KEY POINTS:
What: Welcome to Paradise, the new Kiwi backpacker sitcom from Wellington's Gibson Group
When & where: Monday, 9.30pm, Prime
It's lunchtime on the Wellington set of the new backpacker comedy Welcome to Paradise, and stars Vaughan Slinn and Ryan O'Kane are talking hygiene.
"It's thrifty," says Slinn of the show's fictional hostel. "Definitely not hygienic. "O'Kane: "There's poo in the baggage room." "A torrent of poo." "A lahar of poo." "I actually fall through a toilet in one episode." "Then shake people's hands with pooey gloves."
It's tempting to associate this exchange with New Zealand's reputation for comedy. But Prime has utmost confidence in its new show, pairing it with the Kiwi-boys-done-good HBO series, Flight of the Conchords.
Directed by Geoff Murphy (Utu, Goodbye Pork Pie), and made by the Gibson Group (The Hothouse, Insiders Guide) with a $1 million contribution from NZ On Air for 13 half-hour episodes, Welcome to Paradise focuses on the 20-somethings who run the hostel, a run-down place where short-term relationships are the norm.
"I think Kiwis might just get into it," says Josh Thomson, who plays moody night-shift guy John. "Someone takes their pants off in the first episode."Today's scene has Zac (the ladies' man) and John arguing about whether to hire Irish tourist Lucy, who Zac has slept with.
Alex (the idiot manager) is feigning decision-making skills while making Mr Bean eyes. It's a scene that epitomises the surreal tone of the show, a cross between Fawlty Towers and Two and a Half Men.
Every time O'Kane finishes the scene - and there are several attempts - his grimace falters, a "pffff!" escapes his lips and he dissolves into hysterics. "We find it really hard to hold it together sometimes," says Thomson afterwards.
"Vaughan's nose makes me laugh. And I've got quite a high-pitched laugh - like an old, Tongan woman."Later, Zac and Lucy share an tense moment: "So being an Irish lesbian," he says to his heterosexual conquest, "does that make you gaelic?"Watching from the control room is producer Dave Gibson, who has finally realised his dream of making a sitcom.
Comedy-wise, he'd worked on the 90s sketch show Skitz and the satire Facelift.
Then a script landed on his desk from Grant Drummond, a young scribe with more experience behind the desk at backpackers' hostels than writing for TV.
Gibson instantly liked the characters. "Even if you're not laughing, you'll find them interesting. As opposed to drama, the characters don't change.
They become familiar. You know if another girl shows up, Zac is going to try to shag her. There's a comfort in that."Prime agreed the show had the right combination of male-skewed edginess and mainstream appeal, and snapped it up as part of its new double-billed Monday night with the Conchords, a scheduling decision that virtually guarantees an audience.Whether it can maintain the numbers is in the hands of the TV gods.
If Melody Rules isn't enough to put a chill down your spine, the decline of the traditional, canned laughter sitcom might. Particularly in New Zealand, where the biggest laughs come from sports shows - and the original dramedy Outrageous Fortune.
Ironically, one of the most pertinent criticisms levelled at Kiwi comedy came from the Conchords' Jemaine Clement.
Talking about their failed attempt to make a sitcom in New Zealand (TVNZ turned them down before HBO snapped them up), he said networks should look to the live scene, rather than trying to create something based on shows from Britain or the US.
He also pointed out that the world's most successful sitcoms - Seinfeld, The Office, Little Britain - put established stand-ups on screen.Gibson isn't keen to dissect the comedy rules, Melody included. He's confident in his young cast, despite most being comedy novices.
The actors went through an extensive workshopping period to help them find the humour in their characters. The most familiar is Ryan O'Kane, (Zac) who starred in Insiders Guide to Love and the C4 mini-soap, My Story.
Viewers will recognise the bushy-haired Thomson from various TV ads; he also starred in the winning film from last year's 48 Hours film festival.
Sally Martin (the blue one from Power Rangers and Hohepa's love interest in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby) plays tough-girl Sasha. You're less likely to recognise Slinn, who has donned a mask to play Michael Laws, Tony Veitch and Paul Henry on the political satire Facelift, or TV newcomer David Hoskins (barman Barry), who cut his teeth on stage and motion capture work for Weta workshop's Jane & the Dragon. Perhaps the most laudable performance comes from Holly Shanahan (Lucy).
A Kiwi actress who has starred in Power Rangers and had a small role on Outrageous Fortune, Shanahan hung out with Irish folk to learn the accent. And that wasn't the hard part. "I absolutely felt the pressure because I'm one of two girls in a comedy show," she says.
"I grew up in the comedy world, seeing it was so hard for women to be funny. Also the character is not completely overt, so I had to work harder to find the humour and make it funny without overcompensating. You don't want to try too hard.
"Finding a director was difficult. New Zealand has few qualified sitcom directors, and Gibson thought long and hard about who he wanted for the job.Geoff Murphy was an obvious frontrunner.
Gibson was a fan of Murphy's ability to do humour, demonstrated in his Kiwi road classic Goodbye Pork Pie and Dagg Day Afternoon with John Clarke, as well as the big-budget Hollywood fare Young Guns II and Under Siege II.
But there was a problem. At 68, Murphy had retired."Dave Gibson approached me in the pub and asked if I'd do it and I said, 'Shit'," says the director. "I mean, comedy is a disaster area in New Zealand. And he said, I can't pay you much. And we want to make two a week.' I said, 'Shit'.
"Gibson jokes that he and Murphy are in the last phase of their careers so they have nothing to lose. And the actors have nothing but good things to say about their director, all agreeing on his wicked sense of humour and straight-up approach.
Says Thomson: "I find it hard to imagine when a director says, 'Now when you come in, I want to imagine your head is shooting blue flames'. But Geoff will say, 'Come in, look left, look right, then siddown. That was good'.
"O'Kane blinks furiously as he delivers one of Murphy's jokes: "What shags like a Bengal tiger and blinks? "Murphy is cautious about how he expects the show will be received.
"The jokes are always funny at first. Then they are rehearsed and filmed over and over. So you repeat the same punchline and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it until you have no idea what was even funny about it in the first place.
"It helps that the show is filmed by three cameras, giving the actors the feeling of performing a live stage play."You've got to find a balance between being big and performing for the camera," says Shanahan.
"The comedy style requires a bit more high energy. Youve got to be confident in your jokes which is something New Zealanders aren't very good at."Adds Martin: "New Zealanders are very apologetic with humour. The number of American sitcoms on TV goes to show that theyre liked. But you do wonder if it will be enjoyed by New Zealanders, because its New Zealand humour.
"Still, the set has a drab, old English interior that calls to mind 'Allo 'Allo. A note from Sasha is tacked to the fax machine in reception: "John ya left your coco pops on MY shelf! Don't do it again!" Next door's bar has fading green wallpaper and fake pint-pullers.
The authenticity and lived-in feel of the place weren't the only challenges in creating this grungy set. There were copyright issues when slathering Alex's office with posters of bikini-clad women. The creators couldnt just rip a page out of FHM - they had to pay their own model and superimpose her figure on a beach scene. They also had to find a revolving cast of backpackers, so employed a wide range of ethnicities for the extras.
The show also has a few surprise guest stars.
Midway through a scene, Geraldine Brophy wanders into the control room wearing a bright green jacket, a heavy slick of bronzer and very black eyebrows. She's playing Alex's mum in the last episode.
"Can I see without the jacket?" says Gibson. She removes it to reveal a black blouse and flashy necklace. "I hate to say this," he continues. "But I wonder if we should pull this down because the whole gag ... " Brophy nods.
"Is breast."
There's another hint today that Welcome to Paradise may not be such a sarcastic name, and that it deserves its 9.30pm timeslot. An unhappy backpacker goes to reception. "Theres someone in my bed."
Zac: "Male or female?"
"Female."
"Well that's a good thing, isn't it?"
