Tom Sainsbury - Funny As Interview

Tom Sainsbury is an accomplished playwright, actor and director, who found national fame in 2017 with his Snapchat impressions of MP Paula Bennett. In this interview he covers many topics, including:

• His early inspirations including The Naked Gun, French and Saunders and Star Wars
• Feeling that he’s “clocked” theatre, with projects in other mediums on the go
• Working with Madeleine Sami on TV series Super City, after meeting her at a party
• How the immediacy of Snapchat makes it an ideal medium for satire
• Meeting and liking his repeated political parody victim, Paula Bennett
• His hope that political correctness will start to become the butt of jokes, rather than a comedy constraint

Sainsbury also makes an appearance in the final minutes of this Funny As interview with Chris Parker, to discuss comedy troupe Snort.

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.