Jeremy Corbett celebrates 300 episodes of 7 Days with a Spring Break special.

7 Days host Jeremy Corbett talks about the show’s special spring-themed episode and reveals why his other TV gig on The Project has had a positive effect on family life. Sarah Nealon reports.

It is the start of a big week for comedian Jeremy Corbett when he has his photograph taken with Rosemary the lamb.

Rosemary, a rescue lamb, is in The Project building’s foyer on a Monday morning. She is being held by the 7 Days host while a photographer snaps away.

Posing with a cute animal is quite possibly a piece of cake compared with the rest of Corbett’s week.

For The Project’s beauty week, Corbett, one of the show’s three main hosts, undergoes several procedures including having a leg waxed, his hair coloured black and his beard shaved off. By the Friday he is sitting in The Project’s studio with a clean-shaven face and wearing pale pink lipstick.

On the show, fellow comedian Paul Ego, who is The Project’s guest or fourth host, addresses Corbett saying, “I’ve got the name for your look and it’s sexy cadaver”.

The pair are used to playing it for laughs on TV, having been part of comedy panel show 7 Days since the show began in 2009. Along with Dai Henwood, Josh Thomson, Melanie Bracewell, Madeleine Sami and Heath ‘Chopper’ Franklin they are appearing in the comedy panel show’s special Spring Break episode.

Filmed at Auckland’s Bruce Mason Theatre, the spring-themed episode also marks the show’s 300th episode. It will feature former gardening show host turned MP Maggie Barry for the ‘Yes Minister’ segment on 7 Days.

“We’ll probably ask her more about gardening than politics,” says Corbett.

While he’s probably best known for 7 Days, since April he has been co-host on Three’s weeknight show The Project.

“I love it and they are really good people and as you can see there is a big crew in there,” says Corbett, pointing to The Project’s open-plan office. “There are all these people who do all the work and I get all the glory.

“But the biggest thing is I miss the kids,” he says, referring to his daughters (Charlie, seven, and Billie, five), the children he has

with his actress wife Megan. “I’m basically here before they get off school until they go to bed so that concerns me a little bit. Having said that, Megan picks them up from school and drives past here. “Just after three is when we get a bit of a break so I go and sit with them in the car for 15 minutes. “They are getting to an age where they will wait up until I get home. When I get home they are still awake so we do a bit of bedtime reading.

“The beauty of The Project is it finishes at 7.30pm come hell or high water. It doesn’t matter what happens. We take a few photos with audience members who come along.”

The change in routine has had a positive effect on Corbett.

“One of the big things that Megan has noticed is that I appear to be stress free,” he says. “There is other work that I do that kind of stresses me out a bit and worries me and gets in the back of my mind. Like big (corporate) gigs to do at the end of the week.

“But with The Project I don’t get that. I feel very comfortable with Jesse (Mulligan) and Kanoa (Lloyd) and the fourth hosts we have on the show.” On The Project and 7 Days, Corbett is comfortable showing off his sense of humour.

The Project has been on air since February last year and, so far, audiences seem to like it. 7 Days is popular too but in the fickle world of TV, you can’t help but wonder about its future.

“Sometimes I get asked, ‘How long do you think the show can continue?’ and I say, ‘Well the news has gone for a long time, so why not the funny news?’ – which is how I see us,” says Corbett.

“One of the hardest things in stand-up is generating new material. But we’re presented with fresh ideas every week through the news. So they are the seeds and sometimes they are the hardest things to come up with.

“So the seeds of the news come through and then we can make the funny out of that.”

“Sometimes I get asked, ‘How long do you think the show can continue?’ and I say, ‘Well the news has gone for a long time, so why not the funny news?’ ” – Jeremy Corbett