October 20, 2024 • 6 mins
The hilarious Guy Montgomery joins Jonesy & Amanda to chat about his show, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee.Â
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda gam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, Guy Montgomery might hail from New Zealand, but he's
so successful it's only a matter of time before we
claim him as our own. He's earned himself a legion
of fans thanks to his appearances on Thank God You're Here,
have been paying attention, and most recently as host of
the Wildly Funny Guy Mont's Spelling Bee. Next year, he's
going to be headlining the Sydney Comedy Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Guy Montgomery, Hello.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hello Jones, Hello Amanda. How are you both?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We're great. That's a big deal. So your family's going
to see you now your secret is no longer safe.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, my family is still in New Zealand. They've got
no idea what I'm doing over here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I did like that you said you've moved to Canada
to start your career so that no one would have
to see you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah. Well, I sort of put off starting comedy because
I thought I was funny, you know, conversationally with friends
and stuff. And then when I realized I wanted to
try and do it publicly. It's embarrassing, you know, to
become good at comedy. Everyone has to live through being bad,
and I didn't want in front of the people who
my main defining trait was that I was funny. I
(01:09):
didn't want to expose myself as being unfunny, So I
didn't practice for a year in privacy, you know, relatively
speaking from New Zealand and Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And what did Canada make of you?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, I think, to be honest, it was twenty twelve
when I went there, and the sort of Flight of
the Concords was still as a television show was quite big,
and Tiger had just set out Boy and so there
was a real warmth towards hearing in his zeal On accent.
I think, like we know would get up on stage
if they heard any zeal On accent. I think the
(01:42):
assumption of a lot of people who just generally like
comedy was that whatever I was going to say could
be funny. So you get a little bit of a
five second buffet at the start where this sort of thinking,
oh this is different from hearing another Canadian accent. Then
of course you still have to be funny. But it
was perfect. I mean I didn't know anyone, so I
had no community or friend so the people I became
friends with just all the people who are the same
(02:02):
open mics as me every night.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
But there's there's truth in that. You look at Billy Connolly.
I remember once he was doing this bit about the
gay lesbian Mardi Gras and he says this, he's lesbians
and they drave bikes and they called dikes on bikes
and people are just laughing their heads off and he's
just giving out information. Everyone knows that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, accent, it's the accent that does it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It can help, you know, I think. I mean, my
dream has always been in terms of a perfect joke.
It's been the sad sentence, was nothing funny in the
sentence and still get people to laugh. I think that's
like that's a platonic ideal of comedy because their brain
is dancing with the idea of what you could say
or what you could do with it.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And are you at that level? Yet?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Occasionally it's not really for me to inflict on where
I am. It's all going pretty well, to be completely honest.
You know, I'm going well enough to be on the
radio with you guys that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Come on to man's expect adition. It studies time tell
us about the Spelling Bee. This began over Zoom. How
did it take off? And was spelling.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, so, yeah, it was. It was on Zoom, it
was during lockdown and twenty twenty I think I started
doing it and it was basically all my work got
wiped out. Was just a means of mucking around with
friends and spelling was something. Spelling something I've always had
a fondness forign language, and it was one of the
few things I remember thinking I was good at at school,
and then when I was trying to create something for
(03:34):
people to play and to watch, even when it was
just for online, I think spelling this incredible universal access point.
Everyone who spells, everyone has a relationship to it. It's
kind of a false representation of intelligence. It actually doesn't
matter if you're good at spelling a lot it there's
no bearing on how you go through your life. So
it's perfect because it's got quantifiable stakes that mean nothing,
(03:54):
and so I think everyone can get into it. And
the other thing that I really liked about it is
that it means that it can exist in the vacuum.
You know, a lot of great television is responsive to
what's happening in the world or you know, have you
been paying attention? For example, it's responsive to the news,
but spelling My dream and why I made the set
when I look kind of old, is that someone could
(04:15):
find this in ten years and because it's non responsive,
because it's just all nonsense, it could still be as
funny then as it was now. It's sort of timeless.
I get that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Is there a word that friends? For example, when I'd
spell the word friend, I always muck it up. Really yeah,
I just always get back and I am wrong?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Does he writes it high free in?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I get this like it's like this glitch in my
brain that it can't spell friend. And I thought I
was pretty good at spelling. But friend, you put a
gun at my head, I reckon I'd muck it up.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean there are certain that there are words
like and I suppose even though it's so simple and
you kind of know what you're meant to do, you
still panic when you know you're coming up to friends.
I think the equivalent word for me would be priv
where I know it does the pr I V. And
then it's always, even though I've tried to learn it,
it's always a coin toss. And whether it's an iron
(05:08):
e after that bet, and I know how finishes, I
know how it starts, but I can never remember what
the vowel in the middle.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Is interesting, and I can't remember whether it has a
D in it or not. I get confused with that.
And also I do a worldle every day. The American
spelling of fiber I lost my winning tell you my.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Word or tread was absolutely blowing up that day. It
was unbelievable, you know there was it was. I mean
it was Tom Cashman, who's another comedian. He's put on
task mark through the assistant, and he was absolutely apoplectic,
and he'd been on a really hot run the week before,
just talking trash anyone who would listen. He's the best
in the world. All of a sudden he forgets word
(05:45):
was America, and he's saying, it's not fair, it's not right.
I'm saying, you've been playing it your whole life. You've
just got to adjust, You've got to know.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
You just got to know.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I'd like to see him spell apoplectic. That's a good one,
and that's easy to spell. It's a great word.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Whenever I lose word or I think it's because I
know too many five me the words I'm too great
for the game.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, of course a man is that good at it.
She does it during our radio show. In fact, she's
doing it right now as we chat.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I had.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Word. That's that's why. That's also why Tom was upset.
It was that Cora fiber double. You know, like in
a week it's two words which are either seldom correctly
or absolute nonsense. Cora, what is it call? It's like
it's it's just ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's completely ludicrous. Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You two can chat about this to your heart's content.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's great to talk to you. For tickets and to
your information, you can head to live nation dot com today.
You guy Montgomery, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You have a great dame said
Jersey and Amanda gam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, Guy Montgomery might hail from New Zealand, but he's
so successful it's only a matter of time before we
claim him as our own. He's earned himself a legion
of fans thanks to his appearances on Thank God You're Here,
have been paying attention, and most recently as host of
the Wildly Funny Guy Mont's Spelling Bee. Next year, he's
going to be headlining the Sydney Comedy Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Guy Montgomery, Hello.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hello Jones, Hello Amanda. How are you both?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We're great. That's a big deal. So your family's going
to see you now your secret is no longer safe.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, my family is still in New Zealand. They've got
no idea what I'm doing over here.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I did like that you said you've moved to Canada
to start your career so that no one would have
to see you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah. Well, I sort of put off starting comedy because
I thought I was funny, you know, conversationally with friends
and stuff. And then when I realized I wanted to
try and do it publicly. It's embarrassing, you know, to
become good at comedy. Everyone has to live through being bad,
and I didn't want in front of the people who
my main defining trait was that I was funny. I
(01:09):
didn't want to expose myself as being unfunny, So I
didn't practice for a year in privacy, you know, relatively
speaking from New Zealand and Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And what did Canada make of you?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, I think, to be honest, it was twenty twelve
when I went there, and the sort of Flight of
the Concords was still as a television show was quite big,
and Tiger had just set out Boy and so there
was a real warmth towards hearing in his zeal On accent.
I think, like we know would get up on stage
if they heard any zeal On accent. I think the
(01:42):
assumption of a lot of people who just generally like
comedy was that whatever I was going to say could
be funny. So you get a little bit of a
five second buffet at the start where this sort of thinking,
oh this is different from hearing another Canadian accent. Then
of course you still have to be funny. But it
was perfect. I mean I didn't know anyone, so I
had no community or friend so the people I became
friends with just all the people who are the same
(02:02):
open mics as me every night.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
But there's there's truth in that. You look at Billy Connolly.
I remember once he was doing this bit about the
gay lesbian Mardi Gras and he says this, he's lesbians
and they drave bikes and they called dikes on bikes
and people are just laughing their heads off and he's
just giving out information. Everyone knows that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, accent, it's the accent that does it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It can help, you know, I think. I mean, my
dream has always been in terms of a perfect joke.
It's been the sad sentence, was nothing funny in the
sentence and still get people to laugh. I think that's
like that's a platonic ideal of comedy because their brain
is dancing with the idea of what you could say
or what you could do with it.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And are you at that level? Yet?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Occasionally it's not really for me to inflict on where
I am. It's all going pretty well, to be completely honest.
You know, I'm going well enough to be on the
radio with you guys that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Come on to man's expect adition. It studies time tell
us about the Spelling Bee. This began over Zoom. How
did it take off? And was spelling.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, so, yeah, it was. It was on Zoom, it
was during lockdown and twenty twenty I think I started
doing it and it was basically all my work got
wiped out. Was just a means of mucking around with
friends and spelling was something. Spelling something I've always had
a fondness forign language, and it was one of the
few things I remember thinking I was good at at school,
and then when I was trying to create something for
(03:34):
people to play and to watch, even when it was
just for online, I think spelling this incredible universal access point.
Everyone who spells, everyone has a relationship to it. It's
kind of a false representation of intelligence. It actually doesn't
matter if you're good at spelling a lot it there's
no bearing on how you go through your life. So
it's perfect because it's got quantifiable stakes that mean nothing,
(03:54):
and so I think everyone can get into it. And
the other thing that I really liked about it is
that it means that it can exist in the vacuum.
You know, a lot of great television is responsive to
what's happening in the world or you know, have you
been paying attention? For example, it's responsive to the news,
but spelling My dream and why I made the set
when I look kind of old, is that someone could
(04:15):
find this in ten years and because it's non responsive,
because it's just all nonsense, it could still be as
funny then as it was now. It's sort of timeless.
I get that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Is there a word that friends? For example, when I'd
spell the word friend, I always muck it up. Really yeah,
I just always get back and I am wrong?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Does he writes it high free in?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I get this like it's like this glitch in my
brain that it can't spell friend. And I thought I
was pretty good at spelling. But friend, you put a
gun at my head, I reckon I'd muck it up.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean there are certain that there are words
like and I suppose even though it's so simple and
you kind of know what you're meant to do, you
still panic when you know you're coming up to friends.
I think the equivalent word for me would be priv
where I know it does the pr I V. And
then it's always, even though I've tried to learn it,
it's always a coin toss. And whether it's an iron
(05:08):
e after that bet, and I know how finishes, I
know how it starts, but I can never remember what
the vowel in the middle.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Is interesting, and I can't remember whether it has a
D in it or not. I get confused with that.
And also I do a worldle every day. The American
spelling of fiber I lost my winning tell you my.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Word or tread was absolutely blowing up that day. It
was unbelievable, you know there was it was. I mean
it was Tom Cashman, who's another comedian. He's put on
task mark through the assistant, and he was absolutely apoplectic,
and he'd been on a really hot run the week before,
just talking trash anyone who would listen. He's the best
in the world. All of a sudden he forgets word
(05:45):
was America, and he's saying, it's not fair, it's not right.
I'm saying, you've been playing it your whole life. You've
just got to adjust, You've got to know.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
You just got to know.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I'd like to see him spell apoplectic. That's a good one,
and that's easy to spell. It's a great word.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Whenever I lose word or I think it's because I
know too many five me the words I'm too great
for the game.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, of course a man is that good at it.
She does it during our radio show. In fact, she's
doing it right now as we chat.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I had.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Word. That's that's why. That's also why Tom was upset.
It was that Cora fiber double. You know, like in
a week it's two words which are either seldom correctly
or absolute nonsense. Cora, what is it call? It's like
it's it's just ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's completely ludicrous. Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You two can chat about this to your heart's content.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's great to talk to you. For tickets and to
your information, you can head to live nation dot com today.
You guy Montgomery, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You have a great dame said
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