But amid the side-splitting gags and goofs, there’s a heartfelt message entwined within Pryor’s newcreation. He tells Herald’s Mitchell Hageman how it came about.
A lot has changed for Jono Pryor in the seven years since his hit show Jono and Ben last aired, but his laconic sense of humour and underlying charm remain to this day.
“My face has got a lot more wrinkly and older and beaten up,” the 43-year-old father of two joked.
Just before I spoke to Pryor, he’d gone out to see a massive billboard promoting his new show Vince, set to air next month on Three and ThreeNow.
Cheekily teasing a crucial element of the plot, he was confronted with a life-size image of him naked from the waist down.
“I think they’ve gone for a sex sells approach, but I think it’s going to be the opposite of what sex sells is,” he said.
Jono Pryor stars as struggling TV host Vince alongside other Kiwi acting royalty. Photo / Zara Staples
Written by Pryor with episodes directed by screen stalwart David de Lautour, Vince follows charismatic television presenter Vince Walters, whose career takes a nosedive after an unfortunate on-air incident where his pants get pulled down at a children’s hospital cancer fundraiser.
Determined to make a comeback, he and his agent make it their mission to clear his name and reclaim his spot in the brutal media landscape.
The series also stars a well-known line-up of New Zealand acting talent including Blair Strang, Anna Jullienne, Chelsie Preston-Crayford, Laura Daniel and Vinnie Bennett.
Funnily enough, the aforementioned “on-air incident” isn’t dissimilar to something Pryor had gone through himself.
“I was having a photo with two young children, and their mother was taking the photo. Ben and I had a shirt, tie and, because it was summer, board shorts underneath. Someone ended up coming up behind me and downtrou-ing me.”
The show's unfortunate downtrousing incident at a hospital is based on a real-life situation the Pryor encountered during his career. Photo / Zara Staples
But the idea for a show wasn’t just pulled out of thin air, it was years in the making. Pryor’s first script was conceived during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
“I actually had Covid, so I locked myself away from the rest of the family and literally had nothing else to do in a room, and kind of dreamt up this plotline,” he said.
“I passed it on toBronwynn Bakker, who used to make Jono and Ben with us, and four to five years later here we are.”
While Pryor said he was a “huge fan of [Ricky] Gervais” and enjoyed series like Modern Family, the intent with Vince was to try to create something unique.
“To be honest, I didn’t really watch anything while I was writing it because I didn’t want to be too heavily influenced by anything else, but I guess subconsciously from digesting all your favourite shows over the years, you are,” he said.
Comedy is a fickle beast, but Pryor knows more than anybody that the best way to tame it is with balance.
“I wanted [Vince] to have a high gag rate with lots of jokes. Whether they hit or not is yet to be determined,” he said.
“I also wanted to combo that with a decent story. From what I read on the internet, if you can do both of those then you’ve got yourself a semi-professional television show.”
Naturally, the question was posed as to whether the character of Vince embodied any of Pryor’s own persona.
“Probably too much to be honest,” he laughs. “He’s a bit of a shambles and it’s like looking in a mirror.”
Pryor wrote Vince during the Covid lockdown. Photo / Zara Staples
But unlike his character, Pryor likes to think that he’s nailed the family/work-life balance now, and like many Kiwi dads, he’s navigating the trials and tribulations of modern fatherhood.
“I probably have too much of a balance now that I annoy my family,” he admits.
“It’s such a cliche, but time just flies by. Our son is 15 and our daughter is 12, and they were babies when we were doing Jono and Ben back in the day. We certainly do treasure the time that they want to spend with us now.”
It’s these family values that Pryor hopes the show will convey amidst the humour and farce of it all.
“I think the wider message is that people can often get swept up in their professional lives and chasing those dreams while ignoring some beautiful stuff that’s happening in their personal lives,” he said.
“[Vince] kind of comes to the realisation of what is important in life by the end of it. Work is not the be-all and end-all of life.”
Vince is a comedy with heart. Photo / Zara Staples
Luckily for TV fans, Vince also drew on Pryor’s burning passion for writing, something he plans to keep doing in the foreseeable future.
“I love writing. I’ve got a lot of pilot scripts that are just sitting on my desktop at the moment doing nothing. I’d love to do more of it, and I don’t necessarily have to be in all the shows either.”
Vince airs at 8.30pm on Thursday, February 13 on Three and ThreeNow.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.
