‘So, what are your current hobbies?” James Mustapic asks his mother, Janet.
“Um, baking, singing … folk club.”
“Fuck club?” he responds, eyes widening.
“No,” she sighs. “You’re terrible.”
This is the opening scene of James Must-a-Pic His Mum a Man, a six-part show in which the comedian ostensibly endeavours to find a suitable partner for his 60-something single mother. The reality is not quite that.
“To be honest, there’s not a lot of matchmaking that goes on,” Mustapic confirms. “It’s more me putting my mum through hell – and about our relationship, really.”
Janet, who works in Dunedin as psychologist, is clearly used to this. Mustapic’s father left the family when he was 3 and, especially since his older sister moved out to attend university, the two have always been very close.
“I didn’t really have many friends when I was growing up in Dunedin, so me and Mum hung out a lot. We would make videos together. Well, it was mostly me forcing her to be in videos … but we became very close, and we’ve got a lot of in-jokes.”
Janet has also featured in Mustapic’s stand-up comedy work, occasionally even being dragged up on stage to account for some message she might have sent him.
“I used to do stand-up about how she had once been to a restaurant and tried to set me up with a waiter. She met a gay waiter and thought that he would be perfect for me. She got a photo with him.”
Mustapic didn’t follow up with the waiter (“he was living in Akaroa, which is in the South Island, I think”), but that’s remedied in episode four of the new show, when the focus switches to finding him a man and they finally meet. There are also dates with New Zealand celebrities, a mini-Bachelor-type production within the show and, possibly, a wedding. It’s unabashedly silly, but Mustapic sees some seriousness underlying it. It is, he observes, difficult for older people to find companions in the age of the dating app.
“Mum was very anti dating apps. I think she once tried for one second going on some online dating website, and then instantly just got scared and turned it off and never went on again.”
What she ended up agreeing to is more than a little awkward too, to be fair.
“I didn’t realise at first how exposing it would be for her,” he agrees. “She loves to talk, she’s actually a really big talker. But as soon as she was having to date men, she became very, very awkward and nervous. Which I think is quite funny to watch.”
How did he pitch all this to his mother, who is possibly the world’s best sport?
“I think I pitched it before really asking her, to be honest – just kind of assuming that she would do it, and thankfully she did. I eventually had to ask her, obviously. And she said, ‘I guess so.’ I don’t think we’d got the approval from TVNZ, so at that stage, it was sort of, would you potentially be keen? I think she said she was hoping that the show would not get funded. Unfortunately, for her it did. Or maybe fortunately, who knows?”
James Must-a-Pic His Mum a Man screens on TVNZ 2 at 9.30pm on March 7 and streams on TVNZ+ from then.
