Tom Sainsbury's Small Town Scandal. Photo / Supplied
Tom Sainsbury is this week launching 30 characters, wheeling and dealing himself in Hollywood, and has opened up about being a sperm donor.
The in-demand funny man and playwright is taking his character impersonations to the next level with the release of a hilarious new mockumentary, true-crime podcast on iHeartRadio.
Famous for his talent in impersonating well-known New Zealanders, Sainsbury has created and voiced more than 30 distinctive characters in his serial Small Town Scandal.
The new podcast delves into the life of Toby Buchanan, a disgraced journalist from fictional Te Hoiho in the Wairarapa, who is investigating the death of his rich uncle, Mitch Buchanan, mysteriously killed in an automatic mower incident.
En route to Los Angeles, Sainsbury,40, multi-tasked an interview and told Spy he wrote the series to take the p*** and parody out of the real true-crime podcasts he’s loved over the years, and he hopes fans of the genre will love his take.
“We had to break the script down so I only did one character at a time, because otherwise my brain would short-circuit,” says Sainsbury.
“We’d do about three characters a recording session. I’d practise them at home and have a wee recording that I could listen to if I started going a bit crazy. And I did go a bit crazy.”
The inspiration for the town of Te Hoiho is his hometown, Matamata.
“They are both towns very focused on horses. I was also travelling through the Wairarapa when I was coming up with the idea and I could just sense a grisly, bonkers murder happening there.”
He says fans of his social media videos will love the podcast series.
“There are some strong similarities with the favourites — Fiona the Wine Reviewer and a certain politician with a thick Kiwi accent. It’s just a pity I couldn’t inject a particular orange cat.”
Sainsbury’s inspiration comes from his fascination with human behaviour and what makes people tick — then he replicates them with a bit of teasing.
Of his 30 new characters, his favourite is lead detective Toby.
“He’s a failed journalist who lives at home with his mother. But he spent one year in Australia and picked up the accent and can’t shake it. It’s so fun sitting in his energy.”
Sainsbury is in LA to get people interested in a couple of TV shows he’s written.
“I’m feeling very zen that nothing might come of it, and the projects might fall over. But I enjoy the city and the possibilities and meeting loopy Americans is always great for my obsession with different characters.”
This week, Sainsbury told Herald podcast One Day You’ll Thank Me that he was a sperm donor and is the biological father of the two children of a lesbian couple: a 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy.
“I’ve become a bit of an advocate for sperm donation. The whole experience has opened my world and heart and now I’ve got two great little people in my life. I wanted to talk about all the details that went into it in case other fellows are thinking about it,” he tells Spy.
The first three episodes of Small Town Scandal are now available on iHeartRadio or whenever you get your podcasts.