Tim Batt on climate change, comedy, and watching Sex and the City every week for two years
The world is awash in floods, scorched by heat-waves and wildfires, battered with pummelling winds, yet youll still find people who deny that climate change is real. All of which presents ripe territory for multi award-winning comedian/writer/podcaster Tim Batt. Batt has performed live comedy in London, LA, NYC and Australia and co-hosts this countrys most successful comedy podcast, The Worst Idea of All Time (28 million downloads and counting!) with Guy Montgomery. He has featured on 7 Days , The Late Night Big Breakfast , Guy Mont Spelling Bee and now turns his attention to the most pressing issue of our age with new live show Is Climate Change Funny Yet? at the NZ International Comedy Festival. Visit comedyfestival.co.nz for tickets. Here, Batt shares some of his hopes and wishes... READ MORE: * The Guy-Mont Spelling Bee's Sanjay Patel reveals what cracks him up * Banter host Tim Batt looks to inspire Millennials in the lead up to the election * How two Kiwi comics could become the next Flight of the Conchords I WISH, 10 YEARS AGO, I KNEW... that some of my ideas were really good and worth pursuing. I spent a long time working in call centres and radio and Id always come up with silly ideas, but later on when I started actually enacting some of them, they turned out to be funny as. A lot of people have it in them to come up with really great creative projects but they just dont back themselves... although there are also some people who need to back themselves less, I hasten to add. I WISH I COULD SWAP LIVES WITH... Tim Heidecker. Hes an American podcaster and musician, and half of the comedy duo Tim and Eric. Hes in his early 50s and has spent most of his life doing weird little comedy projects and making occasional records, completely on his own terms. Hes interested in a lot of the same things as me, but hes a lot more connected and successful. I WISH, EVERY DAY I COULD EAT... Vietnamese food. I feel like I could eat Pho and Banh Mi until infinity without ever having that horrible, overfull feeling. Its the tastiest food that makes me feel the best, so I just love it. I WISH I COULD LIVE IN... Melbourne, maybe, though I love living here in New Zealand. I grew up in Christchurch, then lived in Wellington, and now Auckland, and I love all three. But if I couldnt live here, it would be Melbourne. Its walkable and warm and a proper international city. Thats the trifecta. New York and London are international and walkable, but often cold as sin. I like a sub-tropical vibe, so Im thinking Melbourne. THE PERSON I WISH WAS ON A BANKNOTE IS... Tame Iti. Hes spent his entire life furthering the interests of Maori through art and activism, and he also looks awesome, so hed look amazing on our cash. Hes also stayed curious and engaged with new things into his early 70s, like he live-streams bits of his life on Twitch. A lot of other people his age are, like, whats live-streaming? Whats Twitch? But hes like, Lets go! THE NOISE I WISH I COULD NEVER HEAR AGAIN IS... Sarah Jessica Parker portraying Carrie Bradshaw. Guy Montgomery and I have this podcast called The Worst Idea of All Time where we watch terrible movies and review them once a week for a whole year. We started off with Grown Ups II , watching it for 52 weeks and talking about it, and since then weve done both the Sex and The City films. Now, we thought we were challenging ourselves with Grown Ups II , but you havent plumbed the dark depths of your own psyche until youve had to deal with Carrie Bradshaw that many times. I would describe her character as pathologically self-obsessed. And shes not even a young struggling writer like she was in the TV series - shes now disgustingly wealthy, and you just dont want to keep endlessly revisiting her neuroses. I WISH I COULD SPEND A SUNDAY WITH... Bill Burr. Hes an American comedian who forged his whole career on being hilariously angry on stage, about everything. And then a couple of years ago, he discovered magic mushrooms, and the experience totally changed his life. He figured out why he was so angry all the time, and is way calmer now, and it was a really positive change in his life. Id love to talk with him about all of that. I WISH NEW ZEALAND WAS MORE... willing to become a leader in climate change. I detest this attitude that we dont need to do anything meaningful about climate change because it will just be a drop in the bucket for global emissions. But, when it came to women having the right to vote years ago, we didnt say- yeah, nah, that will be just a drop in the bucket when it comes to womens empowerment! We need to do whats right and put the necessary money and resources behind fighting climate change. We should embrace the fact that this countrys greatest export could be ideas. CHEAP GAGS or BRAINIAC ROUTINES NOVEL or BIOGRAPHY STREAM IT or AT THE MOVIES FRIENDS or SEINFELD PLAYLIST or WHOLE ALBUM COOK or GARDEN ROALD DAHL or LEWIS CARROLL HOME or TRAVEL BIGGIE or TUPAC SARCASM or SATIRE RADIO or PODCAST RAMSHACKLE or SLICK SPRING or AUTUMN MUSEUM or ART GALLERY RICHARD PRYOR or LARRY DAVID CHOCOLATE or CHEESE LATE NIGHT or EARLY START ROAD TRIP or CITY HOLIDAY Sunday Magazine