Yes, Jemaine and Bret are incredibly hot, cool and sooo Wellington, but Oscar Kightley is damned good too, another national treasure. Tomorrow morning, he’s standing in for Kim Hill on the 8am to noon Saturday Morning slot on Radio New Zealand National.
Oscar is one of the funniest, most talented guys West Auckland has produced. Samoan born, he came to New Zealand aged four and grew up in Te Atatu North. His first job after leaving school was as a trainee journalist for the much-missed Auckland Star, but he quickly moved on to bigger things, writing his own plays, like Fresh off the Boat and Dawn Raids, and acting up for stage and television in his trademark laconic way. One of the Naked Samoans, he’s probably best known as the creator of TV3’s bro’Town and for co-writing and starring in Sione’s Wedding, playing a character as naturally like his droll real self as Jemaine and Bret are themselves in Flight of the Conchords.
Just what has possessed Radio New Zealand bosses to let this genius loose in Kim Hill’s hallowed slot, goodness only knows – maybe it was their cringing embarrassment at not noticing Jemaine and Bret until the Conchords became a hit overseas. Oscar would be worth tuning in to for himself alone, but Jemaine will be one of his guests, making this essential radio in the week that the Conchords were recognised overseas yet again, with their Grammy.
4 Comments
February 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for the rave! We’ll be having fun. Especially since we added John Taylor from Duran Duran as a guest midweek. Oh, and Oscar wasn’t too hard a sell, actually.
Mark Cubey, producer
February 15, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I stopped listening to Kim Hill (or better known in the male world as Kill Him) for fear that I might smash my radio if she said another word.
Then I discovered weekend Radio Live – excellent radio, lots of different shows all weekend long. With a lined up of the likes of Graeme Hill, Gary Dooley, Russell Brown, Findlay McDonald & Andrew Patterson, it’s hard to go wrong.
So naturally I have lost track of what’s happening over at National Radio and thank you for the heads up in advance, I look forward to listening to Oscar’s show – love that man.
BTW: I really think someone should sue National Radio under the Fair Trading Act – surely a more accurate name would be “We Love Labour Radio”.
February 16, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I don’t think it is entirely fair to blame RNZ for the lack of attention FOTC got here. In fact, I was at a FOTC show at Downstage in 2003 which was recorded by RNZ for later broadcast.
February 16, 2008 at 11:04 pm
TVNZ is much more culpable, I do firmly believe that. At least RNZ played the BBC FOTC radio series. TVNZ couldn’t even bring itself to screen the HBO one.