October 6, 2024 • 24 mins
Sam Smith is a stand-up comedian, comedy writer, and musician from Auckland, NZ. He gained fame as the winner of season one of The Traitors New Zealand in 2023. Sam has appeared in popular Kiwi shows like 7 Days, Mean Mums, My Favourite Dead Person, and Shortland Street. In addition to his on-screen work, he is a sought-after warm-up comic for major comedy shows, including 7 Days, The Project, Dancing With The Stars, Family Feud, Jono and Ben, Have You Been Paying Attention?, and the Aotearoa Music Awards.
Beyond warming up audiences, Sam is one of the country's most in-demand stand-up comics. When he’s not performing, he writes for 7 Days, Taskmaster NZ, and Taskmaster Australia. Before becoming a comedian, Sam was a dentist but transitioned to comedy after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He embraces the challenges of his condition with humor and optimism, despite experiencing partial vision loss. Sam hosts a podcast for Blind Low Vision NZ and serves as an ambassador for MS Auckland. He is also a father of two and writes children's books.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
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Real Conversation, Real Connection, It's Real Life with John Cowan
on News Talk s Edbyday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to Real Life.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm John Cown and I'm sure you're going to like
my guest tonight because he's one of the most likable
people you could ever meet. Sam Smith, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Thank you so much for a lovely introduction.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, you're a professional comedian, you're an author, you do podcasting,
you're all sorts of things, and so we've got a
lot to talk about tonight. You've been on stages and
on screen for years, but I guess you got your
biggest slice of publicity when you won the first seasons
of The Traitor New Zealand. Congratulation.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Thank you very much. Yeah, it was, it was. It was.
That was last year. It's one of the greatest thing
that's ever happened to me. Really. It's a crazy reality
show where we had to hang out with there were
twenty of us. Three of the people were traitors who
had to murder us off and somehow I managed to
last until the end with my good friend Anna Reeve.
So it was fantastic, so fun to get out in
(01:27):
front of the camera for a bit. We're quite off
I spend the time behind.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
But you were in isolation. That must have been very stressful.
Or did you actually quite enjoy being sort of locked
away from the world.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I actually quite enjoyed it. Please don't listen to this
a few of my wife or children. But it was
quite nice. We were in a lovely place up up
north woman Woodhouse, Mountain Lodge, Woodhouse, Mountain Lodge, and the
lovely rooms. The windows blacked out so we couldn't do anything.
Everyone else took books to read and fill the time with.
(01:58):
I'm low vision, I can't read books. So I sat
there for ten days and basically just did a rubic
scube over and over again. And they spent the rest
of the time trying to figure out who in this
house was lying to me.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So that's how you won. You you turned on your
game and it worked for you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yeah, exactly right. I managed to. I think a lot
of people spent the time trying to figure out who
was lying to them and sort of being quite rude
to the people. My thing was to trust everyone absolutely
everyone trying.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Them into a sense of security.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Exactly right, and then strike them and do them down.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Right in the very end, you could. You could. There's
all sorts of careers, pol.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Effects and all sorts of things, of those sorts of skills,
and so isolated you could receive messages. I believe you've
got charming messages from your family.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Well, no, we couldn't, but my wife and my kids
they wrote me these these little notes.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I woke.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I opened one of them every day every morning. That
was my treat for getting to the next morning.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Oh, I see they were given to you beforehand, and
then you'd open that brought.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Them in with me. We weren't allowed to bring in
anything like laptops or anything like that, so we couldn't
communicate with other people.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's unconceivable for modern It.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Was crazy, but strangely enough, maybe a day in because
we had this game to focus on, it really didn't
matter what we did. We kind of got used to
not having phones and it became quite nice actually. And
so yes, my son, Harry was he must have been
five at the time. He sent me a lovely written message.
He just learned to write properly, and it just said
(03:24):
the word pooh and big letters which I which was,
which made me laugh for way too long, and I
just loved it.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I hope. I guess that framed it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Stuff on the walls, sitting right next to my desk
at home, right my right ting.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Now, it was tough on all the contestants, and they
were all probably you know, mixed between stress and excitement
and being in this huge sort of living game. But
you had an extra layer of difficulty and you've already
mentioned it, and that is that you're legally blind and
you're struggling with well, I don't know how much you struggle,
but you are with multiple sclerosos.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
That's right, that's right. Yes, I in twenty fifteen I
was diagnosed with with MS.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
How does it affect you at a day to day basis?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Mainly my eyesight, Yeah, I've lost I've got optic new
writers as part of that. With MS, it's your immune
system attacking your own nervous system. So anyone with MS
will have something in their body that's not working quite
quite well.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
For some people it's their legs.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
For me, it's my eyes and said other things, and yeah,
when I first got it, I lost all the feeling
in my hands for a while, which is very difficult
because I used to be a dentist, so I had
just stopped doing that. Yeah, it all happened. I woke
up one morning and my right leg and my right
arm were completely numb, and so I went and finally
got it all checked out. Yet turned out to be MS.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now you're a young guy, I mean, thank you.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So I'm thirty nine, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So when you're say that was two fifty, it's about
thirty you would have been when you're there.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I was twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, and so new dad.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Just getting into your career as a dentist, that's right,
and boom, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I got forced to spend I only had just a
lot more free time to do what was my hobby,
which is comedy and comedy writing.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And okay, so you're able to flip at that point.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Exactly right. I used to say it quite openly that
MS was the best thing that happened to me because
I got to change my life to be what what
I dreamed of doing. I've now sort of I'm shoffling
bag that because I know MS is just absolutely terrible
for some people. For some people, it's so difficult for them.
It makes them change their lives in such a such
a big way. And for me, I just treated that
(05:35):
like it was a nice positive thing, and I hope
some people can look at the new diagnosis like that.
I managed to do.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, So the comedy thing wasn't entirely new to you.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Was it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
No, I've been doing comedy for ate while. I started
when I was in high school. I didn't think called
the Class Comedians Showcase, which is when they get a
bunch of kids to try stand up for the first time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I wasn't that kid.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I don't think I was that kid.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I was a theater kid and I loved music things.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So I you were at the class clown.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
No, I don't think so said that. That year I
did win the Ultimate Class Comedian Awards, which I I'm
very proud of, And yeah, we went. We learned how
to stand up at the Classic with a bunch of
people who are now my friends, Ben Hurley, Scott Blanks
who runs the Classic, and they sort of taught us
how to do stand up. And from then I went
(06:27):
down to university and started doing dentistry. But the whole
time I was like, I love comedy. I love. It
was the only thing I've ever watched. I tried to
just fill my life with it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're challenging my ideas about dentists. Loves comedy goes and
becomes a dentist.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It's not just me. There's another comedian called a Manish
Latch who is He's a brilliant comedian, He's still a
practicing dentist. I always think the word practicing dentist is
we've definitely perfected it by the time we can get
out there and work on people.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You didn't sort of squirt of it of nitrous oxide
into their faces. Well do you say a few lines
and then you get a chuckle out of them as
a nitrosa?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
That would be a smart move. I always I tried
to keep them quite separate, because I know that having
an audio to one person who hates you isn't quite
the right person to try and fire jokes at.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You got a mouthful of clamps until pumps and exactly right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, anyway, So the.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean you were ticket taking that writing side seriously
an MA and script writing as well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So you weren't totally.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Bereft devoid of anything to do after you found you
couldn't do dentistry and it has taken off pretty well,
and you're doing an interesting thing and that you warm
up crowds.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yes, that's right. That's so when I got MS and
I suddenly had this more time to do. I was
working on Johnaan Ben and there were a couple of
comedians who would take turns warming up the crowd before
the show. Get them ready to laugh, get them ready
to clap, make sure that once the TV show goes
to air it sounds interesting and lively, like people are
enjoying the show. And they absolutely hated doing it. So
I filled them one day and I thought, this is
(08:06):
this is quite fun. I'm just chatting with the crowd.
Just have a fun time like that.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I sort of kept doing it because every other comedian
hates doing it. It kind of became my niche, which
had been fantastic. I've got to work on seven days.
I still work on that. I've worked on Taskmaster, Dancing
with the Stars. Have you been paying attention? Just so many,
so many different great I did the Music Awards. It's
just become my awesome little niche where I get to
(08:31):
go and hang out with people and I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That must be a great way to hone your skills too.
I mean, I imagine a lot of stand up comedians
starting their careers are probably only doing one or two
gigs a week at most, maybe a couple a month,
and you were doing it probably every night.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah. For Family Feud, which I did warm up for,
we did eight hours a day, two days a week,
every second week, so I did a full sixteen hours
of warm up in between making the shows of course
every fortnight, which really was where I honed it. I'm
sure I was pretty terrible to start off with?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Was you I did? I?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Actually I can't remember the story, but I think someone
that they had a camera breakdown or something, and was
it was it you that was on that had to
keep the audience on simmering for two hours?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
It started just being like, hey, can you fill time
for about five minutes, so I started just chatted with
some people, and that time just extended and extended for
some reason. Instead of going to the nearby studio to
fix get a replacement camera and replacing it, they decided
that they're try and tinker around and try and fix it.
In the actual episode, two four hours at me yelling
at people. I feel sorry for that audience. I remember
(09:42):
we ended up playing a game called the Birthday Game,
where we tried to figure out if anyone in the
crowd had shared the same birthday. But rather than just
asking people, we went through day by day and talk
by That's how we managed to fill two hours. It
was horrific.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It did put you alongside some of your heroes and
colleagues and things, and they liked your humor and brought
you on screen.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, that's right they Yeah, I got to well from
the I've been writing for Seven Days for a while,
writing jokes for Jeremy Corbett and then with that writing
with Die Henwood for Family Feud, and then I was
also working on Jonathan Benn so I got to know
a huge bunch of different comedians, worked with a bunch
of great people on those shows as well. And then
(10:24):
every so often they'd say, hey, we need a lanky
white kid to do X y Z role, So I'd
slowly sneak in there. I managed to fill in on
a couple of Seven Days episodes, which was which was
very exciting for me. And yeah, slowly, more and more,
I've got to do some acting I got to do. Yeah,
but if everything it's been wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
If you just joined us.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
My guest tonight is Sam Smith, not the other Sam Smith.
We've had our home growing Sam Smith.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And I'm just saying he's younger than me, so he's
the other Sam Smithy of the other six.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, And Sam's going to be with us and up
to the top of the hour, and he's going to
be talking a bit more about how multiple sclerosis has
impacted his life, what's he's what he's doing for people,
ale solerisis and some of the other things he's involved in, authoring, podcasting,
all sorts of stuff. This is real life on news Talk.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
ZB Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on
news Talk zedb.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Hell Hi, at least you want to meet us. We
know you want to meet us, so you don't really
need us.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Marks have arrived, So say hello to Gradio.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
The man is never borying, I think, welcome back to
real life.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm John Cown and my guest tonight used to look
after smiles as a dentist. Now I make smiles as
a comedian. Welcome Sam Smith, and why have you picked
this rather bizarre but a barbershop quartette.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
We were talking about Sam Smith, the other singer Sam
Smith just before. But singing is such a big part
of my life. I was in a barbershop group of
when I was at high school at Westley Boys High School.
Is the I was the only the first person to
ever be in barbershop for the first the full five
years of my time at high school.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I don't think you're, say, the first person to do
barbershop quartete. How can you do that on your own?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Well, when I joined in third form, everyone else was
a seventh form, so I got to I got to
keep the tradition going.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Oh, okay, gotcha the But yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I've chosen the song because I love vocal harmonies. Singing
has always been such a big part of my life,
and and I love the song because it's funny as well,
because I think barbershop is a wonderful mix of my
love of music and my love of comedy. It's so
ridiculous as well, just four people hanging out, this group
called the New Tradition. They dresses the Marx Brothers and
(12:51):
they just hang out do that. And I think it's
just the way that they've dedicated their lives the singing
perfect harmond is to get that while singing about the
Marx Brothers. It's just well dresses the Marx Brothers. I mean,
it's just a crazy way to spend your time. Well,
I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
One thing weirder, I guess than barbershop quartete is trying
to do barbershop court as a duet. And I've seen
you try to do that on YouTube have ten years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Oh was this augmented for Yes, I was in a
group with my friend Robbie Ellis, who was in barbershop
with me at high school. He went to high school together,
and we did a comedy show and yeah, that's right.
He sang bass and I sang the high parts. And
I couldn't even, for the life of me remember what
(13:34):
we did. We did a bunch of songs together. He's
a fantastic musician and I'm a pretty good musician, and
yeah together we loved making doing silly songs. And yeah,
that was a fantastic fun thing we did.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And you took your music very seriously. You got a scholarship,
that's right.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, I am from from wislike I got a not so,
I actually got two scholarships. Don't want to prag about this.
One was from Westlake just for dedication to the school
and it was musical things like that. Once we once
I went down to a Tiger with But I went
to Knox College down there and they actually have a
singing group there that you actually get paid to sing
(14:10):
while I was at University, which was fantastic. That was
my first job at UNI. Kind of My second one
was playing drums in a jazz band called au jazzm
which is quite fun. I've got to tap away every
night for every Saturday night for a couple of years.
While I did that, it was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And as well as that you're doing you were telling
me and that we're coming in the CV you're saying
in a cathedral choir.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Oh yes, Yes. I grew up in Nelson, which is
my I think still one of my favorite.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Places there in the world. Still there.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Shout out to Nelson. I love you, Nelson, You're great.
I would love to live in Nelson again if there
was a television industry going there, so maybe as television
die as we can shift it to Nelson and we
could live out our old our final days there. But yes,
I was in the Nelson Cathedral choir, and that gave
me such a great musical education, so I know, I
know music theory, so I can do anything with the
(14:58):
music now, which I love.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I'm always interested in this show to find out what
people take seriously, the things that they believe, the things
that motivate them and everything. And I'm just wondering you
had that church background in the choir.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I think you were. I think you mentioned Scouts and
as well, and Methodist churches.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
And things, and I'm just wondering, you know, has any
of that composted down into your worldview now?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Not really, I think the way I think about it
is And I remember the moment this happened because I
was in the cathedral choir watching people talk about how
religion is saving them and it's going to be like
the thing that is gonna They're going to become eternal
by doing this, and everyone just seems so depressed talking
about it, and I remember thinking, I wonder, if you
can just have this nice, sort of positive view of
(15:44):
the world, you can be a good person. You can
just be nice to others and do what you want
without having to give twenty cents to the church every
every week, and so I think part I think all
the lessons I've taken in I think I think I'm
a very nice, well behaved young man. I'm saying young and.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
That you're talking about that upbeat attitude. Yeah, you've got
multiple sclerosis, and yet you seem undaunted by it.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I don't know whether that's whether in your private, quieter moments,
you are daunted by it.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But you keep you seem to keep your spirits up.
How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That's what take energy or I just don't know. I
think it's just part of my natural position. I just
happen to be a nice, positive person, which has made
this journey for me a bit easier. I feel very
upset for other people who might not be like this.
I know that depression can be common and people like that,
(16:44):
and I just feel for those people a lot. I
want to sort of be an example to them that
when bad things do happen, sometimes it can be for
a good reason, and sometimes if you just look at
it in the right way, it can actually be something
that kind of makes you. It can be your defining thing.
And if you take them in a positive way, that
can be really cool and you can get to experience
the world.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Fairly soon after your diagnosis, you are sort of plunged
into help other people with their multiple solerosis and also
helping society understand multiple solerosis. So I watched a beautiful
program on the Attitude series.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Oh yes, yeah, and you're going around talking to people
and everything, and.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I'd have to actually say, you looked a little startled
during some of that. Was that fairly new to you
that there is these stories?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
It was so new. I knew one person who had MS,
which was my granddad, and he'd passed away in two
thousand and eight. I was diagnosed in twenty fifteen, and
so I didn't really know anyone actively that had MS
at that time. And so going around and meeting these
people and they were all kind of doing cool things
as well. I met many people around Auckland, maybe five
(17:50):
or six of them, and they were all just cool
people doing cool things. And that really inspired me to
just kind of keep doing that find out more about it.
And then I saw that they didn't really have a
face of mis Auckland here in Ormand where we live,
and so I was like, my comedian I could be
the face of And so I then I was like, cool,
(18:11):
that's going to be me. I'm going to be out there.
I know that some people don't want to talk abouts,
they want to keep it secret. That is all good.
I want to be a positive, out there person that
when people get diagnosed the and go oh, look, that
guy who won The Traitors has a mess, I can
go out and banish people in a murder mystery and
take out Brookard Smith.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Has I was wanting to talk to you about the
things that are most important to you. I remember you
saying that winning The Traitor was one of the most
best things that have happened to you. If you had
to rate the best things that have happened in your life,
what would they be?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I would have to go if I don't do Number
one being my children, because they genuinely are Charlie and
Harrier my absolute world. I love them to bits. They're
crazy and silly and they're amazing. So but I think
everyone would say that, and anyone who didn't is a
bad parent, and I my family in general, are going
to take out all the top spots. I'm going to
(19:06):
give them a first equal. Yeah, my kids, my wife Meg,
who is just my biggest supporter. She is such a
wonderful she she she cleans up all the messy parts
of my life. She's she's very good at keeping me
in line. And although the same thing with my mum
and my dad who live really close by me, My
brother and sisters amazing support to me.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So so that's a shared first place.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
She had first place for all my family, for all
the people I know, my extended family as well, are
absolutely amazing. The other best things that have happened to me,
I yeah, winning Traders is right up.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The most important things.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Like may I look, Can I just say, looking from
the outside in on some of the stuff I see
you doing online and the media, and you're out there
doing the themes and baddest bast of stuff. You're doing
a podcast for people with low vision. You're you're helping,
and you seem to enjoy putting a smile on people's faces.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
What's that about?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I don't know. I just one of the things that
have found really helpful for my MS is talking to
other people about it with Because my issue is low vision,
it means I'm also connected to this other great community
of people who do amazing, inspiring things. And by doing
the podcast, I get to meet those people, and they're
sort of teaching me how I should live my life
(20:23):
as a technical I'm a blind person, I should how
I should classify myself. And so by having those people around,
it's just shown me that the things I have aren't
any reason to stop me from doing anything. It's taught
me that they are important things. That's now part of
my life. But it really doesn't defy me at or
(20:45):
it's a little blurb in this list of cool things
that I've got to do.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
As well, you've had a flip flop in your life
of dentistry to comedy. I've had a few flip flops.
And one of one thing I used to do back
in the seventies and eighties was as a scientist working
in europhysiology. Part and part of the job that I
had was diagnosing multiple sclerosis. Incredible, and back then there
wasn't a hang of a lot we could do to
(21:08):
diagnose that. We did these tests and things like this,
and then once we had found out, there wasn't much
we could tell people to do anyway, but prognosis and
things are much much better these days.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
They're so much better. I'm so lucky. I've got a
direct comparison to my granddad who I saw. He was
diagnosed in nineteen ninety one. He was fifty years old
when that happened. Then he passed away when he was
seventy eight. Have I just done the maths wrong in
that fifty then when he does when he was seventy eight, Yeah,
well I'm a decade out. But he didn't have medication.
(21:42):
He just had to wait it out. I got on
medication within three months of being diagnosed. I was so lucky.
Medicines had just been covered by farmac and continue to
be more so. So thank you so much to the
people who made that happen. If you had something to
do with that, thank you so much. It's just made
our lives of the MS community just so much easier
(22:04):
to deal with things. And just having that answer, having
that hope has been just super amazing. So that's yeah,
that's been a big part.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Sam.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
There'd be so much I could talk to you about,
but one thing that I desperately wanted to fit into
those a year an author, and you've written these fantastic
children's books. Who've got two minutes quickly named the three
that I know.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
I had the shelves The first one that came out
is called Snake Brook Cake. I wrote it for my
son Harry as a poem and then someone read it.
It's like cool, let's make it a book. It's amazing,
Please buy it. The next one was called Don't Scare
the Dentist, which is inspired by the fact that it
used to be a dentist. All all the people that
I did the industry with always found a bit nerve
wracking talking to kids, so I thought I'll write a
book for them and we'll get them back up. The
next one is called Miles and Jones. One book is out.
(22:46):
Second book is coming out in February, and it might
be working on number three as well.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Of number four. I've read them all and so great.
And by the way, we're going it out on your
favorite song, which.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Is Down in Flames by Real Big Fish, my favorite
band in the entire world, and I desperately want them
to come to New Zealand. So if you're listening to this,
Aaron Barrett from Real Bigfish, please come and play.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Sam Smith has been an absolute pleasure talking with. Thank
you so much for having life on news Talks.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
EDB.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
For more from News Talk, said B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection, It's Real Life with John Cowan
on News Talk s Edbyday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to Real Life.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm John Cown and I'm sure you're going to like
my guest tonight because he's one of the most likable
people you could ever meet. Sam Smith, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Thank you so much for a lovely introduction.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, you're a professional comedian, you're an author, you do podcasting,
you're all sorts of things, and so we've got a
lot to talk about tonight. You've been on stages and
on screen for years, but I guess you got your
biggest slice of publicity when you won the first seasons
of The Traitor New Zealand. Congratulation.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Thank you very much. Yeah, it was, it was. It was.
That was last year. It's one of the greatest thing
that's ever happened to me. Really. It's a crazy reality
show where we had to hang out with there were
twenty of us. Three of the people were traitors who
had to murder us off and somehow I managed to
last until the end with my good friend Anna Reeve.
So it was fantastic, so fun to get out in
(01:27):
front of the camera for a bit. We're quite off
I spend the time behind.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
But you were in isolation. That must have been very stressful.
Or did you actually quite enjoy being sort of locked
away from the world.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I actually quite enjoyed it. Please don't listen to this
a few of my wife or children. But it was
quite nice. We were in a lovely place up up
north woman Woodhouse, Mountain Lodge, Woodhouse, Mountain Lodge, and the
lovely rooms. The windows blacked out so we couldn't do anything.
Everyone else took books to read and fill the time with.
(01:58):
I'm low vision, I can't read books. So I sat
there for ten days and basically just did a rubic
scube over and over again. And they spent the rest
of the time trying to figure out who in this
house was lying to me.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So that's how you won. You you turned on your
game and it worked for you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yeah, exactly right. I managed to. I think a lot
of people spent the time trying to figure out who
was lying to them and sort of being quite rude
to the people. My thing was to trust everyone absolutely
everyone trying.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Them into a sense of security.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Exactly right, and then strike them and do them down.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Right in the very end, you could. You could. There's
all sorts of careers, pol.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Effects and all sorts of things, of those sorts of skills,
and so isolated you could receive messages. I believe you've
got charming messages from your family.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Well, no, we couldn't, but my wife and my kids
they wrote me these these little notes.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I woke.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I opened one of them every day every morning. That
was my treat for getting to the next morning.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Oh, I see they were given to you beforehand, and
then you'd open that brought.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Them in with me. We weren't allowed to bring in
anything like laptops or anything like that, so we couldn't
communicate with other people.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's unconceivable for modern It.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Was crazy, but strangely enough, maybe a day in because
we had this game to focus on, it really didn't
matter what we did. We kind of got used to
not having phones and it became quite nice actually. And
so yes, my son, Harry was he must have been
five at the time. He sent me a lovely written message.
He just learned to write properly, and it just said
(03:24):
the word pooh and big letters which I which was,
which made me laugh for way too long, and I
just loved it.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I hope. I guess that framed it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Stuff on the walls, sitting right next to my desk
at home, right my right ting.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Now, it was tough on all the contestants, and they
were all probably you know, mixed between stress and excitement
and being in this huge sort of living game. But
you had an extra layer of difficulty and you've already
mentioned it, and that is that you're legally blind and
you're struggling with well, I don't know how much you struggle,
but you are with multiple sclerosos.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
That's right, that's right. Yes, I in twenty fifteen I
was diagnosed with with MS.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
How does it affect you at a day to day basis?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Mainly my eyesight, Yeah, I've lost I've got optic new
writers as part of that. With MS, it's your immune
system attacking your own nervous system. So anyone with MS
will have something in their body that's not working quite
quite well.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
For some people it's their legs.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
For me, it's my eyes and said other things, and yeah,
when I first got it, I lost all the feeling
in my hands for a while, which is very difficult
because I used to be a dentist, so I had
just stopped doing that. Yeah, it all happened. I woke
up one morning and my right leg and my right
arm were completely numb, and so I went and finally
got it all checked out. Yet turned out to be MS.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now you're a young guy, I mean, thank you.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So I'm thirty nine, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So when you're say that was two fifty, it's about
thirty you would have been when you're there.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I was twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, and so new dad.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Just getting into your career as a dentist, that's right,
and boom, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I got forced to spend I only had just a
lot more free time to do what was my hobby,
which is comedy and comedy writing.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And okay, so you're able to flip at that point.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Exactly right. I used to say it quite openly that
MS was the best thing that happened to me because
I got to change my life to be what what
I dreamed of doing. I've now sort of I'm shoffling
bag that because I know MS is just absolutely terrible
for some people. For some people, it's so difficult for them.
It makes them change their lives in such a such
a big way. And for me, I just treated that
(05:35):
like it was a nice positive thing, and I hope
some people can look at the new diagnosis like that.
I managed to do.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, So the comedy thing wasn't entirely new to you.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Was it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
No, I've been doing comedy for ate while. I started
when I was in high school. I didn't think called
the Class Comedians Showcase, which is when they get a
bunch of kids to try stand up for the first time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I wasn't that kid.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I don't think I was that kid.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I was a theater kid and I loved music things.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So I you were at the class clown.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
No, I don't think so said that. That year I
did win the Ultimate Class Comedian Awards, which I I'm
very proud of, And yeah, we went. We learned how
to stand up at the Classic with a bunch of
people who are now my friends, Ben Hurley, Scott Blanks
who runs the Classic, and they sort of taught us
how to do stand up. And from then I went
(06:27):
down to university and started doing dentistry. But the whole
time I was like, I love comedy. I love. It
was the only thing I've ever watched. I tried to
just fill my life with it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're challenging my ideas about dentists. Loves comedy goes and
becomes a dentist.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It's not just me. There's another comedian called a Manish
Latch who is He's a brilliant comedian, He's still a
practicing dentist. I always think the word practicing dentist is
we've definitely perfected it by the time we can get
out there and work on people.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You didn't sort of squirt of it of nitrous oxide
into their faces. Well do you say a few lines
and then you get a chuckle out of them as
a nitrosa?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
That would be a smart move. I always I tried
to keep them quite separate, because I know that having
an audio to one person who hates you isn't quite
the right person to try and fire jokes at.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You got a mouthful of clamps until pumps and exactly right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, anyway, So the.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean you were ticket taking that writing side seriously
an MA and script writing as well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So you weren't totally.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Bereft devoid of anything to do after you found you
couldn't do dentistry and it has taken off pretty well,
and you're doing an interesting thing and that you warm
up crowds.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yes, that's right. That's so when I got MS and
I suddenly had this more time to do. I was
working on Johnaan Ben and there were a couple of
comedians who would take turns warming up the crowd before
the show. Get them ready to laugh, get them ready
to clap, make sure that once the TV show goes
to air it sounds interesting and lively, like people are
enjoying the show. And they absolutely hated doing it. So
I filled them one day and I thought, this is
(08:06):
this is quite fun. I'm just chatting with the crowd.
Just have a fun time like that.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I sort of kept doing it because every other comedian
hates doing it. It kind of became my niche, which
had been fantastic. I've got to work on seven days.
I still work on that. I've worked on Taskmaster, Dancing
with the Stars. Have you been paying attention? Just so many,
so many different great I did the Music Awards. It's
just become my awesome little niche where I get to
(08:31):
go and hang out with people and I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That must be a great way to hone your skills too.
I mean, I imagine a lot of stand up comedians
starting their careers are probably only doing one or two
gigs a week at most, maybe a couple a month,
and you were doing it probably every night.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah. For Family Feud, which I did warm up for,
we did eight hours a day, two days a week,
every second week, so I did a full sixteen hours
of warm up in between making the shows of course
every fortnight, which really was where I honed it. I'm
sure I was pretty terrible to start off with?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Was you I did? I?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Actually I can't remember the story, but I think someone
that they had a camera breakdown or something, and was
it was it you that was on that had to
keep the audience on simmering for two hours?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
It started just being like, hey, can you fill time
for about five minutes, so I started just chatted with
some people, and that time just extended and extended for
some reason. Instead of going to the nearby studio to
fix get a replacement camera and replacing it, they decided
that they're try and tinker around and try and fix it.
In the actual episode, two four hours at me yelling
at people. I feel sorry for that audience. I remember
(09:42):
we ended up playing a game called the Birthday Game,
where we tried to figure out if anyone in the
crowd had shared the same birthday. But rather than just
asking people, we went through day by day and talk
by That's how we managed to fill two hours. It
was horrific.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It did put you alongside some of your heroes and
colleagues and things, and they liked your humor and brought
you on screen.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, that's right they Yeah, I got to well from
the I've been writing for Seven Days for a while,
writing jokes for Jeremy Corbett and then with that writing
with Die Henwood for Family Feud, and then I was
also working on Jonathan Benn so I got to know
a huge bunch of different comedians, worked with a bunch
of great people on those shows as well. And then
(10:24):
every so often they'd say, hey, we need a lanky
white kid to do X y Z role, So I'd
slowly sneak in there. I managed to fill in on
a couple of Seven Days episodes, which was which was
very exciting for me. And yeah, slowly, more and more,
I've got to do some acting I got to do. Yeah,
but if everything it's been wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
If you just joined us.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
My guest tonight is Sam Smith, not the other Sam Smith.
We've had our home growing Sam Smith.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And I'm just saying he's younger than me, so he's
the other Sam Smithy of the other six.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, And Sam's going to be with us and up
to the top of the hour, and he's going to
be talking a bit more about how multiple sclerosis has
impacted his life, what's he's what he's doing for people,
ale solerisis and some of the other things he's involved in, authoring, podcasting,
all sorts of stuff. This is real life on news Talk.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
ZB Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on
news Talk zedb.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Hell Hi, at least you want to meet us. We
know you want to meet us, so you don't really
need us.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Marks have arrived, So say hello to Gradio.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
The man is never borying, I think, welcome back to
real life.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm John Cown and my guest tonight used to look
after smiles as a dentist. Now I make smiles as
a comedian. Welcome Sam Smith, and why have you picked
this rather bizarre but a barbershop quartette.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
We were talking about Sam Smith, the other singer Sam
Smith just before. But singing is such a big part
of my life. I was in a barbershop group of
when I was at high school at Westley Boys High School.
Is the I was the only the first person to
ever be in barbershop for the first the full five
years of my time at high school.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I don't think you're, say, the first person to do
barbershop quartete. How can you do that on your own?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Well, when I joined in third form, everyone else was
a seventh form, so I got to I got to
keep the tradition going.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Oh, okay, gotcha the But yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I've chosen the song because I love vocal harmonies. Singing
has always been such a big part of my life,
and and I love the song because it's funny as well,
because I think barbershop is a wonderful mix of my
love of music and my love of comedy. It's so
ridiculous as well, just four people hanging out, this group
called the New Tradition. They dresses the Marx Brothers and
(12:51):
they just hang out do that. And I think it's
just the way that they've dedicated their lives the singing
perfect harmond is to get that while singing about the
Marx Brothers. It's just well dresses the Marx Brothers. I mean,
it's just a crazy way to spend your time. Well,
I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
One thing weirder, I guess than barbershop quartete is trying
to do barbershop court as a duet. And I've seen
you try to do that on YouTube have ten years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Oh was this augmented for Yes, I was in a
group with my friend Robbie Ellis, who was in barbershop
with me at high school. He went to high school together,
and we did a comedy show and yeah, that's right.
He sang bass and I sang the high parts. And
I couldn't even, for the life of me remember what
(13:34):
we did. We did a bunch of songs together. He's
a fantastic musician and I'm a pretty good musician, and
yeah together we loved making doing silly songs. And yeah,
that was a fantastic fun thing we did.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And you took your music very seriously. You got a scholarship,
that's right.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, I am from from wislike I got a not so,
I actually got two scholarships. Don't want to prag about this.
One was from Westlake just for dedication to the school
and it was musical things like that. Once we once
I went down to a Tiger with But I went
to Knox College down there and they actually have a
singing group there that you actually get paid to sing
(14:10):
while I was at University, which was fantastic. That was
my first job at UNI. Kind of My second one
was playing drums in a jazz band called au jazzm
which is quite fun. I've got to tap away every
night for every Saturday night for a couple of years.
While I did that, it was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And as well as that you're doing you were telling
me and that we're coming in the CV you're saying
in a cathedral choir.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Oh yes, Yes. I grew up in Nelson, which is
my I think still one of my favorite.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Places there in the world. Still there.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Shout out to Nelson. I love you, Nelson, You're great.
I would love to live in Nelson again if there
was a television industry going there, so maybe as television
die as we can shift it to Nelson and we
could live out our old our final days there. But yes,
I was in the Nelson Cathedral choir, and that gave
me such a great musical education, so I know, I
know music theory, so I can do anything with the
(14:58):
music now, which I love.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I'm always interested in this show to find out what
people take seriously, the things that they believe, the things
that motivate them and everything. And I'm just wondering you
had that church background in the choir.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I think you were. I think you mentioned Scouts and
as well, and Methodist churches.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
And things, and I'm just wondering, you know, has any
of that composted down into your worldview now?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Not really, I think the way I think about it
is And I remember the moment this happened because I
was in the cathedral choir watching people talk about how
religion is saving them and it's going to be like
the thing that is gonna They're going to become eternal
by doing this, and everyone just seems so depressed talking
about it, and I remember thinking, I wonder, if you
can just have this nice, sort of positive view of
(15:44):
the world, you can be a good person. You can
just be nice to others and do what you want
without having to give twenty cents to the church every
every week, and so I think part I think all
the lessons I've taken in I think I think I'm
a very nice, well behaved young man. I'm saying young and.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
That you're talking about that upbeat attitude. Yeah, you've got
multiple sclerosis, and yet you seem undaunted by it.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I don't know whether that's whether in your private, quieter moments,
you are daunted by it.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But you keep you seem to keep your spirits up.
How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That's what take energy or I just don't know. I
think it's just part of my natural position. I just
happen to be a nice, positive person, which has made
this journey for me a bit easier. I feel very
upset for other people who might not be like this.
I know that depression can be common and people like that,
(16:44):
and I just feel for those people a lot. I
want to sort of be an example to them that
when bad things do happen, sometimes it can be for
a good reason, and sometimes if you just look at
it in the right way, it can actually be something
that kind of makes you. It can be your defining thing.
And if you take them in a positive way, that
can be really cool and you can get to experience
the world.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Fairly soon after your diagnosis, you are sort of plunged
into help other people with their multiple solerosis and also
helping society understand multiple solerosis. So I watched a beautiful
program on the Attitude series.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Oh yes, yeah, and you're going around talking to people
and everything, and.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I'd have to actually say, you looked a little startled
during some of that. Was that fairly new to you
that there is these stories?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
It was so new. I knew one person who had MS,
which was my granddad, and he'd passed away in two
thousand and eight. I was diagnosed in twenty fifteen, and
so I didn't really know anyone actively that had MS
at that time. And so going around and meeting these
people and they were all kind of doing cool things
as well. I met many people around Auckland, maybe five
(17:50):
or six of them, and they were all just cool
people doing cool things. And that really inspired me to
just kind of keep doing that find out more about it.
And then I saw that they didn't really have a
face of mis Auckland here in Ormand where we live,
and so I was like, my comedian I could be
the face of And so I then I was like, cool,
(18:11):
that's going to be me. I'm going to be out there.
I know that some people don't want to talk abouts,
they want to keep it secret. That is all good.
I want to be a positive, out there person that
when people get diagnosed the and go oh, look, that
guy who won The Traitors has a mess, I can
go out and banish people in a murder mystery and
take out Brookard Smith.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Has I was wanting to talk to you about the
things that are most important to you. I remember you
saying that winning The Traitor was one of the most
best things that have happened to you. If you had
to rate the best things that have happened in your life,
what would they be?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I would have to go if I don't do Number
one being my children, because they genuinely are Charlie and
Harrier my absolute world. I love them to bits. They're
crazy and silly and they're amazing. So but I think
everyone would say that, and anyone who didn't is a
bad parent, and I my family in general, are going
to take out all the top spots. I'm going to
(19:06):
give them a first equal. Yeah, my kids, my wife Meg,
who is just my biggest supporter. She is such a
wonderful she she she cleans up all the messy parts
of my life. She's she's very good at keeping me
in line. And although the same thing with my mum
and my dad who live really close by me, My
brother and sisters amazing support to me.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So so that's a shared first place.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
She had first place for all my family, for all
the people I know, my extended family as well, are
absolutely amazing. The other best things that have happened to me,
I yeah, winning Traders is right up.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The most important things.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Like may I look, Can I just say, looking from
the outside in on some of the stuff I see
you doing online and the media, and you're out there
doing the themes and baddest bast of stuff. You're doing
a podcast for people with low vision. You're you're helping,
and you seem to enjoy putting a smile on people's faces.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
What's that about?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I don't know. I just one of the things that
have found really helpful for my MS is talking to
other people about it with Because my issue is low vision,
it means I'm also connected to this other great community
of people who do amazing, inspiring things. And by doing
the podcast, I get to meet those people, and they're
sort of teaching me how I should live my life
(20:23):
as a technical I'm a blind person, I should how
I should classify myself. And so by having those people around,
it's just shown me that the things I have aren't
any reason to stop me from doing anything. It's taught
me that they are important things. That's now part of
my life. But it really doesn't defy me at or
(20:45):
it's a little blurb in this list of cool things
that I've got to do.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
As well, you've had a flip flop in your life
of dentistry to comedy. I've had a few flip flops.
And one of one thing I used to do back
in the seventies and eighties was as a scientist working
in europhysiology. Part and part of the job that I
had was diagnosing multiple sclerosis. Incredible, and back then there
wasn't a hang of a lot we could do to
(21:08):
diagnose that. We did these tests and things like this,
and then once we had found out, there wasn't much
we could tell people to do anyway, but prognosis and
things are much much better these days.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
They're so much better. I'm so lucky. I've got a
direct comparison to my granddad who I saw. He was
diagnosed in nineteen ninety one. He was fifty years old
when that happened. Then he passed away when he was
seventy eight. Have I just done the maths wrong in
that fifty then when he does when he was seventy eight, Yeah,
well I'm a decade out. But he didn't have medication.
(21:42):
He just had to wait it out. I got on
medication within three months of being diagnosed. I was so lucky.
Medicines had just been covered by farmac and continue to
be more so. So thank you so much to the
people who made that happen. If you had something to
do with that, thank you so much. It's just made
our lives of the MS community just so much easier
(22:04):
to deal with things. And just having that answer, having
that hope has been just super amazing. So that's yeah,
that's been a big part.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Sam.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
There'd be so much I could talk to you about,
but one thing that I desperately wanted to fit into
those a year an author, and you've written these fantastic
children's books. Who've got two minutes quickly named the three
that I know.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
I had the shelves The first one that came out
is called Snake Brook Cake. I wrote it for my
son Harry as a poem and then someone read it.
It's like cool, let's make it a book. It's amazing,
Please buy it. The next one was called Don't Scare
the Dentist, which is inspired by the fact that it
used to be a dentist. All all the people that
I did the industry with always found a bit nerve
wracking talking to kids, so I thought I'll write a
book for them and we'll get them back up. The
next one is called Miles and Jones. One book is out.
(22:46):
Second book is coming out in February, and it might
be working on number three as well.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Of number four. I've read them all and so great.
And by the way, we're going it out on your
favorite song, which.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Is Down in Flames by Real Big Fish, my favorite
band in the entire world, and I desperately want them
to come to New Zealand. So if you're listening to this,
Aaron Barrett from Real Bigfish, please come and play.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Sam Smith has been an absolute pleasure talking with. Thank
you so much for having life on news Talks.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
EDB.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
For more from News Talk, said B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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