CMUA: What’s your earliest memory of creativity?
Tom: Creativity was huge in my childhood. I was so inspired by things like The Smurfs and Star Wars and Jurassic Park, they all had such a huge impact. I would watch these things, and then I would recreate them. I'd walk around the farm and retell stories, or take those characters and redo them, and then if I was disciplined, I'd write them down into a notebook.
School was just hanging out with friends. I was never the funny one. I would kind of gravitate towards your Chris Parkers, your Morgana O'Reilly types, your Madeline Samis. I'd just sit back and relax and laugh, and they would just entertain me. And also, I directed them. So if the gag wasn't working quite right, I would tell them how to do it properly, then they’d redo it.
Later when I started making my own comedy, Instagram came along, and Facebook and stuff like that. I thought, “I can do this myself.”
The very first Snapchat video I did was a wonderful character called Shannon. He had a whole world, and I shared it. I would do 10-second sketches of this character. He had a twin brother as well, and they both wore berets. I think that was the beginning of it all, really.
CMUA: Tell us about the first moment you saw an everyday person and realised “oh, there's something funny there.”
Tom: When I was really young, my father just commented on this woman's cardigan. It was like a cashmere kind of cardigan. I don't know why I found it so funny. It tickled me, but this woman choosing to wear this cardigan. I mean, I don't even know what the gag was, but I just enjoyed it so much.
We laughed about it, and I was like, “okay, someone who chooses to wear a cardigan, what kind of person is that?” And then it just kind of opened up from there. I can still picture the cardigan. It was funky, 90s, big buttons clashing.
I love human psychology. I'm really interested in human behaviour, why people behave the way they do, and also how they perform in everyday life. So that's my passion, and then replicating it gives me a thrill.
When people connect with it and people go, “I behave like that” or “I know someone who's just like that” it's so great that I feel like I've done my job. So it comes down to human psychology. I think that's what I love most.
CMUA: What excites you most about being a comedian in Aotearoa today?
Tom: I think the culture of comedy at the moment is pretty incredible, and there's all these young comedians coming up who are so exciting and passionate about it.
I feel like the New Zealand comedy industry has really fostered young comedians. Everyone can do it for six minutes at open mics around the city. In Auckland, and in Wellington and Christchurch, you can pretty much go to a comedy show every single night if you wanted to. So I think that's what excites me. I love going to open mics and seeing what everyone else is up to.
CMUA: Do you have any creative pastimes away from your professional work?
Tom: I've got an electric keyboard, so I'm teaching myself. That is very hard and I probably need to start taking lessons. But I just go “oh, I like that song. Let's try and learn how to play it.” I stumble through that.
CMUA:Do you think of Aotearoa as a creative country?
Tom: Yeah, I think we're pretty damn creative here. I do surround myself with creative people, but I've got dozens and dozens and dozens of friends who are making a living out of being creative, which is incredible.
Touring around New Zealand and doing my standup comedy, people come up and interact with me, stuff like that. They’re here for it, there's a hunger for it, they understand the New Zealand kind of ethos and how we are. We have that shared experience. So I’d say, yeah we are.
CMUA: How would you encourage everyday Kiwis to get more creativity into their own lives?
Tom: Let’s have a renaissance. Let's all be renaissance people. And it doesn't have to be a career, you don't even have to be good at it. But there's something gorgeous about just expressing yourself creatively. You can be a beginner, and that's amazing.
Everyone I know that's begun an artistic hobby, I don't know anyone that's regretted it. I mean, people have let it drop by the wayside because discipline is hard, and I fully understand that, but the ones that keep persevering, they love it.