would say kiwi saver is
02:02:33
a long game yeah start early yeah look
02:02:35
at me com Comedy Club 30 years on I'm
02:02:37
afraid that the comedy club is my kiwi
02:02:40
sa um what's the best advice uh best
02:02:43
piece of advice you've been given about
02:02:44
money um best piece of advice I've been
02:02:48
given about money um probably that would
02:02:51
voice it would probably hinge from my
02:02:53
own father who um avoided debt and and
02:02:56
it wasn't really something in my
02:02:57
grandparents and my parents generation
02:03:00
don't go into debt uh it's too easy to
02:03:02
say that now but I try and avoid it like
02:03:04
the plague so I and particularly since
02:03:06
we went into debt with the comedy club
02:03:08
back in as I said in 2000 so I I try and
02:03:11
um try and avoid any great level of debt
02:03:13
it takes the anxiety away yeah are you a
02:03:16
spender or a saver um I'm a good balance
02:03:19
of both yeah yeah I will treat myself I
02:03:22
won't hold on to money of cuz I firmly
02:03:24
at my age now I believe you should go
02:03:26
out and treat yourself there's no point
02:03:28
in hanging on to it until you're 85 and
02:03:30
going God then I'm going to go on the
02:03:31
holiday of a lifetime like hell you will
02:03:34
yeah I'm a fin believer that you need
02:03:36
like um a dollar each way on that
02:03:38
because um you don't want to scrimp and
02:03:39
save for this trip of a lifetime that
02:03:41
may never come um but you have to be a
02:03:43
little bit prudent about it at the same
02:03:45
time um what's been your worst money
02:03:48
mistake from buying a comedy club no
02:03:50
that would have been it um getting on
02:03:52
the wrong side of the no getting on the
02:03:53
wrong side of the IID yeah right early
02:03:55
on in business yeah early on and going
02:03:57
and just going realizing the mistake and
02:04:00
but too late um and then having to sit
02:04:02
down and and remedy the whole situation
02:04:05
um that would be my worst money mistake
02:04:07
yeah and you're an accountant as well
02:04:10
you should have known better oh yeah
02:04:12
yeah um does money buy you happiness no
02:04:15
no not at all no definitely not I mean I
02:04:17
talk about the juice of Life the juice
02:04:19
of life is making a difference to people
02:04:21
um um and you you you couldn't be
02:04:24
happier if you uh with with money than
02:04:27
you could if you were surrounded by
02:04:28
people who are grateful and happy for
02:04:30
what you can do for them you know that
02:04:32
is really what it's about you know yeah
02:04:35
yeah I think I'd agree you plenty that
02:04:37
the base level a but if you're not lying
02:04:38
awake at night worrying about money then
02:04:40
that's probably you've probably got
02:04:41
enough yeah yeah um what would you do if
02:04:44
you wake up tomorrow as a surprise
02:04:47
billionaire
02:04:49
um I'd probably fix the things the club
02:04:52
that I haven't fixed recently I can
02:04:55
think of all sorts of crazy things I
02:04:57
would do but uh but uh I certainly
02:05:00
there'd be something involved with
02:05:01
comedy um there'd be something involved
02:05:03
with um uh catching up with my brothers
02:05:06
overseas it wouldn't be a massive spend
02:05:09
no I I can't I don't know what I'd do
02:05:10
with a billion dollars quite frankly and
02:05:13
you're you're retirement age now but
02:05:14
you're showing no signs of slowing down
02:05:16
um where would you like to
02:05:18
retire um that's a big question you know
02:05:22
I'm I'm I'm very much in the moment I'll
02:05:23
see where I am before I decide I don't
02:05:26
have any place I'd like to go and retire
02:05:29
um Queen Street has been my uh working
02:05:31
address since I was 17 my the accountant
02:05:33
firm I worked for initially was on the
02:05:35
corner of queen of Victoria um I then
02:05:38
worked for kage odian in 246 Queen
02:05:41
Street the only time I was off Queen
02:05:43
Street was when I worked for the old
02:05:44
Alan custom house which was renovated by
02:05:46
American millionaire called John Halbert
02:05:48
and I worked in the theater and box
02:05:49
office at the that was just round the
02:05:51
corner on custom Street uh the only
02:05:54
years off Queen Street with a few years
02:05:56
I was working for myself from home so
02:05:58
I've been working my working career has
02:06:01
been what 40 over 45 years almost all
02:06:05
those years the working address has been
02:06:06
on Queen Street so I'm not going
02:06:09
far yeah too late to move to another
02:06:11
street now yeah yeah Queen Street M
02:06:13
hanger um what's the best thing about
02:06:15
being a
02:06:16
kiwi oh best thing about being a kiwi um
02:06:20
I think being being that outside the
02:06:23
square the distance the the lovely you
02:06:25
know you talk about the tyranny of
02:06:26
distance but also the the beauty of
02:06:28
distance from the rest of the world um
02:06:31
it gives you an opportunity to just do
02:06:34
things a little bit differently and the
02:06:35
lovely part is when you travel is just
02:06:37
how exotic people think you are you know
02:06:39
I'll never forget going to the um uh The
02:06:42
Improv and Melrose in Los Angeles and I
02:06:44
went up to the box office and I said oh
02:06:46
hello um I'd like to come in tonight to
02:06:48
see the show I work in the comedy
02:06:50
industry and new Zealand um and I was
02:06:52
hoping to see a show tonight and the
02:06:55
girl just looked at me and said keep
02:06:57
talking I I went what she said she said
02:07:00
I just love your
02:07:02
accent and she said and you're really
02:07:04
lucky tonight because Billy Crystal is
02:07:05
GNA be on stage and he went he's just
02:07:08
sneaking in to do a spot and I went oh
02:07:10
that's fabulous and she said of course
02:07:12
it's fabulous she she just loved the
02:07:14
accent that's amazing um and last one
02:07:17
what advice would you give your
02:07:18
20-year-old self um ooh you ask don't
02:07:22
get into de with the IR no no you could
02:07:24
argue the same advice I might give my
02:07:26
15-year-old which is which I have said
02:07:28
to him about giving that 10% more than
02:07:30
what's expected
02:07:32
um uh probably I could have um
02:07:35
identified the comedy industry earlier
02:07:37
on back there as a potential I didn't I
02:07:39
wasn't hadn't met the right people I met
02:07:40
the right people when I got you know we
02:07:42
got into it in my 30s and when I went to
02:07:44
the Edinburgh Fringe I met lots of
02:07:46
like-minded people but you should never
02:07:48
second guess yourself you know the most
02:07:50
important thing is to keep kicking doors
02:07:52
open that's my advice to my boys and
02:07:54
that's the advice I give my 20-year-old
02:07:56
self is don't think the door you've just
02:07:58
opened is the last door you're going to
02:08:00
open you've got a you're looking down a
02:08:02
corridor there keep the doors kicking
02:08:04
doors open and don't close the doors
02:08:06
behind you because you know don't close
02:08:09
those options you've already got open
02:08:11
run with them keep as many options going
02:08:13
keep as many balls in the air as you can
02:08:16
so that you can see which one is is the
02:08:17
one you love the most cuz you're not
02:08:19
going to know certainly your first
02:08:20
decision my first decision was to be an
02:08:22
accountant it wasn't the right decision
02:08:25
um I've see too much pressure on young
02:08:27
people and their teens to make career
02:08:29
choices now and I go no way you know you
02:08:32
could you could change your career into
02:08:34
your 30s 40s even in your 50s you don't
02:08:37
have to stick with your first
02:08:39
choice yeah 100% yeah keep keep kicking
02:08:42
doors open so my I've just gone through
02:08:44
this with my son for choosing courses
02:08:46
for the year 11 and he we just said just
02:08:49
just keep the doors open don't make it
02:08:51
decision going well I'm going to not do
02:08:53
that course because I have no interest
02:08:55
in that I go try and do that one as well
02:08:57
as the other ones you want to do because
02:08:58
you don't know in 5 years time which one
02:09:00
you should have
02:09:01
done I love that so much and just re
02:09:04
reiterating the um the 10% thing I love
02:09:06
that I've never heard that before but I
02:09:08
think it's a great way of framing things
02:09:09
um what's that again well just work out
02:09:12
what the expectations of your employer
02:09:14
your parents um your your favorite aunt
02:09:16
and uncle but your employers the
02:09:18
expectations of the audience find out
02:09:20
what their expect are the expectations
02:09:22
of the staff and the venue you're
02:09:23
performing in find out what they are and
02:09:26
you can do that with casual inquiry and
02:09:28
a little bit of chat and interview and
02:09:29
then exceed them by 10% aim to you'll
02:09:32
probably end up exceeding them by 30% or
02:09:34
40% but if you aim for 10% which is
02:09:36
realistic at least when you leave that
02:09:39
business leave that job leave that venue
02:09:41
the employer is going to go they always
02:09:43
gave more than I asked them to yeah such
02:09:46
a good piece of advice yeah Scott blanks
02:09:48
$500 to your favorite charity which
02:09:50
would be City Mission uh having worked
02:09:53
on Queen Street for 45 years the work
02:09:55
the City Mission does to keep our
02:09:56
streets safe for the people that have to
02:09:58
live on them and have no choice about
02:10:00
that in life they're the people that I
02:10:01
would support great cause I've
02:10:04
volunteered a little bit there myself
02:10:05
it's um wonderful place hey thank you so
02:10:07
much for your time pleasure Dom thank
02:10:09
you
