Media Insider podcast: Great Southern Television founder and owner Phil Smith on The Casketeers, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and other hit shows
The Casketeers sat on the shelf for almost a year and there were questions over who might fund anyone winning more than $250,000 in the Kiwi version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Phil Smith knew that as soon as he met Francis and Kaiora Tipene, he had two
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Otago Daily Times
6 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Tse the moment with poet laureate
New Zealand Poet Laureate Chris Tse's performing in Queenstown next month. PHOTO: SUPPLIED New Zealand's Poet Laureate will perform in Queenstown for one night only next month. Chris Tse's a Kiwi poet, short-story writer and editor, who was named NZ's 13th Poet Laureate in 2022 — his tenure ends this year. A 2024 fellow of the University of Iowa's International Writing Programme Fall Residency, and a 2025 Dutch Foundation for Literature writer-in-residence, Tse's works explore the questions of identity, including his Chinese heritage and queer identity. He's authored three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press, including How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, which won the 2016 Jessie Mackay Award for best first book of poetry, and Super Model Minority, which was a finalist for the 2023 Lamgda Literary Award for gay poetry and long-listed at the 2023 Ockham NZ Book Awards. Tse's being brought to Queenstown by the Arrowtown Creative Arts Society (ACAS) and Queenstown Writers Festival. ACAS co-chair Kelly Carmichael's thrilled to instigate the collaboration. "I genuinely believe a creative community is a collaborative community, and when arts organisations support each other, we make the whole scene stronger. "Given the spiky times we're living through, it is exciting to have a contemporary poet like Chris Tse in town — someone at the top of their game who is helping to redefine New Zealand poetry." Queenstown Writers Fest chair Tanya Surrey says they're also delighted to help bring Tse to the Whakatipu. "One of our objectives as a trust is to provide opportunities for education andlearning, as well as showcasing a range of voices in contemporary NZ literature." To that end, along with his public performance at Queenstown's Sherwood from 7.30pm on August 8, at which Tse will be joined on stage by local poets, he's also teaching a poetry workshop for local high school students, and a public workshop, at Te Atamira, on August 9, from 10am till noon. Tickets for the 'Poetry Masterclass with Chris Tse' cost $40 from Eventfinda. Tickets for 'An Evening with the Poet Laureate', during which Tse will read selections from his previous collections and poems written during his time as Poet Laureate, focused on capturing and expressing joy, particularly during times of crisis and uncertainty, cost $25 ($20 for ACAS members), also via Eventfinda.
Otago Daily Times
6 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
‘Mr Hospo' changes course
Away from the CBD, Evan Thomas is upskilling himself in the culinary world. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Till a few years ago, if you ventured into Queenstown's CBD after dark you'd likely find Evan Thomas somewhere on the door. And if you popped into Joe's Garage next morning, he'd be kitchen-handing there, too. For the past three years, however, he's been less visible — having settled down in the 'burbs with a woman who calls herself 'The Witch', and having scored a kitchen job at The Rees where he's learning to become a chef. Evan's been in hospo all his adult life, or even before. Growing up on Auckland's North Shore, he attended Rosmini College and played 1st XV rugby, but says "I wasn't really into school at all". On his last day he joined the Queen St riot in 1984, at which muso Dave Dobbyn was charged for inciting violence, but acquitted. Evan confirms he wasn't arrested — "I haven't been arrested for a quite a while, not this millennium, anyway". Having first acted as a doorman at only 14 at an under-age rave called Chuckles, he resumed that role after school. He had a stint as a cellarman at a North Shore bar — "I wasn't supposed to be serving behind the bar, but I was." In 1990, he left for Dunedin to open Cactus Jack with mate David Woodley — "50 cent tequila shots on Wednesday and Thursday, that was fun". He started but didn't complete a craft design diploma at Otago Polytech, paying off his student loan about 15 years later. Kiwi singer/songwriter Hollie Smith dropping in on Evan Thomas at the former Joe's Garage in Searle Lane in 2016 PICTURE: JODI WALTERS In '96, Evan moved to Queenstown, collecting the dole as "a government-sponsored snowboarder — they won't let you do that any more". His first job was kitchen-handing at the former Moa restaurant in The Mall before stints with his "inspirational" bosses, Lucy and James 'Chief' Whelan at Lone Star and Cath and the late Matt Hanna at Joe's Garage. He was also the sober fly on the wall at the entrance to just about every late-night joint in town, including Tardis, Surreal, Subculture and Red Rock, and was also employed as a bouncer during local music fests, befriending many visiting musos along the way. Evan admits he got fired from some jobs but would invariably be rehired. He's a bit reluctant to elaborate but, as a clue, says "I don't have a filter, the first thing that comes into my mind is usually what I say". His tactics as a bouncer were, "if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you". So did he throw a lot of people out? "I never threw people out, I asked them to leave quietly. "You can see trouble 10 minutes before it happens." Still, he did get bashed a couple of times and had to get a new set of teeth. "Which is also very good if someone tries to get tough — you go, 'just a minute', take your teeth out and nine times out of 10 that's enough to disarm anybody." Evan says Queenstown nightlife "doesn't have anywhere near the soul it used to have, it's very generic at the moment". "Every town needs a dive bar — there were a whole lot of them that used to be institutions." He's also had a couple of non-hospo gigs — as a longtime taxi dispatcher and a few years rigging and dogging cranes for The Rees Hotel build in the mid-2000s, having initially been a hammerhand. In a full-circle moment, when Joe's Garage's Searle Lane premises shut, The Rees' Mark Rose "made me an offer I couldn't refuse". For the first two years he was a kitchen porter, cleaning up after the chefs "and everybody that eats in the restaurant". Then, a year ago, "I thought I'd make the mess", and he's already studying for his certificate in cookery, Level 3, which isn't bad for someone about to turn 56. "Well, the day you stop learning is the day you die — keep it fresh, give myself a new challenge, try and make life a bit more interesting, "I just like cooking for people, watching them eat food — food brings people together. "I won't be replaced by AI, and I like playing with knives and fire." GM Micka McDonald says Evan "brings a different flavour to the kitchen". "We've got an open-plan kitchen and you can hear him, he's jovial, the guests love it, and the staff do, as well, and he's just an absolute Trojan." As for other pursuits, he's done Bikram yoga for 18 years — "that's how I met the Mrs., and I need one good habit to make up for all the bad ones". Asked about those, he says "I still love my tequila, though I won't drink a whole bottle in one go any more — I'll sip it".
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
NZ Herald Sports Update: July 4, 2025
Media Insider: Inside the mind of a Kiwi TV genius Great Southern Television's Phil Smith on his hit shows The Casketeers, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and more, and the future of our screen industry. Video / NZ Herald
