Roving across the Tasman for some frisky business on stage

Rove sidekick Peter Helliar is bringing his stand-up act across the Tasman.

As a kid, Peter Helliar watched a lot of TV. He was in training. That's what he cheekily told his parents anyway.

"They used to say you're watching too much television and I was like, 'Yeah, well, I want to get into television so this is research'.

"I was lying through my teeth but it's kind of made sense in the end," says Helliar, who is best known here as Rove McManus' sidekick on Rove Live (TV3, Friday, 9.30pm). He's also a writer on the show and he has his own weekly Aussie Rules show called Before The Game.

Across the Tasman he's also a popular stand-up comedian and he brings his one-man show, Frisky, to the New Zealand International Comedy Festival on May 18 and 19 at Sky City Theatre.

The first time he heard the word "frisky" was on TV show Happy Days, in the 70s. Richie Cunningham's mum, Marion, always used to talk about how her hubbie, Howard, was getting all "frisky".

"It was almost my introduction to pillow talk, too. It was a bit raunchy," laughs Helliar. "So I've always liked the word and I had to come up with a name for a show so we stuck it on the poster. There is some frisky behaviour though," he says.

But really, the word frisky doesn't have much to do with the content of the show. His hour-long routine loosely revolves around people's obsessions with the little things in life - like why we need keys to use the toilets at petrol stations these days. Frisky is about 70 per cent prepared material and the rest is either improvised or banter with the audience.

As a teenager, Helliar viewed comedy as an ideal way to get into writing for radio, television and movies. He says his "dream" is to write feature films but at the moment his TV, radio and stand-up commitments keep him busy.

His interest in comedy - like many stand-ups - started in school when he was the class clown.

"But, as far as the classroom goes, I always knew where the line was. I wasn't the class clown who was going to get into trouble because he was just cracking jokes all the time. I knew when the teacher wanted to move the class along, if you like."

This good class clown attitude made him popular with the staff and he ended up running classes which is where he got his first taste of what TV might be like.

"We had a month of oral presentations for humanities and the teacher just let me introduce everybody and comment afterwards and it became like a mini version of a Tonight Show," he says.

He was 15 when he saw his first comedy show by Australian comic Greg Fleet and thought making people laugh would be a great way to make a living. But it was six years before he jumped up on stage himself.

His stand-up career started well, but he'll never forget his third time on stage. At a popular comedy venue in St Kilda he was doing a five-minute slot, got cocky and started interacting with the audience. It bombed.

He says, in that way, stand-up is a "gladiatorial" art. "The audience want to have the experience of, 'Remember that joke, remember that joke'. But they also want to go home and say, 'Yeah, how bad was that guy?' "

On Rove Live, he throws quite a few clangers but it's all part of the act. "If something dies, then I know my career isn't going to live or die by that. If I throw out a joke on radio or television and it doesn't work the best thing is to recognise it and say, 'Okay, that was shit', and move on."

Because Rove is so popular in New Zealand he hopes to do a few shows from here in the future. But he's not promising anything and he has to survive performing Frisky at the comedy festival first.

And before you go, Pete, what's this we hear about your wife looking like actress Scarlett Johansson? "I know what Rove is saying, and a few other people have pointed it out," he laughs. "But, now that it's out there, we get people coming up to us. We were out the other night and we had people coming to see if she looked like Scarlett Johansson. And they'd just stand there and look. There is something similar ...

"Scarlett Johansson has a better chest though, and I've been quite honest with my wife about that," he laughs.

Helliar is a great bloke. He's one person you believe when he says to make sure you come along to the show and say, 'Gidday' afterwards. Let's hope he brings his wife.