Jack Tame is filling in for Mike Hosking for two weeks. Photo/Doug Sherring
Journalist Jack Tame has left the stinking heat of his Hell's Kitchen apartment to enjoy two weeks of the Auckland winter filling in for Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB and Seven Sharp.
Although the New York-based US correspondent for TVNZ and Herald on Sunday columnist has filled in on
Seven Sharp
for Hosking before and hosts Newstalk ZB every Saturday morning, this is the first time he has walked in Hosking's very expensive shoes both morning and night.
When we listen to Tame on his Saturday morning radio show at 9am, it's actually 5pm on Friday for him in New York, so the early starts this week have been a shock to his system.
Spy asked which he was finding harder, Hosking's radio role or Seven Sharp?
Tame: "They're just really different. I'm not a great morning person and have been stumbling into the Newstalk ZB office at 3.30am looking as though I've been in a fight.
"You have to scrub up a bit for Seven Sharp but it's a shorter broadcast and thankfully Pippa Wetzell keeps me in line. If you ever needed proof that Hosking isn't human, he does it all without coffee."
Could Jack Tame be the next Hosking? How many people tell you, you should be?
Tame: "Ha! None. Seriously... he's too quick for me. And those shirts and crocodile-skin shoes? No thanks."
What about Radio Hauraki's Jeremy Wells doing a parody of you whilst Mike is away?
Tame: "He'd have to be desperate. Hosking-on-holiday makes for much better fodder than me gasbagging about climate change and public transport."
Tame is an enigma. He is much older than he looks, and works long hours interviewing news makers, power brokers and celebrities stateside for One news. His innocent look is disarming, no sooner has his subject adjusted to his lack of stubble, he will slap them with the hard question of the day.
Last week he interviewed the blonde lovelies of Ted 2, Amanda Seyfried, and Jessica Barth. His wit and charm had any sign of cynical celebrity diminish, and by the end of the interview they both seemed intrigued.
Spy has seen Tame deal with female attention at events. He has young ladies through to grandmothers vie for his attention. There isn't a cocky bone in his body and he makes time for everyone. The 28-year-old isn't into cougars it seems: his love life in upper Manhattan is less Sex and the City and more Gossip Girl.
Tame: "Oh yeah ... I'm dating a bit and the young women of New York are as luring and ruthless as ever, but nothing too serious to report. The problem with living a wannabe Renaissance-man-fantasy is that I'm rarely in any one place for any length of time."
In the last year he did Rio's Copacabana and Ipanema and Honolulu's Waikiki all within a week. He traveled the breadth of the US including dog sledding in Alaska, as well as a visit to the pyramids in Egypt and a stop in London.
Do you travel economy?
Tame: "Ha! I'm almost always down the back. As filthy rich as many of us imagine the broadcasting industry might be, it isn't. I'm usually smack-bang between the crying babies and the bogs. But I love it! I love travelling. Some good recent experiences include an Indiana Jones mission to the heart of Egypt's oldest pyramid and sled-dog racing in a remote village way up in the Alaskan wilderness. I've spent all my money this year following the Black Caps from the World Cup Final to Lords in London but I'm returning to Cuba later this month for a boys' trip with my little brother."
Tame has gone bi-coastal a few times and made One News coverage of the Academy Awards this year down-to-Earth.
Which do you prefer New York or LA?
Tame: "I'm not huge on LA but a couple of weeks ago I visited Gin Wigmore for Seven Sharp at her new California digs and she's trying to change my mind. New York still wins, though. It can feel a bit like an armpit at this time of year but there's always something happening ... Two weeks ago it was a craft beer festival inside the Central Park Zoo. The following morning I bumped into Rupert Murdoch as he walked his dog. And the night before I flew back, the local Puerto Ricans had a block party outside my apartment. Man, I love New York."
A renaissance man would, especially one that would like to change the US Constitution - something Tame believes is the biggest problem in US politics.
Tame told Spy: "The political finance laws are totally absurd and allow America's richest people and corporations crazy influence over US politicians. On average, US Congressmen spend four or five hours a day fundraising. It's easy and perhaps arrogant for an outsider to tender advice, but I reckon the US Constitution could do with a bit of a tweak!"
There is nothing arrogant about Jack Tame. Last night on Seven Sharp, before a segment on world champion-seeking mini-golfers, he managed to flirt with a married Pippa Wetzell, before attempting to put a golf ball into the mouth of a cut-out of Mike Hosking. Instead, he near-missed an expensive TV camera and laughed his way into the story.
- nzherald.co.nz
The host has been spotted across the Atlantic post-election.