February 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Michèle A'Court is a best-selling author, an actor, a writer and a former What Now host - but she's best known as a comedian, having entertained crowds across New Zealand for decades.
She got her start in Wellington and is returning to the city this month to perform as part of NZ Fringe.
She joined Nick Mills to discuss her career, her time in Wellington and how comedy has changed.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
B joining us now is a woman of many talents.
She trained as a journalist, became a host on What's
Now and has written two best selling books, but she's
best known as a comedian, and she returns to Wellington
next week for a show as part of the New
Zealand Fringe Festival. Michelle Acourt, good.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Morning, Good morning Mack. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm great? Firstly, I want to ask you because I
didn't know that you studied in Wellington? Do you are
you a fan of Wellington? Do you watch what happens
in Wellington?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah? I do. I love Wellington. If you just thought
out the wind, I would move there in a heartbeat.
I left Levine, where I grew up in let's stop,
let's move on quickly. I moved to Wellington and studied
journalism at Politics here in the my degree at Victoria University,
(01:01):
my brother and has beautiful family all of there, so
it still feels like when I come down there. Also,
you have the best coffee, shoes and second hand stores.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What got you into comedy?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It never occurred to mean not to do it. It
was just I didn't. Really, I didn't. You know, there
wasn't stand up comedy as a career path. I don't
know if there is even now back then, but I
just my grandmother was hilarious. Everybody in my family told
hilarious stories. It was just the thing that I wanted
(01:39):
to do. And when I discovered that there were people
standing up in trying of microphones and sort of nineteen
ninety when I first started in New Zealand, I thought,
y'all do that. That'd be good.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You would have been one of the first women that
was a comedian, because when I think back to comedians,
the only one I can remember is Billy T. James.
I mean, Billy T. James was everything. There was no
female comedians in the Tawer Little Twa.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, absolutely, and other things that Jane McDonald did as well,
our Amazing woman, And there was Annie Whistle who did
a lot of comic acting as well. There were some,
you know, some pretty great comic actors around. But then
stand up didn't really start in this country. You know,
the thing where you stand up with yourself rather than
(02:29):
as a character, didn't really start until about eighty nine ninety. So, yeah, no,
I was one of the first women, and I just
haven't evolved. Look, I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Do you still enjoy it? Do you still get excited
by it?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I do. I totally love it. I've been doing for
the last year. I've been doing a lot of shows
on cruise ships and just I just find the whole
thing hilarious. So that you walk out on stage in
front of a bunch of people who were in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean Australian never heard of you,
don't know anything about you, and your job to entertain
(03:03):
them for forty five minutes. It's just the best thing
in the world. It's like making something out and nothing
that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Is that a bit weird for you? Because in New
Zealand you couldn't walk down a street without someone recognizing you.
Then suddenly you go on a ship and you try
and stand up in front of people that don't have
a clue who you are and try and make them laugh.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I like it. I mean, that's you're right. I kind
of get you get a little bit of a leeway
and a New Zealand audience because they go, oh, we
know you, we know that you're funny, so we trust you.
But when it was an Australian audience like never seen
you before. So sometimes in New Yander ton't get people going,
I kind of seeing you somewhere? Did you used to
(03:43):
work at farmers in Johnsonville? That are pretty sure? That's
what I've seeing your face, So a little bit of that,
but it keeps you honest, right, You just have to
do the work and be funny, and it's a joy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's big now. Comedy is now big. We've got you know,
with no TV shows about anything in New Zealand. There's
nothing at all about New Zealand really, I mean very
very little show, but there's tons and tons of comedy shows.
Why is it so big right now?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh? Because the world is on fire and we're on
our way to Hell in a handbasket. And you can't
deal with that much seriousness and terror and fear without
having a moment of just relaxing. And the thing about
comedy is that when we all laugh at the same thing,
it joins us together. It's a kind of unifying thing.
(04:33):
There's this moment where everybody in the room is thinking
the same thought and feeling the same feeling, and that's
when we remember that we were all actually the same
and we all yeah, we all have the same interest
at heart.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Really, Michelle, when I started reading about you knowing that
you were coming onto the show, everything that I read
about you had the word feminist next to it. Does
that change your attitude towards comedy?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So the since pretty much the age of four, so
as everything you know, I see the world as I
want the world to be fair, and I see the
moments where it's not so. And what I like to
do is to make fun of the bits that aren't
fear because that seems to be like a really good
(05:27):
way of making people see the world from a slightly
different perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But I'm sort of you still didn't quite enlighten me
on what I wanted to get. Would you tell a
joke that could be seen as sort of, I don't know,
anti woman. I mean people that comedy comedians say whatever
they like to make people laugh being a feminist, would
that hold you back from saying those things?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
No, Because for me, comedy, good comedy is punching up,
not punching down. So I wouldn't even white. I mean,
I've done some jokes in the past like that I don't.
I'm glad I'm on YouTube, and then I've learned and changed.
You know, my attitudes have changed in a Bolok. But
(06:13):
you make fun of the people with power, right, You
make fun of the people who have money, had celebrity,
have the attention, have the ability to the people who
are in charge. That's who you make fun of. You
don't make fun of the people who are vulnerable. So yeah,
I don't make jokes about people who the Yeah, but hello,
(06:41):
just went through a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So tell me, tell me when you are actually now
writing your shows and doing stuff. I mean, comedy has changed.
I mean we do live in a society that's completely different.
I mean, Billy T. James would be run out of town,
even though he was the funniest person that walked on
two legs, He'd be run out of town for saying
some of the jokes that he said back in the day.
(07:04):
Now does that make it harder?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
The thing you have to remember is that Billy probably
wouldn't tell those jokes now, because Billy would have lived
in the world for another good and I wish he
had for another twenty or three years and would have
say the way the world has evolved and would have
evolved with it. So it's a weird thing to peck
something out of the nineteen eighties and drop it into
(07:28):
twenty twenty five and be critical of it. But if
he kept on working, he would have a new way
of telling stories.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Does it make it harder? Does it make it harder
because you can't think? You know, I'd love to be
a comedian and I would be the funniest comedian in
the world, but I would probably do one show and
be blacklisted for what I see. So you know what
I mean? Does it make it hard on it?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I do know what you mean, and we do. You know,
we do under pressure, all of us say dumb things
or you know, in the the desperate desire to find
the funny, well go to a place that we wouldn't
go to if we were calm and rational and having
a nice cup of tea. So yeah, I mean, we
(08:14):
all made mistakes, but I think the beautiful thing about
humanity is that you can go I made a mistake.
I said something that I wish I hadn't said, and
I will try to do better next time.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, let's talk about the show that you're going to
perform at the banded tap Room and Patani. What are
people going to get from your show? What's your latest
show look like?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I'm so excited about the show because it's worth two
people who I really admire and one of the one
of the other joys of comedy, along with the audience
or sharing that moment here, is that the comedians get
to share each other's company. And so we've got Ben
Hurley in saying and Callum Weakestart who I'm really rate.
There's on a few shows with Callum up in the
(09:00):
White Upper and come on Wellington before and I'm really
enjoying this company. So so I'll be having a good
time and I will pull ahead a couple of things
to say about our current government, and I'll have a
couple of things to say about what's going on and Welling.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I've gotta ask you by the next question. I mean,
we're just open, just an open book for you for comedy,
aren't we.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
And well, yeah, I mean I don't know, I love
yours having so much and and but you've been having
You've been having such a difficult time for many reasons.
And yeah, you will rise again like a phoenix from
the ashes, I know, And if I can kind of
(09:44):
just jolly people along and make you feel good about
who you are for a couple of hours on a
Saturday night, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Can I ask a cheeky question to finish? Yeah? Sure,
Will your feminist stands stop you from making fun of
our mayor?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I adore you a man, so mate, and I think
Torriano a very fine human being her company, and I
like a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So good on you. Yeah, good on you. I'm going
to try and turn up to that show. I think
it'll be fun. Thank you so much Michelle a Court
for joining us this morning, and I wish you all
the best when you come to Wellington. I hope you
have lots of laughs and lots of fun.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Sheers no lovely to chat you too.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Take it easy and if you'd like to see Michelle
a Court, she's performing as part of the New Zealand
Fringe Festival Saturday Laugh series at the Abandoned tap Room
in Patoni on February the twenty second.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
B joining us now is a woman of many talents.
She trained as a journalist, became a host on What's
Now and has written two best selling books, but she's
best known as a comedian, and she returns to Wellington
next week for a show as part of the New
Zealand Fringe Festival. Michelle Acourt, good.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Morning, Good morning Mack. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm great? Firstly, I want to ask you because I
didn't know that you studied in Wellington? Do you are
you a fan of Wellington? Do you watch what happens
in Wellington?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah? I do. I love Wellington. If you just thought
out the wind, I would move there in a heartbeat.
I left Levine, where I grew up in let's stop,
let's move on quickly. I moved to Wellington and studied
journalism at Politics here in the my degree at Victoria University,
(01:01):
my brother and has beautiful family all of there, so
it still feels like when I come down there. Also,
you have the best coffee, shoes and second hand stores.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What got you into comedy?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It never occurred to mean not to do it. It
was just I didn't. Really, I didn't. You know, there
wasn't stand up comedy as a career path. I don't
know if there is even now back then, but I
just my grandmother was hilarious. Everybody in my family told
hilarious stories. It was just the thing that I wanted
(01:39):
to do. And when I discovered that there were people
standing up in trying of microphones and sort of nineteen
ninety when I first started in New Zealand, I thought,
y'all do that. That'd be good.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You would have been one of the first women that
was a comedian, because when I think back to comedians,
the only one I can remember is Billy T. James.
I mean, Billy T. James was everything. There was no
female comedians in the Tawer Little Twa.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, absolutely, and other things that Jane McDonald did as well,
our Amazing woman, And there was Annie Whistle who did
a lot of comic acting as well. There were some,
you know, some pretty great comic actors around. But then
stand up didn't really start in this country. You know,
the thing where you stand up with yourself rather than
(02:29):
as a character, didn't really start until about eighty nine ninety. So, yeah, no,
I was one of the first women, and I just
haven't evolved. Look, I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Do you still enjoy it? Do you still get excited
by it?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I do. I totally love it. I've been doing for
the last year. I've been doing a lot of shows
on cruise ships and just I just find the whole
thing hilarious. So that you walk out on stage in
front of a bunch of people who were in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean Australian never heard of you,
don't know anything about you, and your job to entertain
(03:03):
them for forty five minutes. It's just the best thing
in the world. It's like making something out and nothing
that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Is that a bit weird for you? Because in New
Zealand you couldn't walk down a street without someone recognizing you.
Then suddenly you go on a ship and you try
and stand up in front of people that don't have
a clue who you are and try and make them laugh.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I like it. I mean, that's you're right. I kind
of get you get a little bit of a leeway
and a New Zealand audience because they go, oh, we
know you, we know that you're funny, so we trust you.
But when it was an Australian audience like never seen
you before. So sometimes in New Yander ton't get people going,
I kind of seeing you somewhere? Did you used to
(03:43):
work at farmers in Johnsonville? That are pretty sure? That's
what I've seeing your face, So a little bit of that,
but it keeps you honest, right, You just have to
do the work and be funny, and it's a joy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's big now. Comedy is now big. We've got you know,
with no TV shows about anything in New Zealand. There's
nothing at all about New Zealand really, I mean very
very little show, but there's tons and tons of comedy shows.
Why is it so big right now?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh? Because the world is on fire and we're on
our way to Hell in a handbasket. And you can't
deal with that much seriousness and terror and fear without
having a moment of just relaxing. And the thing about
comedy is that when we all laugh at the same thing,
it joins us together. It's a kind of unifying thing.
(04:33):
There's this moment where everybody in the room is thinking
the same thought and feeling the same feeling, and that's
when we remember that we were all actually the same
and we all yeah, we all have the same interest
at heart.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Really, Michelle, when I started reading about you knowing that
you were coming onto the show, everything that I read
about you had the word feminist next to it. Does
that change your attitude towards comedy?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So the since pretty much the age of four, so
as everything you know, I see the world as I
want the world to be fair, and I see the
moments where it's not so. And what I like to
do is to make fun of the bits that aren't
fear because that seems to be like a really good
(05:27):
way of making people see the world from a slightly
different perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But I'm sort of you still didn't quite enlighten me
on what I wanted to get. Would you tell a
joke that could be seen as sort of, I don't know,
anti woman. I mean people that comedy comedians say whatever
they like to make people laugh being a feminist, would
that hold you back from saying those things?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
No, Because for me, comedy, good comedy is punching up,
not punching down. So I wouldn't even white. I mean,
I've done some jokes in the past like that I don't.
I'm glad I'm on YouTube, and then I've learned and changed.
You know, my attitudes have changed in a Bolok. But
(06:13):
you make fun of the people with power, right, You
make fun of the people who have money, had celebrity,
have the attention, have the ability to the people who
are in charge. That's who you make fun of. You
don't make fun of the people who are vulnerable. So yeah,
I don't make jokes about people who the Yeah, but hello,
(06:41):
just went through a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So tell me, tell me when you are actually now
writing your shows and doing stuff. I mean, comedy has changed.
I mean we do live in a society that's completely different.
I mean, Billy T. James would be run out of town,
even though he was the funniest person that walked on
two legs, He'd be run out of town for saying
some of the jokes that he said back in the day.
(07:04):
Now does that make it harder?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
The thing you have to remember is that Billy probably
wouldn't tell those jokes now, because Billy would have lived
in the world for another good and I wish he
had for another twenty or three years and would have
say the way the world has evolved and would have
evolved with it. So it's a weird thing to peck
something out of the nineteen eighties and drop it into
(07:28):
twenty twenty five and be critical of it. But if
he kept on working, he would have a new way
of telling stories.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Does it make it harder? Does it make it harder
because you can't think? You know, I'd love to be
a comedian and I would be the funniest comedian in
the world, but I would probably do one show and
be blacklisted for what I see. So you know what
I mean? Does it make it hard on it?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I do know what you mean, and we do. You know,
we do under pressure, all of us say dumb things
or you know, in the the desperate desire to find
the funny, well go to a place that we wouldn't
go to if we were calm and rational and having
a nice cup of tea. So yeah, I mean, we
(08:14):
all made mistakes, but I think the beautiful thing about
humanity is that you can go I made a mistake.
I said something that I wish I hadn't said, and
I will try to do better next time.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, let's talk about the show that you're going to
perform at the banded tap Room and Patani. What are
people going to get from your show? What's your latest
show look like?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I'm so excited about the show because it's worth two
people who I really admire and one of the one
of the other joys of comedy, along with the audience
or sharing that moment here, is that the comedians get
to share each other's company. And so we've got Ben
Hurley in saying and Callum Weakestart who I'm really rate.
There's on a few shows with Callum up in the
(09:00):
White Upper and come on Wellington before and I'm really
enjoying this company. So so I'll be having a good
time and I will pull ahead a couple of things
to say about our current government, and I'll have a
couple of things to say about what's going on and Welling.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I've gotta ask you by the next question. I mean,
we're just open, just an open book for you for comedy,
aren't we.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
And well, yeah, I mean I don't know, I love
yours having so much and and but you've been having
You've been having such a difficult time for many reasons.
And yeah, you will rise again like a phoenix from
the ashes, I know, And if I can kind of
(09:44):
just jolly people along and make you feel good about
who you are for a couple of hours on a
Saturday night, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Can I ask a cheeky question to finish? Yeah? Sure,
Will your feminist stands stop you from making fun of
our mayor?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I adore you a man, so mate, and I think
Torriano a very fine human being her company, and I
like a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So good on you. Yeah, good on you. I'm going
to try and turn up to that show. I think
it'll be fun. Thank you so much Michelle a Court
for joining us this morning, and I wish you all
the best when you come to Wellington. I hope you
have lots of laughs and lots of fun.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Sheers no lovely to chat you too.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Take it easy and if you'd like to see Michelle
a Court, she's performing as part of the New Zealand
Fringe Festival Saturday Laugh series at the Abandoned tap Room
in Patoni on February the twenty second.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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