ScreenTalk

Actor, musician and comedian Madeleine Sami has been on our TV screens since the age of 18 when she debuted on Pio! and Shortland Street. Since then she has appeared in a number of TV shows including The Insiders Guide to Happiness, The Jaquie Brown Diaries, and Diplomatic Immunity. Sami has also graced the big screen in Sione’s Wedding, Under the Mountain, and in 2012 a sequel to Sione’s Wedding. Her most recent TV appearance was in Super City – a programme of her own creation in which she played five roles.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Sami talks about:

• Having to be taught continuity on the set of Shortland Street
• Learning a lot from her more experienced co-stars on the soap
• The fun and chaos on the set of the feature film Sione’s Wedding
• How action in her most memorable scene was not actually in the script
• Being in the most blood-thirsty episode of Xena
• Loving her role as the comic patsy opposite the lead in The Jaquie Brown Diaries
• Wanting to create a different type of comedy in Super City
• Mixed reactions to the show – from confusion to a cultural icon
• Not realising how much work was involved in playing five lead characters
• Being taken by surprise by the news of a sequel to Sione’s Wedding

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

John Clarke is one of New Zealand’s best-loved comic performers. His 1970s TV character Fred Dagg has become an icon of Kiwi comedy. Clarke has worked as a comedian, actor, writer and director in television and film and on both sides of the Tasman.

In Australia, his satirical television series The Games was an Australian Film Institute award-winner, and he also won Best Personality at the 1976 NZ Feltex Awards. Clarke has been based in Australia since the late 1970s, but has recently lent his unmistakeable comic voice to New Zealand television productions bro’Town and Radiradirah.

In a departure from our usual ScreenTalk format, this audio interview with John Clarke was produced and recorded by Andrew Johnstone and Richard Swainson with the assistance of Hamilton Community Radio and The Film School.

Clarke talks about his early days in New Zealand, the development of the Fred Dagg character, his work in pioneering NZ films Wild Man and Dagg Day Afternoon, and his long television and film career in Australia.

David Fane failed comedy at drama school. But since leaving Toi Whakaari, Fane has delighted audiences with his comic performances in Skitz, The Semisis, Tongan Ninja, bro’Town, Sione’s Wedding, Outrageous Fortune, Eagle vs Shark and Radiradirah. Fane has also appeared in the drama series The Market and The Strip, and the feature film The Tattooist.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Fane discusses:

• His feelings about Toi Whakaari
• How he landed his first TV role on Skitz
• What it was like acting with his mates on The Semisis
• How his character’s name came about in Tongan Ninja
• Behind-the-scenes observations from The Strip
• How bro’Town began, and the important messages behind some of the silliness
• The joys of playing Falani in Outrageous Fortune
• Hilarious behind-the-scenes details from Eagle vs Shark
• How performances were worked up in Radiradirah
• An insight into upcoming feature film Love Birds

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Funny man actor Peter Rowley is best known for his appearances in a slew of TV comedy shows including A Week of It, McPhail and Gadsby, The Billy T James Show, the self-titled Pete and Pio, with Pio Terei, and Letter to Blanchy. Rowley does however have a dramatic side which he has ably demonstrated in the feature films Savage Islands, Russian Snark and Netherwood (currently in post-production).

In this ScreenTalk interview, Rowley talks about:

• How A Week of It became a hit satirising politics and politicians
• How lampooning Prime Minister Rob Muldoon made Muldoon more popular
• Being accused of ruining the career of Bill Rowling by the politician’s daughter
• Writing for The Billy T James Show while living with the show’s star
• Hating the emergence of political correctness while continuing to push boundaries in comedy
• Causing offence in a souvenir store by wearing a Nazi uniform
• Loving working with Pio Terei in Pete and Pio
• How Aucklanders didn’t ‘get’ Letter to Blanchy
• Successfully begging to be in the pirate movie Savage Islands
• The beautiful cinematography in Stephen Sinclair’s film Russian Snark
• Overcoming personal doubts about his abilities

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Born in Westport, Jeremy Corbett is a middle-aged 6’2” Leo who likes potatoes, grass, cordless drills and guitars. His broadcasting career began at student radio station Radio Massey, while studying for a BA in English and Computer Science.

Since then, Corbett has gone on to develop a successful career in radio, clocking up 16 years as morning co-host on MORE FM, and has appeared regularly on NZ TV screens in shows like The Paradise Picture Show, A Bit After Ten, Celebrity Squares, The Gong Show, Pulp Comedy, Downsize Me, Deal or No Deal and most recently 7 Days.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Corbett reveals:

• How 7 Days came about, and what the success of the TV show means for NZ TV comedy
• Some of the early NZ TV shows that influence 7 Days
• How he started out in TV, and who was there
• Some amusing moments from TV shows like The Gong Show, Celebrity Squares and The Mad Mad World of Television
• What it’s like hosting big live TV events like Christmas in the Park
• The challenges of fronting game shows like Deal or No Deal
• Some of his favourite NZ TV comedy

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Comedian and writer Jon Gadsby is an integral part of the television comedy landscape in New Zealand. With his long time friend and colleague David McPhail, Gadsby headlined some of the most iconic comedy shows this country has produced. They first teamed up in the 1970s in the hit sketch show A Week of It. The show took pot-shots at politicians, the news, and everyday life. The pair then moved on to the long-running self-titled comedy show McPhail and Gadsby, which ran for seven seasons. Gadsby penned and starred in two rural based situation comedies – Rabbiter’s Rest and Letter to Blanchy. In his varied career, Gadsby has also appeared in feature films, and hosted episodes of Great NZ River Journeys and Intrepid Journeys.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Gadsby discusses:

• Being the newbie on the ground-breaking comedy show A Week of It
• How mocking religion led to death threats on McPhail and Gadsby
• Why politicians wanted to be on the show and how it captured the public mood
• The origins of the infamous ‘Jeez Wayne’
• How Letter to Blanchy reflected heartland New Zealand and his own upbringing
• Tormenting his cameraman Jacob Bryant on an Intrepid Journeys trip to Myanmar

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

New Zealand inherited 15-year-old Jaquie Brown from England. Following a stint at Auckland’s 95bFM in her late teens, Brown soon became ensconced in the intriguing world of New Zealand television. Her first TV role was as co-host of youth culture show Space with Dominic Bowden in 2000, before becoming one of the two main anchors on burgeoning music channel C4.

From there, Brown moved into “grown up” TV with John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld, in the series A Queen’s Tour, before becoming a reporter on the current affairs show Campbell Live.

Brown then stepped into the challenging realm of programme-making, forming her own production company with Gerard Johnstone. One season later and The Jaquie Brown Diaries is a hit with critics and viewers, and was named Best Comedy at the 2009 Qantas Film and Television Awards. The series was released on DVD, played on SBS in Australia and is part of Air New Zealand’s in-flight entertainment.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Brown reveals:

• how she looked as a 15-year-old
• how she handled her first live broadcast
• how a shocking night club revelation helped secure her role on the TV show Space
• the joys of live TV, working with Clark Gayford, and the subsequent trials of being mistaken for Jackie Clarke… before beating her up
• what it’s like working with John Campbell
• which of her character’s mortifying experiences in The Jaquie Brown Diaries actually happened
• some of the behind-the-scenes challenges of making TV

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman