Billy T James wears the iconic black singlet and yellow towel on screen in 'Te News'. Photo / NZonscreen
Billy T James wears the iconic black singlet and yellow towel on screen in 'Te News'. Photo / NZonscreen
Opinion
There's something about Maori comedians and Maori humour that has been delighting New Zealanders for years. Maori Television has recently introduced two new comedy series into its Friday night line-up - Find Me a Maori Bride, from the creative team behind Auckland Daze, and Brown Eye, from producers Taika Waititiand Bailey Mackey.
Both shows have been attracting positive reviews for their fresh take on comedy. Maori entertainers Sir Howard Morrison and Prince Tui Teka both incorporated humour into their variety shows in the early years of television, and by the 1980s we had our first bona fide mega-star comedian with the arrival on the scene of the late Billy T James.
Billy T also started out in variety-style TV shows, but quickly moved into the sketch comedy that made him a legend. Many of his most popular sketches are featured in this Best Of show from 1992 - there's Te News ("someone pinched all the toilet seats out of the Kaikohe Police Station, now the cops have got nothing to go on") with Billy in iconic black singlet and yellow towel; a bro's guide to home improvement; the Captain Cook first contact sketches, and Turangi Vice. No target is sacred (God, the IRA) and there are classic spoofs of Pixie Caramel's "last requests" and Lands For Bags' "where'd you get your bag" ads.
As well as his regular television work, Billy T also made a few appearances in feature films. His loony Mexican-Maori cowboy character in hit 1984 movie Came a Hot Friday is beloved by fans.
You can see Billy T as The Tainuia Kid in this excerpt from Came a Hot Friday:
Billy T was also an accomplished live performer, and in April 1990 he came back from years of ill health for this live performance and TV special Billy T Live. It was a last hurrah for Billy, whose transplanted heart gave out on him the following year, but it's a fine swansong.
View Billy T Live here:
To see a slightly different side of Billy T James, try this 1983 studio interview with him for TVNZ's Koha programme. At 34, Billy T is already one of NZ's most prominent performers after his breakthrough role in Radio Times, two years of his own TV show and winning Entertainer of the Year. Topics include the unwitting role his teachers played in his mimicry, his brief career in commercial art, touring with the Maori Volcanics, and whether his characters unfairly stereotype Maori. He also discusses why his humour doesn't work with overseas audiences and recounts meeting a rather confused American.
You can see Koha - Billy T James here:
For his last TV series, Billy T moved away from the sketch comedy he was best known for, and tried his hand at a family based sitcom - The Billy T James Show. The series wasn't especially well received in its time, but is perhaps looked on a little more fondly with the passage of time. The cast included Ilona Rodgers, Mark Hadlow and Mark Wright.
