Mike Boon isn’t joking when he says New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby came to his 50th birthday party in Geraldine.
Having star›studded guest lists isn’t anything unusual for stand›up comedian› turned›school teacher Mr Boon.
It is simply his past life — working alongside comedy greats — merging with his current life as a year 7 teacher at Highfield School in Timaru.
Raised predominantly in Napier, Mr Boon said he hadn’t even thought of comedy or the stage, quite the opposite.
At school he had enjoyed maths, science and sports.
Coming from ‘‘a long line of teachers’’ he had always believed he’d also become a teacher some day.
It wasn’t until he went to Massey University in Palmerston North to study for a bachelor of science that he began to dabble in performing arts — ‘‘back when studying was free and you could muck around as much as you wanted’’.
He and a friend had turned up to write a show for the university’s annual performance.
Mr Boon remembered one particular writers’ meeting where the director handed him the scripts to learn — after seeing Mr Boon acting out lines while they were writing.
When he said he wouldn’t be acting, the director firmly replied, ‘‘yes you are’’.
By the end of his fifth year, he was directing and producing and won the university’s comedy competition that year which was held atWaikato University.
After leaving university, he soon became part of New Zealand’s comedy scene, performing stand-up at the Classic Comedy Bar with all of the ‘‘oldies of the comedy scene’’— including Darby — which was established in Queen St in Auckland in the late 1990s.
After years in the scene, and participating in the well›established Edinburgh Comedy Fest in 2003 for three and a-half weeks, which cost him and his producer £7500, Mr Boon was nearly ready to give up.
‘‘Effectively if you didn’t sell out you wouldn’t be able to cover the costs of the show, like lighting, sound, costumes and props.’’
All of his share had been funded by his day job at a call centre.
‘‘You get to a point where you’ve been slogging away and it’s really hard to find the motivation.’’
He said like many creatives, he was never able to earn a living from it.
It was during that festival that he’d fallen in love with his Scottish wife Zoe. She was doing flyers for his show, but as she was his friend’s little sister there was a ‘‘boys’ code’’ which prevented him from asking her out. But fate had other plans, and they married a year later.
‘‘We knew each other so well that we didn’t need to spend time getting to know each other.’’
He moved back to New Zealand with his new wife to train as a teacher. However, Rosie Carnahan the wife of his old mate Darby — approached him about combining acting with teaching, and from that spiralled his children’s comedian character ‘‘Mr Boon’’.
He said it went better than ‘‘any show I’ve ever done’’.
‘‘I always had a really stupid and naughty sense of humour.’’
And along with the jokes for the children, he always made sure there was something in it for the parents.
His show, Mr Boon’s Fairy Tales, involved stories told by a caveman, and he performed stories such as Hansel and Gretel with hand puppets. However, after his mother was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy, he started re›evaluating things.
‘‘When you are both living in a tiny apartment in Auckland with a baby you start wondering if you can commute from Waiuku (a 60km drive from Auckland’s CBD), just so you can afford a house.’’
Just before the family left Auckland to move to Geraldine he went to one last audition — for a Hilux advertisement — and managed to land the part. The ad was shot in Queenstown, and ever since, wherever he went, he was recognised from that.
‘‘The most famous I’ve ever been was after I’d decided to quit.’’ The family chose to move to Geraldine because of the house prices. The flat they had left in Auckland cost more than the house and section they have now. He loved how Geraldine reminded him of his childhood, and all of the friends he’d made. With few chances to delve into his former career, he was always eager to donate his skills to a good cause.
Next week’s The Great Laugh, which is a fundraiser for the Geraldine Kindergarten, offered him that chance to dust off the old microphone. This year the event would be held at the Geraldine High School hall. He said this year will be bigger and better than previous years.
