Elaborate sets, complex dialogue trees, mass simulations, and hidden cameras. It all sounds a bit cryptic. But in the eyes of Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder, it’s a recipe for successful social change.
The funnyman has been given a budget by HBO to help people rehearse for events in their lives. His quasi-documentary comedy show The Rehearsal delves into situational occurrences and how they can help people prepare for the things that are yet to happen.
Nathan Fielder and his much meme'd laptop harness in his series The Rehearsal, streaming on Neon.
Last season saw Fielder develop a rehearsal for a woman considering motherhood (by hiring child actors to act as her children), and this season is focused on the relationships between pilots and first mates when preventing plane crashes (while playing out scenes in a fictional airport he built in an industrial warehouse).
This got me thinking. Perhaps New Zealand could be partial to the Nathan Fielder treatment? What kinds of situations, events, or issues do we have in Aotearoa that warrant a rehearsal?
From big sporting events to our frustrating public transport systems and shifting societal norms, here are four key areas that Kiwis could do with rehearsing.
Tall Poppy tales
Tall Poppy Syndrome involves a group or person bringing someone down to their level because they feel their star is shining too bright. Kiwis, with their joke-filled and honest nature, have been quite partial to this throughout history.
One thing Fielder does superbly in his rehearsals is natural social manipulation: setting a scene so perfectly that people are comfortable divulging their true feelings.
This opens them up to adapt quickly to what’s thrown at them.
So, how can a rehearsal combat Tall Poppy? How about we gather a bunch of high-achieving Kiwis who have experienced Tall Poppy Syndrome and invite them to a fake game show alongside those who have insulted them.
There’s a catch to this game show though: the answers and tasks are unwinnable. It’s all rigged with no possible way to succeed.
No one even has the opportunity to compare or put down each other because of all the frustration involved in the process.
Then, the next time the opportunity comes up for someone who experienced that feeling to use Tall Poppy syndrome in a social context, that person will remember the frustration of being on an equal playing field and perhaps feel for the other person instead of putting them down.
An Olympic campaign
Okay, so it’s obvious that Aotearoa doesn’t have the space, the infrastructure, or the resources to host an Olympic Games.
But that doesn’t mean a mini-simulation or test wouldn’t still be fun, and rehearsing for any big event wouldn’t go amiss, considering New Zealand is a hotspot for the Rugby and Football World Cup campaigns.
Eden Park is the natural choice for this rehearsal, where we could get Kiwi athletes to test the stadium in a variety of different sports modes.
Eden Park could help create a good 'Olympic' rehearsal.
Punters from past Olympics could be rounded up and put in the stadium to witness the matches and get a sense of the vibe.
They could give feedback as to what went wrong and right, and the athletes could then compare their experiences between home crowds and these ring-ins.
Besides the sports themselves, it would also be wise to print some merchandise and share it around with the punters, gauging interest and thoughts on what sells and what doesn’t.
With a Nathan Fielder budget, surely we could recreate the highly anticipated CityLink Rail Station to iron out the kinks before opening?
Just like Fielder does in his show, we could get actors to shadow current Auckland Transport workers, who would eventually take part in a simulation that includes situations that mimic real life (eg, complainers, security guards, transport office).
Criticism of Auckland Transport’s past projects has been that Aucklanders didn’t have much of a voice when making decisions, so what better way to see first-hand the frustrations than with a quasi-simulation.
Could a rehearsal sort out Auckland's transport woes? Photo / Marika Khabazi
Someone could even shadow Auckland mayor Wayne Brown, and then actors could warm up to the Wayne Brown actor and create a simulation within a simulation that highlights communication flaws and successes.
It could even be worth setting up our fake CityLink station with an eatery and then surveying a group of random customers to get their responses.
Company restructures
In both the public and private sectors, restructures have impacted thousands of everyday Kiwis and caused widespread stress.
Fielder is a master of softening the blow, so why not let him go rogue on a company by setting up a fake restructure process?
Firstly, get actors to shadow a CEO to see how they operate, before getting them to act as that CEO to deliver the hard news.
Staff who were made redundant could then fill out a survey at the end about how well they thought the process was handled, providing feedback and understanding on both sides.
Nathan Fielder knows how to let people down easily. Photo / Neon
If we really wanted to switch things up, we could try creating a scenario where two CEOs swap companies after being given a budget to cull. This would create different social dynamics and place them in unfamiliar territory.
While no one wants to get made redundant, the reality is that tough economic times warrant people preparing for the inevitable.
