Tom Sainsbury is one of the busiest people in comedy.
Tom Sainsbury is one of the busiest people in comedy.
“Snapchat Dude” Tom Sainsbury’s parodies are social-media comedy gold. Felicity Monk learns what motivates the keen playwright – and what he’s up to next.
The first time I saw Tom Sainsbury perform it was in a one-man, multi-character, 50-scene play of his life, which began with him falling out of his pram and on to his head, included a dance sequence to Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights and concluded with his own funeral. I’d never witnessed anything quite like it. It was odd and very funny. A few weeks later I interviewed Sainsbury for his first-ever profile. That was 15 years ago. By that stage he was already a prolific playwright – he’d been churning them out since the age of 9 when, inspired by Matamata Dramatic Operatic Society’s Little Shop of Horrors, young Tom wrote a sequel and produced it for his school assembly.
In the article – “my mother still has a copy of it,” he says – I had called him “a sweet-faced young man”. The now 40-year-old says, laughing: “I’ve been ravaged by time”. Not true, he’s still sweet-faced, but since then the comedian/playwright/actor/author/presenter/social media star has worn many other faces – about 1000, by his estimation. Since discovering Snapchat’s face filter app about five years ago, Sainsbury has become famous for his near-daily, online videos in which he depicts various characters. His followers number around 152,000 on Facebook and 62,000 on Instagram.
The many faces of comedian Tom Sainsbury: Boomer Dad, Gingerbread and Fiona the wine reviewer.
Pictures / supplied
The characters are a mix of parodies of real people, usually present and former politicians including, Paula Bennett, Simon Bridges, Judith Collins, Christopher Luxon and PM Jacinda Ardern (surely Wayne Brown must be next? “He’s a rich subject”) as well as characters he has invented. These include aspiring Bird of the Year Skeet the Subantarctic Skua, who catches baby penguin chicks, tears them to shreds and eats them: “So if you hate baby penguins, I’m your bird”. And my personal favourite, the foul-mouthed, eye-rolling cantankerous Gingerbread the cat. While Sainsbury doesn’t have his own cat, he says the inspiration for Gingerbread came from a troublesome neighbourhood puss called Stitch, who used to beat up his own mother, Uma Purrman, and was subsequently exiled to the North Shore.
Sainsbury has about eight recurring characters, but it’s Fiona the alcoholic wine reviewer who gets the most love – and views. Fiona, with her frazzled, skewiff blonde bob, is fond of pouring her glass of wine “right up to the meniscus to get that full-bodied flavour”, which she proceeds to drink through a straw while discussing the latest developments in her daughter’s upcoming wedding. By the end of each video, Fiona has polished off the entire bottle and is completely sozzled. “Everyone loves her,” says Sainsbury. “Even though it’s addressing alcoholism in society, everyone is like: ‘It’s me! It’s me!’”
Another favourite is Boomer Dad, who is an absolute masterclass in character study. There is an instant familiarity. You know this person or a very close approximation of him. Boomer Dad has square specs perched on the end of his nose and whenever he’s focused on something – like entering his password on the computer jabbing the keyboard hard one finger at a time – he peers over his glasses, opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out. The tongue is nearly a character all on its own, positioned there like a fat, lame slug.
Sainsbury is regarded as one of the nicest people on the comedy scene. Photo/Dean Purcell
Sainsbury is an incredibly astute observer of human behaviour and nails the nuances of his characters with devastating accuracy. How does he do it? “It’s just conversations and observations. There’s tons of inspiration all around and I’m lucky in the sense that what I am interested in, which is psychology and human behaviour, we’re just bombarded with – whether it’s our own psychology or witnessing it in other people, it’s there all the time to draw upon. Boomer Dad and 80s Mum are definitely inspired by my parents.” And what about friends, have they seen themselves in any of his characters? “Let’s just say: “I’ve had tricky conversations, but I haven’t lost any friendships.”
The most controversial video he’s made, he says, was probably the one in which he’s being conscripted to go and fight in Russia – “it was of me being really useless at war, it didn’t go down very well”. Or, it might have been the one about the bushfires in Australia featuring a character who is upset about the death of all the animals, while devouring a chicken sandwich. “That was the gag in that one,” says the staunch vegan. As for more recent controversial videos he doesn’t really know since he’s stopped reading direct messages. “It was a good thing to do. Even though 99 per cent of them were positive.”
In this age of outrage and climate of cancel culture, of which extreme sensitivity seems to be a hallmark and not even comedy is immune, does Sainsbury feel he needs to censor himself for fear of real backlash? “The outrage is there and I’m aware of it, but the positive thing is that people’s memories are quite short. The good thing about social media is that people can hate-watch but then they can easily switch off and unfollow – and people do.” What about his live shows? “I watch Ricky Gervais, some of the things he says … I love it, I’m there for it, he says it with such confidence. I just don’t think I’ve got the confidence to pull it off. And so when I try those gags my energy is a little bit tentative. And then I think that the audience reads that, and they don’t like it. I’m tamer than some of my contemporaries when it comes to comedy. Yes, I don’t want a bad reaction from people. But I also do want people to have a good time as well. I’m more of an entertainer than a provocateur. But I’m fully into provocation. I love it when other people do it.”
Sainsbury, who lives with his partner of four years, Jacob, in Ponsonby, Auckland, describes himself as introverted and impatient. “I have been trying to be more patient and compassionate and all that kind of stuff. I will be a cantankerous old man I think. It’s on the cards. ‘What are those bloody kids doing now? Driving up and down the street!’ That’s my future.”
Sainsbury has multiple projects on the go including a new series of Educators and reality series Snack Masters NZ. Photo/Dean Purcell
A Buddhist for the past 15 years, he says it has helped him to learn from negativity and transform it for the better. It also shapes his comedy, to some degree. “I try to create hope with my stories, ultimately. Complete tragedy doesn’t really appeal to me. Buddhism is about respect and compassion for people and even though some of my characters are outrageous, or horrible people, I still do have compassion for every character I do. I love the person that I’m doing, even the most outrageous politicians, like I love Judith Collins, even though I don’t agree with her politically. So I don’t think I could ever do a completely vicious video because I still like these people and their outrageousness and their vileness.”
Could Tom Sainsbury be the nicest guy in comedy? Fellow comedian, collaborator and friend Chris Parker says: “Um, no.” Then: “He could well be, actually. He genuinely loves engaging with people. He’s always asking a million questions.” What Tom is, says Parker, is “one of the most aloof and random guys in comedy. One time we were doing a show and he went to Just Cuts New Lynn and the hairdresser told him that it would look quite good if he bleached the sides of his hair, but not the top of his hair. He turned up the next day for the show with dark on the top of his hair and blonde sides. He looked like a Neenish Tart. I was like: ‘Why did you do that?’ And he said the hairdresser thought it was a good idea. He is so unpredictable. I think he’s a true artist in that sense, you can never really predict what Tom’s going to do next, that’s what’s remarkable about him. I do think he’s responsible for a real certain voice in New Zealand comedy.”
Sainsbury may well be the busiest man in showbiz. Along with his Snapchat videos, he has appeared in a number of TV shows, including Snack Masters NZ (as co-host – a new series is on the way), Wellington Paranormal, Sextortion and Educators. He’s acted in movies including Pork Pie, Dead and Alien Addiction, co-written award-winning TV series Super City with Madeleine Sami, and has collaborated with other actors and writers to produce web series Stake Out, Bachelor Pad, and The Video Store. He has written about 60 plays. “People are impressed by that, but I’m like, only four are good!” And won Playmarket’s Young Playwright of the Year four times and was a finalist for the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award three times. He’s also been performing stand-up comedy since 2014 and was nominated for the prestigious Billy T Award for New Zealand comedy in 2019. Then there’s his book – New Zealanders: A Field Guide – dashed out during lockdown. Says Parker: “If Tom could work the way he wanted to he’d write a book a day. I think his expectations of what he wants to turn out are so high. His output is just insane.”
So what’s next for Sainsbury? Season two of Pasifika sketch show Sis, in which he plays an “annoyingly earnest, cringy white ally”, is out now on Comedy Central, and season three of Educators launches on December 7 on TVNZ+. Also this month, Sainsbury’s comedy dance troupe Dynamotion, which he co-founded with Lara Fischel-Chisholm,is putting on a show from December 7 called Butch Flaccidy and the Sundance Kidz at Auckland’s Q Theatre. It’s a camp Western-themed show with “lots of cowboy hats and chaps” and a cast of 12, including Sainsbury and Parker. The soundtrack will feature, among others, Britney, Boney M, Johnny Cash and Missy Elliott. “It’s just nothing but joy,” he says. And I don’t doubt him for a moment.
