Nerdy white boy gets overheated in cool world

By MICHELE HEWITSON

Let's see, what's the competition?

The Royal Variety Performance over on TV One, with Kylie, Shania Twain and Prince Charlie?

The Bachelor on TV2 with Renee Zellweger and Chris O'Donnell?

On Prime, staring at 8.30, is White Water Summer. In which an outdoor enthusiast is ill-prepared for trouble when he takes a bunch of kids on a trek into the great unknown.

That could have been the promo for tonight's one-hour Home Truths Special on TV3 at 9.30. In which, to quote host John Campbell, you get to see the spectacle of a nerdy white boy with big ears from Wellington host a gig of "phat beats, dope lyrics and sick rhymes".

As special guest Che-Fu puts it to John: "Jools Holland's got nothing on you."

Or: In which a music enthusiast - and there is no one more enthusiastic than John Boy at his enthusiastic best - is ill-prepared for a heatwave when he takes an audience on a trek into the great New Zealand music scene.

It is very, very hot on Campbell's show tonight.

Tom Scott ("the one and only", the "wonderful man") notes that this is a hot show: "What a great idea to take the whole TV3 crew to Death Valley, California."

Campbell is hot. He spends his New Year's Eve (not really, this was pre-recorded) wiping beads of sweat from his brow.

The world - even the new world of 2004 - is just not prepared, though, for the reinvention of nerdy white boy Campbell as some sort of hip-hip hopper. (Remember what happened to Mike Hosking when he went a bit cool?)

Fortunately, tonight we get Campbell as Campbell and guests Tom Scott (he's here because he is the one and only etc and Campbell likes him), Nesian Mystik, Blindspott, Che Fu, Carly Binding and oboe player Russel Walder.

While some of the guests might be a bit cool, Campbell is still resolutely nerdy-boy in his too-hot suit and tie. Thank goodness.

Hotter than the competition? As far as New Year's Eve telly viewing goes, there is no competition.

But anyone (oh, alright, me) wanting a wrap-up of the excellent (the one and only, the wonderful) Home Truths' year in the form of some of the other one and only's interviews will be disappointed.

Aside from the interviewette with Tom Scott - who will have the fact that he stood up to Muldoon leading his obit - by the little creep who stood up to Helen Clark, this is Campbell playing music enthusiast.

The musos play - hey, nice plug for Carly's CD. John claps but, thankfully, does not dance.

He says things like: "That was fantastic. Lads, that was fantastic."

He marvels at a Blindspott clip where the drummer flicked his drumsticks out into the audience. "I tried to get someone in the eye," titters the drummer.

Nice John ignores that. Well, it's not very nice, is it?

The Home Truths Special is nice. If you like this sort of thing, which is a sort of thing like The Big Night In but with better music and a host with bigger ears.

There is conviviality provided by some product placement, but somehow it doesn't look like a very good party. Too hot, perhaps.