Jason Gunn: kids show host turned TV all-rounder...

Interview – 2010

A generation of Kiwi kids grew up watching Jason Gunn on TV. Gunn was growing up too. Starting in children’s TV, he hosted Jase TV, The Son of a Gunn Show, After School, and What Now? Often Gunn's partner was a hugely popular creature named Thingee. Gunn moved on to other programmes like Young Entertainers; later he starred in a host of top-rating primetime shows, including Wheel of Fortune, The Rich List and Dancing with the Stars.

In this ScreenTalk, Gunn talks about:

Learning the skills of presenting from "old hands" in the screen industry
How he grew up on TV hosting The Son of a Gunn Show
Being best mates with a creature named Thingee
His love for making children’s TV and how it is the best of all genres
How he gets comedic inspiration from everyday life
The tough path of learning to play piano and sing
Just being himself on Celebrity Treasure Island
The drama and excitement of Dancing with the Stars
Why hosting game shows will lead to new things

This video was first uploaded on 8 February 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

I was blessed because at the time of starting on children's TV there was so many wonderful presenters who had become directors, who trained me. And you suddenly learnt that it's one thing to be naturally quite enteraining . . . but there's the actual skill base of being a presenter as well. I was lucky back then I was able to learn that from experienced people. There are things that I do on TV now that directly I learnt in that first probably three or four weeks, couple of months...
– Jason Gunn on learning to present on television

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