PAUL ELLIS, national talent spotter. He was a judge on NZ Idol and now he's expanding his brief to all sorts of entertainers on New Zealand's Got Talent. Which brings us to the obvious question ...
KEY POINTS:
Why did you agree to do New Zealand's Got Talent? Are you just a glutton for punishment?
[Laughs]. Some would view it that way. I saw it a couple of years ago , online when I was working in Brisbane, on YouTube. I just thought it was such a enjoyable format that I hoped someone would make it in New Zealand.
You got a bit of a reputation on NZ Idol for being the mean one. Are you looking to, in PR speak, "cultivate a new persona"?
Look, I think why I was a bit cutting with people, or short with people on Idol, was that I really understood the music industry. I could see that some of the contestants weren't taking it seriously and that's what really got my goat. I saw they were going to have to work really hard once the show was over to maintain a career. This show, we're not asking someone to have a career. It's a more generous-spirited show really. This is the Olympics of variety shows.
Having worked on Idol and seen where they end up - which unfortunately is nowhere really - was it important to you that NZGT wasn't offering a "career" prize? Does the cash prize make it a different beast?
It is a completely different beast and that's why I really wanted to work on it. It's funny, talking about the Idol people, they had glimmers of careers. Ben, especially, sold a lot of records - 60,000 singles and 30,000 albums - which was really great at the time. I think the country just got Idol-ised out. I think we were a bit exhausted by it. This is not singer, after singer, after singer. We've got dancers, aerialists, krumpers ...
Do you think the calibre of contestants is higher than those that came through Idol?
I think people understand reality TV and overseas formats more. I think a lot of people turned up to Idol on a bit of a wing and a prayer. I didn't see any of the third series of course because I wasn't here.
Right, you went to work in Australia. Do you feel you got out just in time?
Look, I think I needed to get some perspective on where it was all sitting. I had a great opportunity to go and learn the back end of a great TV network in Australia. I did miss it a little bit to be honest.
The American version has already screened here and brought out all sorts of bizarre behaviour. On the scale of idiocy, where does New Zealand sit?
Um, we definitely have some fairly colourful people in this country. But it's one of the reasons I put my hand up for the show. I knew that from going around the country with Idol. I would stand in a bar and people would come up and have a yarn about what their talents were. I quite like the fact we've become a little bit sassy in trying to prove that we're all entertainers. As opposed to, "Nah mate, I don't do anything," and talking down to the ground. People's bravado levels seem to have increased.
Were you surprised by the number of people who auditioned and the types of talent that came out?
Yeah, and it was a really exhausting show to judge in that manner because they had two minutes to impress us. We never knew what was going to walk out on stage. That is part of the magic of the show. They come out and you go, 'What is this person going to do?' It captures some golden moments. Have we got the interesting? Yes. And bizarre.
And what's the dynamic like between you and the other two judges, Miriama Smith and Richard Driver?
Really great. I hadn't really met Miriama before but she's been fantastic, she brings that whole theatrical side to it. Richard is looking at it very much from a TV producer's point of view but also has that music background. He and I quite often disagree on the music background, which has been quite fun. It doesn't ask for us to argue among ourselves too much though. The buzzer says it all. I'm pretty quick off the buzzer.
New Zealand's Got Talent premieres this Monday, 7.30pm on Prime.
