There's more to Wellington Paranormal star Mike Minogue than just being the hit comedy's deadpan straight man. He's helping to create films and shows, including a new talkback-radio satire. By Russell Baillie, NZ Listener.
It's the day after filming wrapped on the fourth series of Wellington Paranormal and Mike Minogue has been out of hospital for a few hours. Although his character-namesake, Officer Mike Minogue, has battled ghosts, zombies, aliens, amorous taniwha and a sentient fat-berg in previous seasons, his overnight stay wasn't a result of anything supernatural or a stunt gone wrong. It was kidney stones. "Absolute joy," he deadpans in the voice that has become his trademark.
But he's recovering. It may be a sign that he's working too hard, he says. As well as five weeks of shoots on Wellington Paranormal, at the same time he has been in post-production on Talkback, a TVNZ comedy series he has co-written, produced and starred in. It has been Paranormal by night, followed by much of his day devoted to giving notes on editing and sound on the new show.
Minogue has also been part of the Alternative Commentary Collective, adding his droll insights on a glorious era in Black Caps' history.
Plus, there's been Coming Home in the Dark, a thriller based on an Owen Marshall short story and the feature-directing debut for James Ashcroft. Minogue is one of the film's producers. Winning acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the film has sold well internationally ahead of its New Zealand release in August.
Clearly, Minogue is now a man who enjoys maximising his fingers-to-pies ratio.
"Yeah, I really love it because I get a bit sick of doing the same thing for too long. So, if it was just the acting, well, I don't have to worry about that too much because the only acting job I ever get is Wellington Paranormal … and that's five weeks for a season and that's pretty good.
"Writing, the love comes and goes for that; producing is pretty stressful and then, of course, the commentary is just pure fun. I'm really lucky that things seem to be going okay so far. Barring hospitalisation."
Minogue has been working in the entertainment industry since the early 2000s. He grew up in Levin and headed to Australia, where he worked as a removal man for a couple of years. "I was following my furniture-removalist dream."
A mate working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy suggested he could get him a job on the production if he came home. He did, becoming a runner – general dogsbody – on a string of Wellywood movies. He also started making his own small ones, including some entries into the annual 48Hours film competition and the occasional wedding video.
One day when he was doing the dishes, production accountant Averil Mawhinney asked if he had considered acting because her partner, Tom Scott, was looking for someone to fill the role of "Errol the fireman" in his film Separation City. "Not for me," Minogue said at first, then changed his mind. He got the part. Not only did Minogue's portrayal of Errol leave quite an impression, but he also filmed a curious making-of mockumentary about his time on the shoot and his rise from runner to performer.
"I'd never really thought about acting at all, but I fell in love with it straight away."
That resulted in other roles, many of them cops in dramas employing Minogue's quizzical eyebrows to good effect.
Then came What We Do in the Shadows, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's 2014 vampire spoof, which cast him alongside "Officer" Karen O'Leary in a partnership that would provide the basis for Wellington Paranormal four years later.
Meanwhile, he carried on with his own film-making. "I tried to make sure that I made something of my own at least once a year, because it's quite easy to just fall into a rut of treating it like just another job. I thought if I did something every year, then I'd be okay. Otherwise, I'd lose the passion or get a bit scared of it or something."
Eventually, that resulted in him creating, writing, starring in and producing web series The Watercooler, in which far-fetched yarns, many submitted online by the public, were turned into five-minute black comedies. It involved funding applications and professional actors and crew.
It resulted in his producing Coming Home in the Dark, after being introduced to Ashcroft, who had been also developing his own projects, including the Marshall story.
"It was a leap of faith on his part and mine, because neither of us really had the experience – James as a director or me as a producer – to think that we could really go anywhere with it. But incredibly, we got to Sundance, which was miraculous and I am just super proud of it."
The film stars Erik Thomson and Miriama McDowell as a couple on a road trip with their two teenage boys. They encounter a couple of armed-and-dangerous men in the back of beyond. It's no laughing matter.
"It has really delivered on what we wanted it to be. It's more than a thriller; it'll give people something to talk about on the drive home."
Talkback is another collaborative effort. It's written by Minogue and actor-broadcaster Jason Hoyte, his frequent colleague on the cricket commentary team. They also do a joint podcast, All Talk with Jase and Mike.
The sitcom is centred on Hoyte's Malcolm White, an Auckland talkback host who is sliding in the ratings with his rich-guy Ponsonby-centric view of things and is under pressure to be more polarising. Minogue says the 1990s Australian current-affairs parody Frontline and The Office have been an influence, as has local talkback-radio culture.
"There's a lot of intelligent people who listen to talkback, but I'm not sure that they actually get that it's just entertainment – it is just there to make people furious and pick up the phone and call in. I don't think it has any real worth as a journalistic endeavour."
Minogue plays Steve, a station executive who may not be the brightest example of media middle management.
"He's one of those classic executives who, by doing nothing and saying nothing and keeping his head down, manages to get promoted through the ranks. I think a lot of people know guys like Steve, who are absolute wastes of space. But because they know the right people, they manage to hang around and do quite well for themselves.
"I didn't want to go back too closely to Officer Minogue, but, unfortunately, it required something of a moron in that role. He gets a little bit better as the season goes on. He's not completely hopeless, although close to it."
He's not feeling typecast? "I might work for Rocket Lab or something like that in the next programme."
There are smarter characters. They are played by the likes of Ginette McDonald, Morgana O'Reilly and Simon Prast, among others. Hilary Barry, Jason Gunn and Stan Walker all appear as themselves in various episodes.
The show's first season has six instalments, but Minogue says he and Hoyte have plans for a four-season arc if TVNZ wants to continue.
It's also a show that has resulted from Minogue's and wife Zara's decision to shift from Wellington to Auckland a few years ago, thinking it would offer more work opportunities. They live on Waiheke with their young daughter. "It's really relaxed and chilled and Auckland is right there if you need it."
In the meantime, there's season four of Wellington Paranormal in the can and the show is heading further afield – it's now available to stream in Britain, Ireland and much of the rest of Europe and due to start streaming on HBO Max in the US next month.
Whether there will be a fifth season, Minogue doesn't know.
"We've been going every single year, so we might take a bit of a break and come back later. It has been an absolute life changer for me and it would be bloody hard to say goodbye to those characters."
Especially as they have your name and now possibly share some medical records.
"The nurse came in this morning and said, 'Are you Mike Minogue?', and I said yes, and she said, 'From the TV show?' And I said, yeah, and she said, 'And your name's Mike Minogue? They let you keep your name?'
"She thought I took my name from the character, which was a nice way of looking at it."