Inside Shatner’s World
The 87-year-old is touring New Zealand with a new show. And he has something to say.
William Shatner is a lot of things. He is an author, a cross-genre musician, the leader of an incredibly active fan club, a horse breeder, an environmentalist, Boston Legal icon Denny Crane, and most famously, he is James T Kirk, captain of the starship USS Enterprise and the face of Star Trek.
He has Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and a public service medal from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
But above all of that, the 87-year-old is one of the entertainment industry’s most ambitious entrepreneurs, a hustler of the purest kind.
With a sales pitch so tight it would have an arrogant young sales rep shaking in their boots, a self-assured Shatner – speaking from his home in California – finds a way to lead every talking point back to one of his ventures with such ease, you’re left wondering whether you momentarily passed out before reaching it.
The item being sold today? Shatner’s World: The Return Down Under, the one-man show he says is his proudest achievement yet.
An evening of ‘‘stories, songs, jokes and musings’’, The Return Down Under, in a way, tests him on his own lived experiences, spanning from his childhood right through to now.
He’s done it on Broadway, he’s done it across the United States, and now, he’s bringing it to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
No stranger to Aotearoa, Shatner’s memory of trips gone by is sharp, recounting the time he’s spent in each major city with ease.
‘‘I filmed a movie in Wellington some years ago, and I’ve been to Auckland several times, so I know the areas I’m going to.
‘‘I was in awe of the strait between the North and South Island when I ferried over. The beauty of Wellington and Christchurch is overwhelming.’’
And when it comes to talking about the show, he wastes no time jumping into the elevator pitch.
‘‘What I’ve done is put together some entertaining, sad, laughter-filled events in my life. It’s not the story of my life, it’s stories that have happened to me that seem improbable.
‘‘I’m there for an hour and a half or so entertaining you, making you laugh, and making you cry.’’
A sell that would have any fan of his intrigued to know more, but it’s a show he admits took a long time to get right.
‘‘The one-man show is an extraordinary amount of effort; of telling stories, putting them together, staging, lighting, sound, music, and touring.
‘‘There’s also a great deal of effort in trying to entertain an audience for an hour and a half by myself. It’s been very successful and people stand up and cheer, but it represents a great deal of my life and work. If I point to anything I’m really proud of, it’s this.’’
Having penned a wildly impressive 30 books, stretching across both fiction and non-fiction, all while juggling his other ventures, any sane person would wonder how he hasn’t yet lost momentum, or run out of steam altogether?
The answer he says, is simple, it’s all about ‘‘having something to say’’. Using his soon-to-be-released Christmas album – Shatner Claus –asan example, he launches into an anecdote which, from any other person would seem unbelievable. From Shatner, it just makes sense.
‘‘If we look at having something to say in the Christmas album, a gentleman that I got to know, a veteran who was traumatised by war, is a great poet. I asked him to write a Christmas song, so he wrote a song asking, ‘How is it over there at home? Is it snowing? Are the bells ringing? Because there’s nothing here but hate and fear.’ He had something to say about war, and about Christmas.’’
Emphasising that point three more times (‘‘You have to have something to say. Have you got something to say?’’), and mentioning his new book on ‘‘ageing, what it does, how you think, and how you feel’’ another two times, conversation winds up back at The Return Down Under.
What can Trekkies expect from it?
With room for one last piece of self-promo, Shatner becomes tight-lipped, before triumphantly booming, ‘‘What a mystery! What a great mystery to be solved by coming to see me do it.
‘‘It will be a great time in the theatre, and that’s not just my opinion,’’ he chuckles down the line.
A mystery to be solved, indeed.