FAVOURITE THINGS...
You might know Ray O’Leary’s voice before you know his face. And you’ll definitely know his drab grey suit (sorry Ray!). His droll, dry wit – delivered absolutely deadpan – is fast becoming some of the most sought-after comedy in Aotearoa, and overseas. O
THESE ARE A FEW OF MY SONG THE KETCHUP SONG BY LAS KETCHUP.
Movie
Whenever someone asks me what my favourite film is, I say The Breakfast Club. And you are asking me what my favourite film is, so I’m going to say The Breakfast Club. It is my favourite film. Yep. The Breakfast Club. It is definitely my favourite film.
Restaurant
My favourite restaurant is any that has a back alley that is largely unsupervised. Do you know most restaurants throw away a lot of perfectly good food and don’t even lock their bins? That is how Ray eats for cheap. Behind some Italian places there can be real confusion over if you’re eating the same strand of spaghetti as someone else. I have kissed many dogs this way.
Piece of art
I studied philosophy, so The School of Athens by Raphael is a classic and an incredibly impressive piece of work for a turtle. A more modern piece I enjoy is Flight Plan by Colin McCahon. It’s big and it’s blue, and, ah… Look I’m no art critic, but I challenge anyone who has seen the painting to deny that it is big and blue.
Destination
My favourite destination would have to be the second one. I think they still had a lot of fresh ideas, and really finely balanced the horror in Final Destination
I’m not a huge horror film buff though so take that with a grain of salt.
Podcast
Comedy Bang! Bang! a show which begins with a relatively normal interview with a celebrity guest. They then invite the best improvisers in LA to play characters and do longform improvisation. I had to stop listening to it in public because it was making me laugh and you can’t walk around the streets laughing at nothing. I relate to it so much because LA is where I first trained and developed the character of Ray O’Leary who I have been playing for 35 years now. My real name is Clark Gable.
THING TO BUY AT THE SUPERMARKET I LIKE TO BUY GROCERIES AT THE SUPERMARKET.
Smell
I love nothing more than the smell of freshly cut grass, clothes that have just been cleaned, and hash browns cooking in the morning, as it means my butler has come and prepared the house for me.
Book
Based On A True Story: Not a Memoir by Norm Macdonald is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It’s allegedly an autobiography, but the whole thing is just full of lies. I can’t believe, when given the opportunity to be truthful about yourself, someone would just write a bunch of lies and nonsense. Who would do such a thing?
Job
My last office job – I was an office administrator. My desk was right in front of a giant column so I couldn’t see any of my coworkers, and right behind me was the door to my boss’ office. One day she called me into her office and said that I needed to stop coming into work an hour late, and I needed to stop going on Facebook so much. I said yes, yes, yes, of course. The next day I handed in my resignation.