Danny Mulheron - Funny As Interview

Director, actor and ex-stand-up comedian Danny Mulheron has a take no prisoners approach to comedy — and to interviews. Among other topics, this Funny As conversation sees Mulheron: 

• Teaming up with his creative partner, writer Dave Armstrong while the pair were still in school (2 minutes)
• Being thrown in the deep end with his first acting role on long-running soap Close to Home while still a teenager (4 minutes)
• Talking about his dislike of puns (3 minutes), heading to drama school as a "grotesque" actor (7 minutes), and past adventures in Hollywood
• Stirring the pot with Stephen Sinclair in their farcical play The Sex Fiend. "It did really well. All the cool people hated it." (14 minutes)
• Doing a foul-mouthed impression of teacher Mr Gormsby — the stand-up character from Mulheron's comedy series Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby (15 minutes)
• Describing finding most of the show's "fantastic" cast of high school students on location in Wainuiomata — "they knew what it was like to be outcast" (22 minutes)
• Recalling how Peter Jackson puppet movie Meet the Feebles was made to be "as grotesque, and stupid and offensive" as possible — and being asked to mock-execute someone, while dressed in a hippo costume (27 minutes)
• Describing the reaction to pioneering Pasifika TV comedy The Semisis  — "We were mobbed in Ōtāhuhu in KFCs, but avoided in Ponsonby" (35 minutes)
• “Save the best jokes for your friends” and more advice for young comedians (41 minutes)

This interview was recorded for 2019 TV series Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy. All audiovisual content is copyright to Augusto, and may not be reproduced. Publication of Funny As extended interviews made possible with funding from the NZ Lotteries Grants Board.