Sainsbury said getting started in stand-up was the hardest part - ”when you’re trying things and they just aren’t hitting”.
“You just have to be vulnerable, especially doing sets where you’re thinking ‘this could completely bomb’. You just have to be okay with it.”
Stand-up was complementary to his other pursuits, rather than an extension of his social media content, he said.
He is also known as “Snapchat Dude”, playing various characters - some real, some fictitious - in short videos.
“My 20s were all about writing and producing plays and putting them on, mostly character comedy.
“Here I was trying to wrangle all these casts and there are so many people you need to put on a play but, with stand-up, you can do it whenever.”
Sainsbury’s connection to Whanganui comes via a friendship with Hello Comedy co-founder Elizabeth McMenamin-Pervan.
“She asked me to come along. I said ‘of course, I’d love to’.
“I have friends who have done [Hello Comedy showcases] before and they said it was fantastic.”
He was already beginning to gather intel on the River City.
“I’ll be going on to your council’s Facebook page and sometimes it takes a bit of work, but you just see the lay of the land and what people are commenting on.
“From there, you collate your favourites or the most hilarious ones. It’s usually lots of complaints about potholes and recycling.
“Then you just read it out to the town you’re in and everybody seems to love it.”
Apart from his show in Whanganui, Sainsbury has plenty of other things on the go.
“I am just finishing off a TV show called Snack Masters, where we get professional chefs to try and replicate famous New Zealand snacks.
“My first feature film was also on at the [New Zealand International] Film Festival so I’ve been promoting that.”
Loop Track is a psychological “tramping thriller” in which a member of an expedition has a paranoid breakdown.
“It‘s my first one but hopefully not the last. We are having a general release around the country in November,” Sainsbury said.
“It’s kind of like giving birth, I’d imagine. I don’t know, I haven’t done it. You look back and think ‘I loved doing that’ but at the time it was very stressful.”
The public figures next in line for his Snapchat videos were Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins, he said.
“David Seymour and James Shaw too, I guess. It’s those four that are in my sights.”
As Sainsbury’s next comedy destination, Whanganui is also in his sights.
He has never been to the city as a performer.
“That wonderful elevator in the hill? I love that.”
Sainsbury said people always told him “it must be so hard” to do stand-up comedy.
“Yeah, but it’s not like you’re going up there and haven’t thought about it.
“You’re not completely winging it. You’ve got something to talk about. If the comedy isn’t landing, I’ll just say I’m a storyteller and that makes me feel slightly better about myself.”
Tom Sainsbury will headline the Hello Comedy showcase at the Whanganui Musicians Club on October 28. Due to demand, an extra one-hour show has been has been added at 6pm. The 8pm show runs for two hours.
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
