The creator and star of podcast-turned-TV series Small Town Scandal tells Alex Casey how growing up on a dairy farm helped shape his comedic voice.<\/p>\n
Tom Sainsbury\u2019s phone is full of texts from Tom Sainsbury. The comedian, actor and writer\u2019s creative process involves constantly messaging himself ideas for characters or everyday observations, resulting in a chaotic one-sided text chain sprinkled with random book and movie recommendations. \u201cThe system\u2019s not good,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019d say 10% of the ideas slip through the cracks because they were just one word and I just can\u2019t remember what they mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thrillingly, he swipes open his phone at my request and starts to scroll. \u201cMy last one was, \u2018I\u2019ve just about had enough of your nonsense\u2019. I\u2019ve also got \u2018scuse fingers\u2019 which would have been from holiday time and going to dinner parties and things.\u201d He\u2019s hit a rich vein now. \u201cI want to do something with how hot pita bread is when you get it out of the toaster. I also really want to do a BurgerFuel chef who smokes and has tatts and stuff like that. Such a great character.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sainsbury has been an observer of people for as long as he can remember. Growing up on a dairy farm in Matamata, he recalls countless characters who made an indelible impression. There were the old boys in fedoras at the stock auctions, the charismatic auctioneer with no top lip, the flamboyant male hairdresser who would come over to help his mum with interior design. Even as a little kid, he always returned to the same question: \u201cwho are all these people?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Sainsbury has always had a love of colourful characters. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n
As he got slightly older, Sainsbury adds that his observation skills also had an element of self-preservation when navigating the small farming town. \u201cMachoism and masculinity was definitely a thing to be on edge about and, being a queer kid, you do that thing that everyone in this situation does, which is that you have to be really attuned to who\u2019s a threat and who\u2019s not. It\u2019s very dark psychology, but I think there\u2019s definitely something in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
However dark the origins of his fascination with people are, Sainsbury has gone on to build an unparalleled repertoire of local caricatures, from pashmina-wearing wine reviewer Fiona, to the personification of The Warehouse, to manosphere-pilled chiropractor Dr Darren. How does he choose his targets? \u201cIf you attack people\u2019s pomposity, I think you\u2019re always in a safe zone,\u201d he says. \u201cI especially love people who are really performative, or think that they are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
His latest love letter to the colourful characters of Aotearoa is Small Town Scandal, the television adaptation of his true crime parody podcast of the same name. The series follows disgraced journalist-turned-podcaster Toby (played by Sainsbury) who returns to his fictional hometown of Te H\u014diho and is thrown into a new murder mystery involving his millionaire uncle, an automatic lawnmower, and an all-star cast including Morgana O\u2019Reilly, Loren Taylor and Rose Matafeo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is a perfect storm of everything I love,\u201d says Sainsbury. \u201cA love of small town New Zealand, a love of characters, and a love of true crime.\u201d Referencing his favourite crime podcasts S Town, Hollywood Con Queen and Teacher\u2019s Pet, Sainsbury says the genre is extremely ripe for parody. Fans of the podcast will recognise his love of bombshell cliffhanger twists, dramatic time jumps, and scene-setting \u201cbordering on pretentious\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Sainsbury as Toby in Small Town Scandal. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n
And while audiences might recognise a few podcast conventions, there are also a few characters that might ring a bell back in Sainsbury\u2019s hometown. \u201cNot naming names, but they are all inspired by Matamata folk,\u201d he says. Although he finds characters everywhere, he says there\u2019s something particularly potent outside of the main centres. \u201cIt\u2019s like people don\u2019t have to check themselves as much so all their bad habits and eccentricities are allowed to flourish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond Small Town Scandal, Sainsbury will keep digging up his old text messages and trialling out new characters on social media. Or, as he puts it, \u201cthrowing shit at the wall.\u201d He\u2019ll be dusting off his popular Facebook page ahead of the election, but admits he doesn\u2019t have any specific plans for politicians as yet. All those high-powered, pompous people to choose from, and yet it\u2019s that kernel of an idea in his texts around a BurgerFuel chef that he still can\u2019t shake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to get the tattoo sleeves and smokes and stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s quite a bit to organise, but I just feel so passionate about doing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Small Town Scandal premieres on NEON and Sky Comedy Monday 9 February at 8.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The creator and star of podcast-turned-TV series Small Town Scandal tells Alex Casey how growing up on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[492,156,14741,111,139,69,1066,8861,35549],"class_list":{"0":"post-276279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-comments-enabled","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-neon","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-pop-culture","15":"tag-sky","16":"tag-tom-sainsbury"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}