It appears that Sir Tim Shadbolt is about as important to the TV show ‘7 Days’ as he is to Invercargill and Southland.
The longstanding Invercargill mayor is a favourite guest and topic of conversation on the TV Three show which is currently celebrating a decade on the air with a national tour.
The tour hits Invercargill this weekend, with the only show at the Civic Theatre on Saturday night a sell out. Host Jeremy Corbett said Sir Tim was always good value to the show, especially when they travelled to Invercargill.
“The funny thing about Tim Shadbolt is that he features in the show if he’s in it or not. If he’s specifically joining us on stage he’s there, but there have been times when he hasn’t been joining us on stage but we’ve still heard him in the audience. He has a very distinctive laugh. He’s a big part of Invercargill. So he’ll definitely get a mention.”
Comedian Josh Thomson, who serves as a regular panel member on the show, also agreed that Shadbolt was an integral part of any show that visits Southland and was one of their favourite subjects to talk about whenever he was brought up on the show.
“He’s probably our favourite mayor. He has always got something amazing up his sleeve… Tim last year found out I was doing my driveway. He said he wished he could help. I actually genuinely think he was being serious. I was so, so gutted because I thought how funny would it be to have Tim Shadbolt do that.”
Comedian Josh Thomson
The 10th anniversary tour is the biggest tour the show has ever done, and is set to visit 14 towns around New Zealand. Corbett said the show had managed to survive for a decade due to the show being a perfect mix of comedy and news.
“I think… it’s the news that has contributed to it’s longevity is the fact that there is always new news. There is always news for comedy… we often ask the audience and many people get their news from 7 Days. Because they know they can watch it and have a laugh. We stick to the facts behind the news stories that we do so we do actually deliver the actual news. So a lot of people get their news from 7 Days. That’s kind of cool.”
And while the main attraction to the show was seeing a taping of the television programme, Corbett also said audiences would be in for one of the best nights of stand-up comedy around.
“The first half (of the show) is the best stand-up show you’ll see in New Zealand this year. It’s all the comedians doing about seven minutes. It works along and it’s really good. If you’ve never seen stand-up before get a ticket just to see that. Because it’s awesome.”
This article was originally written for The Advocate. You can read the published version here
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