\u201cIt\u2019s a fun way to hear some insights from our athletes, not your classic, boring Sky TV interview … You never fathom how impressive these people are \u2013 their drive, how stoic and mentally focused they are in their training.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the show, Watson jumps on a bike with Olympic gold medallist Ellesse Andrews at a velodrome \u2013 \u201cextremely terrifying\u201d \u2013 paddles with world champion freestyler Erika Fairweather, attempts a kayak sprint with Dame Lisa Carrington, and despite being \u201cnot great with heights\u201d samples the new Olympic sport of speed climbing.<\/p>\n
Jordan Watson with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe in an episode of Out of My League. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an \u201cunhealthy amount of self-confidence\u201d for someone who didn\u2019t make the First XV at high school, Watson says.<\/p>\n
But while he loved rugby growing up, there was always \u201csome kind of flair\u201d for performing, too, and teasing by his mates for the \u201cweird group dances\u201d he liked making up with female friends.<\/p>\n
On his last day of school, with no plan, Watson took up his school career adviser\u2019s suggestion of studying radio at the Bay of Plenty polytech.<\/p>\n
On the first day there, he met the young woman who became his wife, Jody. After dating for two months, \u201chead over heels in love\u201d for the first time, he followed her to Auckland.<\/p>\n
At 18, living with Jody and trying to get into the TV industry, Watson did \u201ca massive mix of the most random things\u201d.<\/p>\n
Eventually, he got regular work on Eating Media Lunch and The Unauthorised History of New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Later, he fell into the \u201cwonderful set-up\u201d of the kids\u2019 show Let\u2019s Get Inventin\u2019 before \u201cjumping on the coattails\u201d of comedians Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce and their satirical show Jono and Ben.<\/p>\n
Now living in P\u0101p\u0101moa with Jody and their three daughters, Watson went fulltime as How To DAD in 2017.<\/p>\n
As someone who likes to give things a go, even when it means \u201cslightly putting his life at risk\u201d, he says social media success has delivered him some awesome opportunities in the years since.<\/p>\n
\u201c[If someone said] \u2018Hey, Jordan, you want to go try and hike Kilimanjaro in a month? I\u2019d be like, \u2018Yeah, if you\u2019re inviting me, let\u2019s give it a go.\u2019 Why not? That\u2019s my big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now a \u201ckoro\u201d among New Zealand content creators, Watson says there\u2019s still no guide or manual for becoming a social media person.<\/p>\n
Although every video he posts as How To DAD gets \u201cbounced off\u201d his wife Jody, a TV production manager who\u2019s on Instagram as How to MUM.<\/p>\n
Although Jody sometimes \u201ccringes\u201d at the lucrative offers he turns down \u2013 \u201cShe\u2019s like, that would really help the bank account, right?\u201d \u2013 Watson says he has to choose carefully which brands to align himself with.<\/p>\n
Committing to his comedic style and asserting he knows his audience better than anyone else has been key to success and longevity as a content creator, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been hard to work with because of that\u2026 especially because comedy is such a fine line\u2026 you\u2019re fighting. I have fought for 10 years. It ages you. It\u2019s way more work than people think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Watson played:<\/p>\n
Three Little Birds by Bob Marley<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lived five minutes out of town on a little lifestyle block \u2013 had like a sheep and a cow and a paddock. My dad\u2019s an eel fisherman, and the record player would always have UB40 or Bob Marley going.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one just takes me straight back to sitting in the lounge listening to dad\u2019s music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sailing by Rod Stewart:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum is British, and she was a Rod Stewart fanatic. He\u2019s one of those singers… his voice just hasn\u2019t faded. He can go right now and sing acapella and sound very similar to what he did back in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum died five years ago, six years ago coming up. And yeah, this one… it definitely gets you in the stomach each time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of his more sad ones, but it also just takes me back, and this is Mum all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everybody by The Backstreet Boys:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Morrinsville Primary. I would have been 9 or 10 with Backstreet Boys pinned up on the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and four other guys at primary school formed our own Backstreet Boys. We could all sing back then. Can\u2019t sing as good these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were allowed to leave class and go around the junior classes. They\u2019d get told the Backstreet Boys are coming, and we would come in. We were all one of the characters, and we would sing Backstreet Boys songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not Many by Scribe<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad grew up in Te Kauwhata, and we went there a lot… Every school holidays, we were just there constantly\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cNow he has a permanent spot there. So, we\u2019re there every long weekend. My sisters and brothers bring their kids, all the cousins hang out. And it\u2019s the coolest spot. I got married there.<\/p>\n
\u201cScribe takes me back to when [my dad] had the bach with his ex-wife, my old stepmum. Heaps of us out in the backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember having the Scribe CD, and just being like, \u2018Oh my gosh, who\u2019s Eminem? Throw the Eminem away. We have our own Eminem\u2019. He was a game-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n
All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar<\/p>\n
When he and Jody got married in Port Waikato in 2012, this was their \u201ccool, funky little walk down the aisle song\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe paid $50 for the gardens. We paid $100 for the reception hall, and my dad took some whitebait fritters. Great night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom\u2019s Diner by AnnenMayKantereit and Giant Rooks:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have songs that sweep through our house and just stick, and this is one of them. I feel sorry for our neighbours, everyone is singing at the top of their voices. We\u2019re all trying to sound like the guys singing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is amazing, and then you watch the video and see who the people are behind the song. You\u2019re like, \u2018That can\u2019t be coming out of these people.\u2019 It\u2019s very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s a fun way to hear some insights from our athletes, not your classic, boring Sky TV interview…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[95,430,9274,145223,9057,156,2082,221,185,16802,14909,157,111,139,69,61,15358,14605,87539],"class_list":["post-310120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-and","tag-celebrities","tag-cheap","tag-cheerful","tag-dads","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-how","tag-is","tag-jordan","tag-me","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-to","tag-watson","tag-whats","tag-worked"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310120","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=310120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}