Sunday News

How David Fane has aged super

The former Naked Samoan tells Sam Brooks about his role in Auckland Theatre Company’s first show of 2023, being involved with cult hit Our Flag Means Death and what those letters after his name really mean.

-

Whether it’s as a radio host on Flava, on stage as part of the Naked Samoans, in an ad campaign keeping New Zealand green, onscreen in queer pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, or as a voice in early game of the year contender Hi-Fi Rush, you can’t throw a rock without hitting a project David Fane’s been involved in.

While he rightfully made headlines for his recent ONZM honour, that’s only the start of what is looking to be the actor’s biggest year yet.

He starred in the Sione’s Wedding prequel series Duckrocker­s, just wrapped filming on the second season of OFMD, has a new Taika Waititi film in the can and is just about to star in Auckland Theatre Company’s first show of 2023, The Heartbreak Choir.

He’s in rehearsals for that when we sneak off to the green room and he puts two warm beers in the freezer.

In person, Fane is how you expect him to be based on his characters: gregarious, chatty, always with a gag within reach. He’s what every stand-up comedian wishes they were like, which is what makes it surprising when you learn that he actually failed his comedy module at Toi Whakaari Drama School. That he failed the comedy module is well known. Less well known is the detail that he was playing Stevie Wonder commentati­ng a horse race.

Since graduating in 1992, Fane has never stopped working. His list of credits reads like a list of seminal New Zealand – and more crucially, Pasifika – work. He hasn’t just played roles in the canon, he’s created them.

Even so, his role in The Heartbreak Choir – ‘‘a quiet Australian cop with a sad secret’’ seems a bit of a departure. ‘‘I wouldn’t have hired me!’’, he cracks.

The show revolves around a group of women in a small town who form a choir after a disagreeme­nt leads to their original one splinterin­g. Fane plays Peter, a cop who has his own history with the choir that slowly reveals itself. Peter’s not the soul of the play – that comes from the five singing women – but he’s the gentle undertow that gives the play extra heft.

He might not be the best singer (his words) but what actually makes him a perfect fit for the quietly supportive Peter is a quality that recurs throughout our chat: he loves to gas other people up.

In just over half an hour, with one barely-chilled beer knocked back, he praises the Mā ori theatre stalwarts of the 90s (‘‘They should all have letters after their names’’), his Heartbreak Choir cast (‘‘they’re powerful women and they bully me’’) and his Our Flag Means Death co-star Con O’Neill (‘‘easily my favourite pirate!)’’. He even throws a few choice compliment­s my way, and I can confirm there’s few better feelings in the world than having David Fane (ONZM) gas you up.

He’s less keen to gas himself up, though. When he speaks about his past work, he’s more pensieve, reflective. That’s surprising, given how well much of it has aged: Sione’s Wedding is still a fun romp, his bits of Outrageous

Fortune hold up, and it’s a crime that the Naked Samoan live shows aren’t preserved for the public to watch.

It’s that work that he speaks of with pride, particular­ly The Naked Samoans Go Home, which tackled the topic of suicide unflinchin­gly. ‘‘We weren’t making comedy about suicide, we were doing social commentary about suicide using comedy. That’s probably one of the most affecting times I’ve been onstage.’’

He’s more ambivalent when it comes to Bro’Town, inarguably one of the most successful New Zealand series of all time, but one

that can be a tense watch now. Some of the bluer jokes about gender and sexuality wouldn’t fly today, and you could argue they didn’t exactly go well then.

‘‘The stronger the LGBT voice became, the more I realise when I look back on it, I think how much it has aged. The fart gags still work, the clever, banal jokes still fly, but it’s aged, and rightly so!

‘‘The world changes and we all have to change it, whether you like it or not. If a person says, ‘No’, and stands up, you’ve got to clap. You’ve got to clap for them.

‘‘If you don’t, then you’re putting them down. F... that.’’

 ?? ??
 ?? ?? David Fane recovered from a stroke to act at The Pop-Up Globe in 2018, far right, and is now rehearsing, above, for the Auckland Theatre Company’s The Heartbreak Choir. Above right, back in 2009 with his fellow Naked Samoans Jerome Leota, Oscar Kightley, Mario Gaoa, Robbie Magasiva and Shimpal Lelisi.
David Fane recovered from a stroke to act at The Pop-Up Globe in 2018, far right, and is now rehearsing, above, for the Auckland Theatre Company’s The Heartbreak Choir. Above right, back in 2009 with his fellow Naked Samoans Jerome Leota, Oscar Kightley, Mario Gaoa, Robbie Magasiva and Shimpal Lelisi.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from New Zealand