New King of local chat show

By GREG DIXON

Brutal honesty is no friend in television. Comedian Mike King knows this.

But it seems the guy just can't help himself.

Ask what it means when TVNZ's publicity grinder says his new chat show will be something similar to what US talk show exemplar David Letterman does, and his response is brutal honesty of heroic proportions: "A straight rip-off would be the correct way of explaining what it is."

Crikey.

But then, as King goes on to say, there is good reason for this.

Letterman's format is one that's been hugely successful in the US, Britain and beyond.

And by ripping it off, Mike King Tonight (TV2, 9.30pm) fits with the desire by TVNZ's charter-minded executives to have local product that's fresh and exciting "but familiar".

Each of the 10 episodes will open with a witty monologue from King on current events - a la Letterman - and will feature original music from his eight-piece band of mates, a la Letterman.

There will also be recurring characters and pre-recorded material as well as live interviews recorded with a live audience at Takapuna's Bruce Mason Centre the night before airing.

The interviewees will be a mix of celebrities and newsmakers, one of the first being New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.

And obviously, with a comedian's name on the marquee, there will also be laughs, King says without laughing, before moving on to more brutal honesty.

It seems King landed what can only be called the choicest if riskiest of his TV projects so far with a spot of Don Corleone-like blackmail.

He's been wanting to do this show for five years and told TVNZ he would do the projects it wanted him to do "only if I can do this one".

What projects were these, then?

"I don't want to say. It's just fair to say I did them."

So you said I'll do this for you if you do this for me?

"Yup"

So they were happy to be blackmailed?

"They were happy that I was doing the projects they wanted me to do, which are shows that I feel are a backward step for me.

"I think we all know the show I'm talking about."

I wasn't sure I did. But King wasn't about to be that brutally honest.

In any case, New Zealand most commercially successful comedian has shown an awful lot of versatility in the years he's been waiting for his blackmail to work.

He continues to be a regular on TV One's perennially popular sports quiz show, A Game Of Two Halves, he was a longtime host of TV2's stand-up comedy show, Pulp Comedy, and has fronted documentaries, including one on early New Zealand action man Gustavus Von Tempsky.

Like him or hate him, King's put in the yards and is a likely prospect to make the first truly successful local chat show.

Suggest that Mike King Tonight could be seen as the new Strassman (which King wrote for) and he spits: "I'd rather peel my skin off with a fork."

King says a common flaw in local chat shows is that if a guest gets one over the host during the interview, the host will spend the rest of the show trying to get them back.

"You've got to be self-effacing and let the person you're talking to have a crack as well. A good chat show, first and foremost, should be informative, followed closely by funny.

"I did this wonderful interview with [Paul] Holmes where I asked him what makes a good interview, and he basically said that you've got to ask what people at home want to know."

So that's the plan, apparently. The rest? Well, anyone who's seen King live will know what to expect.

"Whether you like it or not, a lot of my comedy is based around saying out loud what people think but would never dare say out loud."

Good lord, this could mean we're about to get a brutally honest chat show. Can't wait.