Comedian TJ McDonald is the only 2010 Billy T. Award nominee from our fair city of Wellington, but already he is a local comic hero, with his name bandied about in the same sentences as Dai Henwood and Blanket Man. A member of a canonically amusing family, his aunt is Ginette McDonald aka Lynn of Tawa, it seems likely, biologically speaking, that TJ’s solo show A Maori Ate My Great-Granddad, may win him our greatest comedy award. The Victoria University drop out sat to chat with obese Salienteer Nic Sando, while they beveraged in the courtyard of Midnight Esspresso. It’s a cafe that serves coffee.

Six generations, on dads side, only three on my mums.

Sando

You can’t fault your mums side for lagging behind.

TJ

I’ve got to stop harbouring this resentment.

SANDO

This seems a theatrical oration as opposed to “just” stand up.

TJ

Yeah, I think that. No one just does a show that is straight stand up. When you sit down for an hour you’ve got to have a narrative, and things that a person can follow when they are watching. There are some comedians who do joke after joke after joke, but when a person walks away from shows they really liked, they remember ideas and moments, probably more than individual punch lines no matter how hard they laugh at the time. I would hope that the people who come to my show will enjoy all the jokes, but also go away remembering the time my granddad got drunk in world war two, or his brother in law died in a mental institution. These are funny moments for me.

SANDO

Ahh family issues of schizophrenic.

TJ

(laughs)

A strong history of mental illness is something that comes through the show.

SANDO

There’s a bit of mental illness in all New Zealand families, really.

T.J.

It’s just you and me, the two of us are dragging the population down.

Building on building something of length. You seem to have been taken with Toby Hadoke’s Doctor Who show.

TJ

I really enjoyed seeing that show, i guess if i had one criticism is that it didn’t have enough jokes for me. It’s not to say that it wasn’t an amazing beautiful story that he took you on, but that’s the balance you’ve got to have with a comedy show. You’ve got to keep people laughing the whole way through. I’m really proud of my show at this point, I previewed it at the Dunedin Fringe Festival, and I did a preview show in Wellington on Wednesday. It’s been fantastic, the audience feedback has been positive. When I see a show that isn’t just a line up show of stand up comedy, I want something more. I want to feel like the experience is worthwhile, and that’s something I feel comes through on the show.

SANDO

Looking at your place in the greater comedy community of New Zealand you’ve anchored yourself with some great people including Billy T.. award winners/nominees, people who are on “the telly”, etc. Have these or how have projects- Word on the Street, the Lemon Barley Trio, Newtown Ghetto Anger; changed the way you’re creating comedy? Has it furthered your handle on comedy, even in a technical sense.

TJ

I… don’t know how to answer that. You kind of blind sided me. Yes and no, there are various things that stage performance have in common. It’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed those collaborative works, but I do enjoy solo stand up comedy more because you have that much more independent creative control. The one commandment of comedy is to be funny and no matter how you do that, if you make them laugh you’re doing your job. When we are doing, say the Lemon Barley Trio [McDonald and Jerome Chandrahausen] which is a parody of beat poetry, maybe artistically I don’t enjoy it as much as solo stuff but it gets the job done, the audience is having a good time they are laughing, you’ve done your job as a comedian. A play that’s funny, or sketches or video stuff, you know what ever, just make them laugh.

(pause)

The more you’re gigging, the more you’re up there, the more experience you’re going to get. There are some fairly substantial differences between stand up and theatre, and even with sketches on stage in terms of comedy basics of writing gags, jokes, structuring sets, it doesn’t pay over much that way. It definitely helps in terms of getting more confidence I guess. Next question. *Chuckle*

SANDO

You’re known as one of the most erudite comedians in New Zealand, “the thinking mans nerd.”

TJ

I get told that, one of the lines that keeps cropping up in reviews is ‘T.J. writes intelligent comedy’ but I never thought of it like that. When you do comedy, when you do stand up the trick is to write what makes you laugh. You don’t say, lets make a joke about how awful Wellington’s bus drivers are, unless you genuinely believe that that’s funny, then you put it out there. The fact that I do political comedy or jokes about evolution is because I read a book or newspaper and start cracking up at a thought and have to convince people that it’s funny. And that’s where the work of stand up comedy lies, it’s taking an audience who might not agree with you on the street and showing them over the course of the show that actually, yes it’s quite a funny idea.

SANDO

You’re quite capable of exering a fair bit of control over the audience.

TJ

Yeah, much of that is handed to you. You’re in a darkened room the lights are on you, everyone is facing you, they paid money to come and see you and a loud booming voice says clap for this man as he walks on the stage. All the cards are in your failure. You have to be pretty bad to drop them in that scenario.

SANDO

Speaking dropping the cards, hell gig story. Now. (I stole this term  from Behind the Bricks it’s an awesome little comedy podcast. -NS)

TJ

Fine. It was 2004, I’d just come second in the rookie compitition at the San Fran[sico bath house] or the Indigo as it was known at the time. I got asked to do this gig out at the Hutt at this bar called The Lonely Goat Herd, and I knew it would be bad when I walked in and all the windows had been replaced by black rubbish bags. Apparently they got smashed in so often that they didn’t bother to replace them. The gig was called “Kiwi Comedy Idol. It was just awful. I was up against this Hutt local whose stage name was “Dwayne Pipe” and what he had was this length of pipe, like plumbers pipe that he would talk jokes through. His closing finale was an impersonation of Darth Vader, literally just saying some things Vader said through a hose pipe. Luckily for him out of the six people in the audience, five of them were his immediate family. He just crushed me. When I got up there and said ‘hey, do you guys want to talk about the difference between Scientology and Christian science’ they said ‘nope.’ There were three guys in the back, all with moustaches and balding heads, all named Bruce. All of them. It was ridiculous. *sigh*

SANDO

Billy T. Stuff, you’re a Billy T. nominee. Going up against Vaughn King, Clayton Carrick Lesley, Jared Fell, Rhys Mathewson. THe important thing is the Auckland season.

TJ

That’s right, we all perform on the third week of the Auckland season, the 11th to 15th of May give or take. Then a gig at sky city. Where the winners are announced.

SANDO

You’ve played sky city before.

TJ

I did the Christmas Comedy Gala, last year. It was an awful lot of fun.

It’s a good show case, for kiwis and internationals.

TJ

That’s right, there are a bunch of internationals that I can personally vouch for, Jarleth Reagan from Ireland Zoe Lyons from the Uk are two that are just freaking hilarious.

SANDO

Josey Long?

TJ

She’s just fantastic. She ate dinner at my house, lovely girl. She’s been doing the rounds of the British panel shows at the moment.

SANDO

She is always a pleasure on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

TJ

Yes, but how is that show going to survive without Simon Anstel, that’s the question… Let’s not let this interview spill into references to obscure British programming.

SANDO

So, the Billys.

TJ

There are five of us competing, I’m the only one from Wellington the other four are from Auckland. It’s pretty much based about the solo show, only sixty minutes. It has to be abrand new show, a show that hasn’t been in the comedy festival before.

SANDO

And you’ll be going up against a bunch of local favorites, a couple of people not doing traditional stand up, a repeat nominee.

TJ

Yeah, the man who hosted my first gig. [Vaughn King] The standard is really high this year.

TJ

See the international shows, but if you take 200 dollars you can see a heap of really good gigs. Three internationals, two locals. The standard for the Billy Ts are really high. Rhys Mathewson had a show last year called the Best 18 Dollars You’ll ever Spend, the guy is like 18, 19 years old he’s amazing.

SANDO

It’s scary watching how he’s emerged this year as a comedy legend. He’s done an advert series.

TJ

Yeah, that shapes thing

SANDO

And he’s cut his hair which makes him look.

TJ

Like a lesbian.

SANDO

Yeah?

TJ

That might be unP.C To say in your namby pamby liberal Salient magazine/web site Like a lesbian.

It’ll bring the hits. Actually it’s a bit weird how we can watch satire being brought and then totally destroyed in New Zealand, and Salient. Recently there was a cartoon that had a veiled reference to rape that caused the blogosphere to implode.

TJ

I thought, that was the motto of Vicotria University ‘a veiled reference to Rape.’ To be fair, when you have a University on a hill that can only be accessed by a series of really dimly lit wooded pathways it’s your own fault… for the name.

SANDO

Oh god, this is going online. I am so sorry Vic’s Women’s group.

TJ

Take that Victoria University. I myself am an ex student there – I took first year four times, but what can I say, there’s a bar and the bar opens at noon and classes started at one. What are you going to do?

SANDO

So, you’re intelligent but don’t have a university degree.

TJ

I do not. I consistently failed at any kind of University career.

SANDO

So, what career wise?

TJ

Well, the comedy festival starts and then once May’s over, I am going to back pack around the States for at least three months. Maybe get some shows over there. I have a gig lined up in LA, maybe some in Philadelphia, New York.

SANDO

Showcase towns. Are you going to try the magic ten gigs one night New York experience?

TJ

Oh, if I can I will.

SANDO

It’s a different comedy world in the states.

TJ

Not that different. One of the ways you can tell, is that you get American tourists coming over here and seeing shows and having a good time. People say all sorts of things, American comedy is more broad, but comedy is comedy where ever you go. But there is just more of it in America or Britain than there is in New Zealand. What you’re seeing is the same kind of people doing the same kind of jokes, just on a larger scale.

More of an industry pressure.

TJ

Yeah, and there are so more many places you can go. If you’re a successful comedian in America then you can ppotentially do a TV show/special, while if you are a successful comedian in New Zealand some people might know who you are. Maybe. Let’s not bash the New Zealand comedy industry, there are a lot of great people, a lot of great comics.

SANDO

And if we do really well, we can become radio DJs.

TJ

Or get on Welcome to Paradise. Look, Seven Days is a really great example of where the New Zealand industry is going, it’s a great show. And it’s a show that we have needed for a really long time. We have had the talent to do that for ages, all it takes is executives to get over the cultural cringe of New Zealand comedy and forgetting about the fact that Melody Rules was awful and Welcome to Paradise was awful. Seven Periods with Mr. Gormsby was fine, and McPhail and Gadsby were fantastic. We’ve got a lot of great comics with stuff to say, and Seven Days is a vehicle for that.

SANDO

So, satire, overt political comedy. There is actually a place for it in New Zealand?

TJ

Did you say overt political comedy?

SANDO

I think so.

TJ

I find it hard to compartmentalise styles and types, I think there is definitely a place for it, but it goes back to is it funny? It doesn’t matter what your jokes about or how you put it out there, if its a TV show or stand up. No one knows what makes funny. No one has made a successful career based on a book they read about how to do jokes. As long as we have Rodney Hyde and Winston Peters as people in this country, political satire is something we desperately need.

SANDO

April 9th, it was a Friday.

TJ

Last Friday… That was a fun gig.

SANDO

Yes, it was. Did Jemaine [Clement] or Brett [McKensie] have a drink and if so did they like it?

TJ

Did they have a drink?

SANDO

This is the sort of Flight of the Conchords tabloid gossip our readers need.

TJ

(laugh)

I really didn’t pay close attention to their beverage consumption over the evening. God damn it Sando, what are you on? They seemed to have a good time, it was a fantastic gig. Without getting gushy, they are great people. They snuck into the back of this show and headlined the hell out of it. It was an amazing gig. We were all just happy to be a 135 fans watching these guys play who are about to go off and play Wembley. Personally it was a cathartic moment for me, as I opened a gig that they did in 2005. I didn’t do very well, and they were very kind but I clearly brought the audience right down before they came on. So, I emceed the show they did on Friday and the Audience had a very good time, it really felt like I’d made up for it. Made up for one of my weaker comedic memories.

SANDO

You’re a different edition or part of a different cohort of New Zealand comedy. They came up in the early naughties, Ewan Gilmore had his heyday in the late 90’s…

TJ

Yeah, I am a part of a comedy generation that is lucky because there is an industry there now. An industry that’s been forged by these guys, by Ewan Gilmore Brendan Lovegrove, Jeremy Elwood, Dai Henwood, and even Mike King. Going as far back to Billy T.. James. Even people who you might not know of like Scott Blanks, up in Auckland or down here with Derek Flores. Everyone who is involved in the Comedy Festival, the Wellington producer Zelda is fantastic. It feels like they had to forge the trail, not just do comedy but find places to do comedy, to make it happen. We now can walk in those footsteps. There are gigs that we can work at. We don’t have to convince a bar to let us do it in the first place. So, I am really thankful for that.

SANDO

Beautiful

TJ

Did you call me beautiful?

SANDO

Erm… yes?

TJ

I have a girlfriend. I’ll just put that out now.

SANDO

Speaking of which… She’s pretty talented that Jim Stanton, (of the Comedediettes) is onto it, known for her terminal accuracy.

TJ

She’s part of a double act with Sarah Harpur they had a sold out Wellington Fringe, went to Adelaide, Dunedin. It’s a fantastic show. It also defeats the cultural cringe about not just New Zealand Comedy, that’s still lingering, if you’ve ever read a review by Simon Sweetman you’ll know it’s still there. There’s also that ‘women can’t do comedy’ and if you go to any comedy night in Wellington, anywhere at all, there as many female comics as male comics on the bill. Cruzanne McCallistair, Jim Stanton Sarah Harpur, the Little Moustache Trio and in the improv scene…

SANDO

Ridiculous amounts.

TJ

I hate the cliche, can’t believe it still exists.

SANDO

What I find weird is even once that’s gone there’s this entire ‘Oh no, it’s Jan Marie, she’s going to talk about hoary old vaginas.’ Which is nonsense if you’ve seen a Jan Marie show.

TJ

It’s nonsense, if you look at Vaughan King, a fellow billy T. nominee this year, no one realises that he makes a lot of cock jokes. He makes them fantastically well. You can talk about. Politics,art, that things are different in America than they are in the rest of the world. You can talk about knob gags or your vagina, what ever. If it’s a funny joke it’s a funny joke.