DavidMcPhail
- Writer
- Actor
David McPhail was a pioneering figure in the history of Kiwi TV comedy. Working alongside Jon Gadsby, his longtime comic partner in crime, he impersonated Sir Rob Muldoon in landmark sketch shows A Week of It and McPhail & Gadsby. Later McPhail starred in the Barry Crump-style yarns of Letter to Blanchy, and as an alarmingly straight-talking teacher in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. He died overnight on 14 May 2021.
Screenography
Biography
David McPhail impersonated nuns, politician Roger Douglas, and singer Tina Turner. But it was his take on former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon that sealed his place in Kiwi popular culture — reducing, in the words of writer Steve Braunias, "the most terrifying man in New Zealand" to a goblin-sized joke.
Awards
2008 Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For services to television and theatre
1999 SPADA Screen Industry Award (New Zealand Screen Production and Development Association)
Champion Award
“When I proposed it to some of my superiors, they thought I was insane ... I was told quite frankly by one, 'you have to understand, David. You're young and you're energetic but you don't know the facts of life, and one of the facts of life is New Zealanders do not have a sense of humour. They are very, very staunch sensible people and they don't like laughing, and they don't like laughing at themselves.'”
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