Your story is your power, Snipper, too far gone for as long as you're breathing once if you just push past that little barrier. We don't know what your capacity is, what our potential do, so always know that that is always more in the tank. The self dealt goes away when you're becoming a master of your craft and also a believer in your own process. Like you just touched on this, there's no sit way.
Welcome to the seas the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy are not the same thing. We too rarely question what makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than one way. So this is a platform to hear and explore the stories of those who found lives they adore, the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
will bear all the facets of seizing your Yay. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned entrepreneurs What the suits and heels to co found, matcha Maiden and matcha milk bark. Seize the is a series of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the self doubt challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way. Hello, lovely neighborhood, and welcome back to another guest episode in
a row. This week, We've skipped our Yeas of Our Lives episode to squeeze this one in because we were so excited to have this wonderful guest on the show. So we'll be back next week with the typical chaos that always ensues when Ange is involved, But for this week, I'm so excited to have Nick Afoa here on the show. You might have seen a couple of weeks ago, Ange and I went on a little CZA date night to see the incredible new production of Miss Sagon that has
absolutely taken Australia by storm. Either you will have seen it and you will have been as blown away by it as we were. I cried, I loved the music, just transported me away. Or if you haven't seen it, you've probably heard someone in your network rave about it.
It's been an absolute raging success and Nick is one of the lead roles in this year's cast, So that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to have Nick on the show, because we loved the production so much and just wanted to hear about the behind the scenes of what it takes to actually bring that together and what the day to day of a career in musical theater actually looks like. But even more so because you guys know, I love a wayta that takes twists
and turns you would never expect. And Nicko Foer actually began not just as your average rugby player. I mean many people play rugby in their younger years, but he went on to become part of the under nineteen World Cup team in South Africa, where he actually won that tournament so well and truly on the path to success in an incredible sporting career with a bright future ahead.
So how does one then end up making their theater debut as Simba in The Lion King, not just in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, but then moving on to spend five years playing the coveted role in London's West End. Nick tells the story far better than I ever could myself, so I'll hand it over to him to connect all the dots that eventually make sense in his wonderful Parthia. He's such a warm and interesting person. We go down so many tangents. It was such an enjoyable episode. I
hope you guys like it as much as I did. Well, you've recorded some amazing video as well, but sadly it just didn't save I mean, the joys of technology these days. But the audio was wonderful, so I hope you guys enjoy Nick. Welcome to Seize.
A thank you for having me.
I am so excited to have you on the show, particularly having watched your recent performance. I'm fangirling even harder. But I think you're definitely the first New Zealand tenor and former New Zealand age grade rugby union footballer that we've ever had on the show. I mean, what a combination.
I know, right, Just hearing you say that takes me back many, many years.
Yeah, and this is why I'm so excited to have you on, because the main crux of this show is the idea that you know you might find one life pathway and at the time it feels like it's your b all and end all, and you think you've found your joy and like tick the boxes, I'm going to live a happy life. But you can end up in something completely different that you never expected. And like some of the most beautiful pathways do have massive pivots and
twists and turns like that. So I would love to go through the journey of how you got to where you are. But first we always break the ass with a little question, just to ask what the most down to earth thing is about you? Because both of those titles are pretty impressive.
Oh, what's the most down sort of thing about me? I kicktics quite simple these days. I love coming home and spending time with my family, and I love fishing. I love nature. Since i've been in Melbourne, I've had to give that a bit of a miss, so you know, I walked past the Albert Lake, was saying about five minutes from the lake, and I saw the no fishing signs, So I don't worry. I'm not going to pull out any fish from the lake.
I'm not even sure they'd be worth pulling out if they were surviving in that lake. It's a beautiful lake to look at, but I don't know if it's fishing worthy.
Oh I love that. I think it's so easy to read someone's Wikipedia or meet them at a chapter that you're in right now, where there's so much shiny performances and ows and like, you know, like World Cups, and just forget that you're actually also just a human being who does normal things and who has I'm sure lots of quirks and weird habits as well, which I hope
to unearth during mischief. But let's go back to the very beginning, because I think one of the most sort of interesting things that doesn't come up as much when you're an adult is to trace back to who you were as a kid. Like now people will be asking you all about Missigone and all about Broadway and forgetting that you were, you know, a little child who once had no idea where he'd end up. So New Zealand born, but I read Samoan and Croatian heritage. Yes, about that? How fascinating.
Yeah. So when people ask me so where I'm from, that stumps me to this day because I always feel like I need to be honest about all of who I am. And I think sometimes from the can look like, oh, this guy's a Pacific guy, or he's a Maori guy who's a salmon guy. But I you know, I was born and raised in Altaio in New Zealand. My dad is a salmon born salmon. My mom is a third generation Croatian queuing. Yeah, it sounds like a big you know, big fruit sal ethnicities.
A big spread, you ticket, a lot of boxes.
Yeah. And I grew up in South Auckland, which is at the north in the North Island of New Zealand, and I was more probably connected more so to my Salmon side growing up because you know, Pacific ethnicities make up probably about eighty five to ninety percent of South Auckland. Connecting to my Croatian side, which is my mother's line, really only happened in the last few years, to be honest.
Then that happened when I went on a huge trip to London when I was on the West End, and then I decided to take a trip to Croatia and I found family there and I could actually come home and tell my not just my mom, but my who also was had never been back home. It was my great my great grandparents came on a grandfather came on
a ship in the fifties. And so I found family there and I could come home and bring photos and show them, so for them to connect those pieces to that part of them as well as me as pretty special.
So yeah, gosh, I mean that part alone that's like the very first dot point. And I feel like it's so interesting because I'm sure people would assume very quickly that you're Maudi and that you know the Kighi accent. It's such an easy assumption. But that whole landscape of identity fascinates me because that kind of is the patchwork of you know, where you start from.
True.
But I also think it's so cool that you've already mentioned the West End. But when I look at sort of your early school years, it was schools in New Zealand and then pretty much going straight into sport like club rugby, and then really accelerating in that pathway, so being selected for like junior World Cup teams and then winning the Junior World Cup and going to South Africa and for a young person, and like, that's a very accelerated,
successful pathway. And especially I think a lot of young people grow up thinking, especially young boys, that they want to be a sports person, but not many people actually get to do it as a career. So did you at that time of your life think that your pathway was going to be sport.
I wanted it to be, I deeply wanted it to be, and like you just mentioned. I mean, I really supportive parents who you know, you see the seeds and your kids and what are spouting. And they saw that I was sporty as well as artistic, but because of the time, I don't think they saw a pathway in yats. So my dad encouraged me a lot in my sports, even though he said, son, you've got to get an education. But I you know, young boy in New Zealand who had the All Blacks team to look up to, and
other other role models who were doing it. They were also pacific as well. It was it was all I saw, and you know, even to a point where I ignored the other advice from there that I needed back up. So I got into rip teams quite young, you know, fourteen fifteen, I was making Auckland rip teams and it starts to inspire you and you kind of feel like you're getting closer. And yeah, I got into quite a good school for a sports scholarship.
Amazing.
Yeah, it was it was all looking like that was the trajectory. But you know, things happened and I got an injury in my early twenties and then, like you said, that's when I needed to pivot because it didn't happen. It didn't happen the way I wanted it to happen.
And it's funny that I think a lot of the time it's out of adversity or something that feels like the end of your world at the time, Like getting into an acl as a sports person is like, oh, oh my god, I've never imagined another future for myself. But without that happening, like, would you have ever pursued the thing that you really love now? Maybe not? And
I love those sliding doors moments. So how did you go from envisioning your entire life this one career and like all your metrics are measured based on like rugby metrics and World Cups and getting into a good team and building a career to then that just gets cut short. But you know your world's over. What's the process of finding a new pathway?
Well, it is a process, it's yeah, it.
Doesn't have an overnight even the same that way, Yeah, definitely.
I think I do think a lot of people think, oh, well, it was an overnight thing, like it just went from rugby back to the arts or you know, went on that pathway. But I think hindsight's a beautiful thing right, Like, I can look back now and I can see that I don't even know even if I didn't get injured, I don't even know if I wouldn't made it. I realized why I deeply loved rugby, and it was the community. It was camaraderie. It was friendships, friendships from which I
still have now, you know some of them. Some of my mates went on to play, you know, for the Wallabies, for All Blacks, and we're still friends to this day. And even before I got into the Arps, straight after I got injured, I was like, you know, there was about a year or two of down in the dumps
and what the heck am I going to do? And I, for someone who wasn't didn't get the best marks at school, I actually decided, Okay, I was twenty years old at this time, and I was old enough to get into university. I didn't have the school marks to get in, but because I was twenty, I got mature injury and I just all of the studden and was like, I want
to study. And I did a social scientist degree and that actually made my dad prouder in the right and the rugby, you know, I think it's a big thing for you know, my grant parents, you know, come to the colony that they're like, you got to get educations, and that's you know, my dad came here to New Zealand in the sixties as a twelve year old with no word of English, and you know, he was my role model in terms of that, and I always had it in the back of my mind like, oaf, my
dad can do it, then I can go to university. And a three year degree took me for but I got there. I got a job straight away as a youth counselor and I loved it. Like I wasn't paid as much as a professional sports person, but I truly felt like I was stepping into my shoes as who I was. So I was like, oh, this is who you are. And I got to work in schools where I grew up and I got to impart knowledge to kids who are just like me. And you know, you know, had wanted to do some things but just needed a
bit more of a snapshot of opportunities and possibilities. And I did that for four years. It wasn't until twenty six, twenty seven that I actually stepped into an audition room. Wow, Yeah. It was a late bloomer in terms of theater. You know, I had a really unorthodox journey into it, and it wasn't theater that pulled me in. It was the story of The Lion King, which was my favorite movie of war time.
I mean, this is where we get along. Right when my baby is born, we are doing the Yeah, like that's happening.
Don't worry, we still course you did.
Are you going to send me the video so I could get some inspo?
Yeah. I had a connection to that storyline, and I had a had friends who were in the original show in two thousand and three, and so I was at another pivot point. I'd done four years working as a school counselor, and I had this thing in me. I was liked, Niki, what is something else? There's something else? There was the rugby and you had these seeds of being a singer and an arty person as a kid.
But what are you going to do with it? And so The Lion King is one of the only shows in the world where on the briefing for the audition it says no previous experience required. Wow, there's not many shows out there that do that. That's what's why I think that there's theater and then there's the Lion King. It's it's a sort of a different realm because they find people around the world who can fit into that
mold of the story that they want to tell. And Yeah, I stepped into this audition room and it was Yeah, it was an experience I'll never never forget. And it was another experience of this makes sense to me. This
world makes sense to me. And because I was already immersed in the world of you know, use development, I kind of even though I didn't study acting from a human perspective, I could understand the story and I'm like, this is a ten year old child who's run away because his father's been killed and his uncle told him that it's as fault, Like you imagine that in a real life setting like that is some some pretty heavy stuff,
you know. And I was sitting in the once I had gotten the role and then the rehearsal process, and I was like, Wow, I can can really bring human perspectives to the story and I really enjoyed them. And I think that's my process for everything that I've done so far, not that I've done many shows. I've only done the Lion King and now mist like gone.
I love that you use the word only for like the biggest production in the entire universe at the actual home place of like London's West End. There is nowhere better that you could be on stage. And I think you've brought up so many things there, but particularly the fact that there are unorthodox ways to get into a career, because I think a lot of people assume like, oh, I'm too old, or it's impossible because I didn't study acting, or I don't have connections.
You know.
I think you're a wonderful and inspiring example that you can come into something late and it's maybe not the most common way that people do it, but it's possible to not have a whole musical past for your entire life and still your first role it wasn't just like
a mere cat in the background. It was simber, like guys, come on, Nick is being so humble here, but his theater debut was as Simba in The Lion King, and that I just think it's people will take chances on a newcomer and don't like rule yourself out just because you don't think you have what you know, the background that you need definitely.
That's crazy that I could still use even though I couldn't play rugby anymore. The athleticism was something that I could still bring to this young at a listent lion you know.
So, I think one of the big things about the fact that our lives unravel in chapters, and that your three kind of broad chapters have been very different to each other is the self doubt when you're a newbie, like when you've just started and you don't have the backup of you know, a degree and a million different qualifications in that area, plus the fact that for a very sporty dude, theater is often not the most logical
step that comes next. Did you have any of either doubt from externally like people sort of being like, oh my god, you're in musical theater, or for your self, doubting that you'd be able to Like it's hugely nerve wracking to go to any audition, let alone for Simba in The Lion King. What do you do in your brain to quell the sort of fear or doubt.
That's good question, because the self doubt actually never goes away.
Yes, so true.
I'm thirty seven, you know, and you think you know back then you think, okay, you know it can about ten years old master it. You know, I'll never have that doubt again, but you get better at managing it. Time to your question. I think I was always I had that label of like the guy who could play rugby and could sing, so that my mates were you know, I got the low key you know, digs from them like are ain't dancing on stage? You know, but.
Where's your licra? Stop it? Did you really?
I did like to change a lot of things and the way I trained, you know, my dance kept them When I first joined, they're like, yeah, you look the part, but you can't move like we need you to. So you know, you're going to ballet classes, you're learning how to pirouet. You know you've got to You're going to raise in it. It's but anyway I am. The self doubt goes away when you it's preparation, right. You would
have heard this before. Just becoming a master, becoming a master of your craft and also a believer in your own process. Like you just touched on, there's there's no sit way you know, I mean, and I kind of I still do that. I go, Nick, you've done this before and you know you have a process and it works, so believe in that. And I know for a fact when I kept the most self doubt, it's when I haven't prepared. It's when I haven't you know, sat down
and gone. And maybe I'm jumping a bit forward now and to Massagon, I don't know if I If you want me to move that forward.
We go wherever you like. My brain's a mess, so it suits me, let's go all over the place.
I struggled at first when I got the role, when I stepped inside this room and I was pulled once again into a story through a song with Die, which
I just was like this, what a powerful song. Then I get given the role and it's like now you've got to play the character nic And it was huge responsibility for me because obviously seeing that it was a true story and then also you know the cause and the purpose that this guy John has after the fall and what happens in this transformation, and I'm going, man, what am I? How am I going to bring this guy to life? And how is he going to be authentic to me? But also true to what the creatives
wanted to be? And I really had to had that same process that I did with the symbol. I had to go who was he? How does he make sense to me? And I had when I researched. The more that I researched, I actually found out because this is what I found uncomfortable. We were in the rehearsal room in week one and Nigil Hakl, who's my beloved best mate on stage and also an awesome guy of stage, he said to me, he goes, Hey, what ethnicity are you playing?
And I was like, oh, big question.
And it was a great question. And I was like, oh, my gosh, he's American, but he.
Could be any any ethnicity, right.
Yeah, of course. And I'm like, well, I don't know how I feel about playing an African American. I don't know how I feel about playing a Hispanic person, like in terms of authenticity. And then I researched and I found out that there were so many Pacific people that served in the war, not just they for America, and it actually took me into a part of my history
that I didn't know. Sal mourns and Pacific people have been migrating to America since the sixties, and it's the same story again, the same way that my dad wanted me to go to diversity when I got to New Zealand. You know Pacific people in America that are like, you're joining the army. Son, You're joining the army. It's assimilation. How are we going to be accepted into this place? You join the army? And so that was my in
into finding a purposeful job. It was a beautiful process for me, and I'm glad that Nudge asked me that question in that room. And you know what, people watching the show won't know that, but it was. It helped me. It helped me go, Okay, this is who he's going to be, and even bringing values that are deep down even though he does some crazy things in that first act, you know, it's like you, It's like, okay, you are this person, but was brought this out of you because
it can do that to the best of people. And then he comes around and the second actor, not a new person, he comes around to who he always was. That's my take on it. So I know, you just asked me a question and I went I waffled.
Oh no, we love a tangent. I should just call the show the Tangent. It's my absolute favorite. But it's also it gives such an amazing insight. So why I feel so privileged to have a show that's not limited to one industry as I get to speak to people and share with the audience like community, is that they if you don't know someone in musical theater, you have no idea how someone prepares for a role. You have
no idea like you just see the finished product. And it's the behind the scenes that I find so interesting because you just don't know that unless you are a fly on the wall. So I think it's fascinating to hear that you do historical research, you do decide what your backstory is, even if no one ever knows what you've chosen. That's what comes through is powerful in your performance,
even if we don't know that. So going back to first entering this world, when you first became Simber, I think a lot of people have seen I mean millions of people around the world have seen The Lion King. I've seen it like four times in three different countries because it's just one of the most magnificent shows that have ever come to the stage, particularly because you don't
think that animals on stage would work. But it's wild but I don't know anything about the behind the scenes, particularly not if you had come into performance without having done singing coaching and dancing coaching. So what is the process from your first audition, get the role and then be on stage? Do you do like months years of classes? Do you rehearse on your own? Like how do you go from zero to hero? Basically, for me, how.
It worked was when they cast that role, the Simber and Nala role. I think they when they find the person that they want, it's almost like they don't want to mess with what they find in the rehearsal room. That's so cool, I know it is. And it's it's quite what's the word I'm looking for. It's it's confronting in a way because here's what happened for me, and it's I'll share it. Like I stepped into this room and the song that I just sing was Endless Night,
which is simber song. And he's singing it to his father, who's who's passed away.
Oh my gosh.
And I'll tell you why because I told you before that I have an eighteen year old son, and you know our history is quite a special history. I was eighteen when he was born. And I was a father who was not in his life. This is true, this is raw facts. You know, I was a runaway father. I stepped into this room. Remember the director. He prought me aside after I sung the song, and he said,
and I hadn't met my son at this age. I was in touch with his mother, and you know, he knew who I was through a long distance conversations because he was in South Africa. Anyway, the director pulled me aside and he says, you sound pretty. It's great, but I don't believe you. Woo yeah, yeah. He said, you
got a great voice, but I don't believe you. And he told me a story about his dad and he said, I can't remember the exact facts, but he told me a story about his dad being on his deathbed and the things that his father had said to him that he had wanted to say to him his whole life. And it sort of brought a peace to their relationship. And then his father passed away. And then he said, Okay, we're going to go back in that room and you're just going to be real and right. I don't care
how you sound. You sound great. Wow. I was like, okay, what does that mean, I didn't know what that meant.
Yeah, I thought I did it right the first time. I thought I did my best, I know.
And I walked back in that room and the pianist played the first chords and I couldn't sing. I could not get the words out, and they were behind the panel and they were saying keep going, keep going, and I was singing the lyrics, but as I was singing them, I was I was a mess. I was like, oh my gosh, this is not good.
Yeah, I'm having a mental big guys, just bear with me.
And the first lyrics to that song, where has the starlight gone dark as the day? How can I find my way home? And then the chorus said you promised you'd be there whenever I needed you, whenever I call your name. You're not anywhere. And I finished the song. It was a mess technically, and I thought I'd stuffed it up, and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going home.
Yeah, I'll say myself ast I came to.
It was like a moment where I came back and the song had finished and they were just quiet, and they said, what was going on for you there? And I was like it was a moment where you just felt like, Okay, I just had done this, so I'm going to tell them I don't know these people, and I just said to them, look, I don't know what happened, but I have a son who's nine years old that I never mean and I felt like he was singing
to me. Where am I? So my long story is me being in the Lion King was actually never about me being in the show, because that spurred me to want to own my shit and find him and do what's right, you know. So I came and I did the Aussie tour, and long story short, I ended up meeting him through the grace of his mother, who I didn't deserve a second chance, but she gave me a chance. And anything he's downstairs is chilling out.
Right now to stop. Oh my gosh, that's the most beautiful story.
So yeah, you asked me about my process, and that's why I want to encourage people. You know, it's your story as your power. Absolutely, you know, Snipper too far gone for as long as you're breathing, you know, and so far I'm glad. I'm just I'm just happy that that's why you asked me. What might downce to Earth and like my family, that happened. That's just the most important thing to me. I proudly should. I know it's quite a heavy topic, but it's a happy ending. It's got a happy ending to it.
It's a beautiful story as well, because I think it is a reminder that you know, it did take nine years and that's okay. Like, you know, people need time, and it takes a catalyst, like it takes an ex or a conversation or something to trigger a different choice. But I think people forget they have choices, like they often just assume it's too late for whatever reason. It's too late for a relationship, it's too late for a career, it's too late for a first you know, try it
something and you're right until you're not breathing. It's never too really what's too late? Who's to say what's late and what's early? Like maybe that was the perfect time. Maybe nine years earlier you wouldn't have brought to the relationship what you wanted to. And I think it's it's so beautiful that it came from this whole new chapter for you to realize in a totally different area of
your life that you wanted to do something differently. That's magical and that now ten years later, like you have this beautiful relation you live together. Yeah, that's amazing. Wow. And that it took the Lion King. I mean, if anyone needed proof that the Lion King is the becture in the world, it's just it's bonding families all over
the place, you know. Yeah, but I also love that. Again, it comes back to people self selecting themselves out of opportunities because they assume that it's going to be a technical audition. They assume that no one would give you a chance based on a technically not perfect audition. That's emotionally like, you do never know what someone's looking for, and on that day it was what you had, not what someone technically perfect had. So how did you go from that to the West End? What? Yeah, what do
you mean that's the pinnacle? Like that's ten years is a short time for the career that you've had. So how did you go from that newcomer with raw emotion into I'm going to do it in the home of Broadway.
This is how it happened. We were finishing up in Perth. That was the last leg of the Aussie sort, and the creatives from New York were like, hey, our Simba in the West End is leaving. We want you to take over the role. How do you feel about that? And I'm like, what's the West End?
I mean that's west? Like is that what you mean.
To it all?
And at times that's even cuter that you were like where where.
Is that your funny story? When I got they cast me up, I said yesterday or obviously. And then I was looking for accommodation and I was looking in the west of London because I thought west End meant that the theaters were in West London and the producers they were like, why are you saying so far? And when I'm like, what do you mean? I know it's just called westing but it's it's in central London and.
Wow, I mean real newbie vibs. I love it.
It was special. I got to experience another cast and another family of lion king and I got to take my Bussie Pacific version and take it there and they embraced it. And you know, it was huge. It was a huge chapter of my life. I thought it was going to be one year and it ended up being five almost Wow. Yeah, oh my.
God, I mean, congratulations. That is gigantic. Not only did you not kind of seek out this opportunity at the top of the ladder, you just kind of were given it, like we love you so much. Here have it. You don't even know where it is, but let's take you there. But also, I think another thing about industries that people as a sort of spectator. You go and see the show, you get your buy tickets, you go and sit in
the theater, and you get wowed. But forgetting that, you know, I think because you guys perform often at night and then maybe a few matinees, people don't know what you do during the day in your job. So during that time, are you rehearsing all day every day? Is it a combination of like voice classes with dance classes. You slipped very easily into an American accent just before do you
do accent training? Like how do you spend the d You know, it's your job, but it's not conventional, So what do your hours look like?
Hours? It's like it's like you said, it's a combination of things. Mean, you got to you know, we're doing this thing eight times a week.
Oh my gosh. Yeah, how does your voice keep up with that.
Yeah, it's you got to you got to get on it. You know. It's and that's not the other thing, you know, even though I liked to send it, it's my parents are always like, you've got to practice. I like, natural talent, that's not going to get you through. You need to you know, you need to master your your crafts. And so I like, I had to stop lifting weights the
way I did when I was playing rugby. I had to go pilates classes, yoga classes, you know, ballet, voice classes, and then rest on top of that, and then at the same time trying to detach yourself so you're not playing the character off stage.
It's not to everybody. Why is he walking on all fours around the house?
Why do you roar at me? Yeah, So it's a combination of all of it.
Do you get weekends off during the daytime, Like do you have a structured set of training and classes and rehearsals on the.
Double show days, like forget that you're waking up and you're going to work, but you try and really try and plan your days of filling things on the evening show days. So Wednesday, I mean, when I was on Wednesday, and that was a four show weekend, two Saturday, two Sunday. Yeah, but then you get Monday and Tuesday off, so you have to try and use those wisely. And then you'd
come back to a double show on the Wednesday. But then Thursday and Friday are a day off, so you could kind of use those days as well.
Do not talk on those days to give your voice arrest. Does it actually wear out or do you just develop the endurance it wears out?
Sometimes I'd be that person at the bar if this music playing, I'll be like, can you go somewhere else because I have to.
Raise my voice too loud.
If your friends think a bit of a diva, it's like listen, let's don't like because he's good or quite.
In case you guys don't know, I'm like famous and my voice is like very important. But it's true. It's your craft. Do you need it?
You don't foresee those things. You just think, you know, you go to work and come home. But I mean every time, I'm sure your voice gets tired. After doing a lot of podcasts. You know, every time you're opening your mouth, you're using those those vocal cords that coming together, they tire around.
Yeah, totally. So what about things like I mean having I'm sure it's quite unusual to have only done two major roles and to have done them so exhaustively, But even swapping from one show to a completely different show, and also back in a different country, different writers, different scores, different makeup, different costumes, and like you said, you had to reformulate your interpretation of John. So now you're back here in the incredible production of Missigon, as we've mentioned,
playing the role of John. How do you shift out of one show and go into another? Because the other thing about your industry is that like in between, is there dead time? Are you just are you re auditioning? Or do you usually have one thing lined up before you go to the next show and then you switch off Zimba and turn on John? Like, how does that all.
Work for me? The breaks in between have happened quite naturally in an ideal world for theater people that do it and have done it for a long time. This role after role just lined up. I'm about to experience it for the first time because I'm about to be in another show called Rent. Yeah, thank you lended it a couple of months ago. We were actually in our opening of Sydney, and I auditioned on the opening week and so I got the role and it was crazy. So I'm like, okay, and it's the role of Colins
and Rent. I'm sort of like parking that in my brain at the same time immersing myself and John. But anyway, we opened soon and I get three weeks break from John and too Collins. So that's this is our first for me. I'm actually going through it right now. My wife is actually in the show as well, and we're kind.
Of yeah, that's so cool. Wow.
Yeah, So we're both sort of navigating how we're going to do it with a babysitter and then you know, and getting into into our characters and I can't actually give you like we'll talk in a few months time.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, But it's the same.
Same sort of process of I mean, my friend's given me some documentaries to watch and that's what I did for obviously for Miss Gone as well, and you kind of just you do the pre research, you know, before you get to rehearsal, and then you arrive to rehearsal, and then the creative sort of guide you and so where they see the story and you just slowly piece things together, and then it's getting on stage, and then it's feeling it, and then it's how you're moving and
how is the movement affecting you know, the way you deliver your scene partners, you know, what are they bringing out in you? It kind of just kind of just happens, So cool, so big old process.
Yeah, what about some of the sort of behind the scenes surprises in particularly in Missigon, just because there'll be people listening who have just seen it or about to see it. Like have you ever had like a moment where you've forgotten your lines? Or because it's not like TV where people have to remember scripts, but they can kind of like edit it out if you just have a brain fart you're on stage, if this happens to you,
So have you ever forgotten your lines? Or like at a wardrobe malfunction or like what happens when props don't work? Like what are some of the things that surprised you when you come to a production like this, like the helicopter scenes, Like that's what the hell? Like, how what do you mean?
I know? Right? Its yeah, it's crazy that I think that's one of the biggest surprises that people see, right, it's the helicopter. There's so much going on in the show, and so there are things that constantly go not wrong, I wouldn't say wrong, they're just this is a show that's all music. There's not much dialogue, so the beautiful music plays the biggest part. It's the backbone. It's it's really percussive. Especially my role John, He's got a lot
of small little part two. He's got to come in and communicate and then it's got to be on beat. But the audience won't necessarily know that. But I'm constantly like connecting with the conductor because it's got to be. It's got to be. On the other night, I made a mistake. What happened. I was in the second act. I came on stage. The engineer who was on for
that night threw me something. And this is about being present as well, Like sometimes a couple will come on and play the role and they'll bring their own neck beautiful version of it, and you gotta and he threw me something. It was a beautiful choice, and I was like, ah, And because it was so had already moved. I missed my line, Oh no, and missed my life. And then he jumped in. He jumped in and safe me. But that brought out something quite nice and in the moment. Yeah,
and it kind of like wires you up. You come off stage and you're like, man, thanks for that. Man. He's like, yeah, that was cool something the other night. Even the Tams, like the Tams, sometimes you just sit there and you watch the kids just be. I mean, it's a lot the show is a lot for the young kids. But I admire the the fearlessness to just stand there and they be, and they kind of can sometimes give you a good acting lesson, just like just don't don't try, just be in the moment, you know.
And there's this cheeky, cheeky Tam and Sydney's left now and I do this thing sometimes where John comes back and he gives Tam a little fist bump. There was one Tam who would just stand there when I kneel down and give them a fist pump, and you'd stand there on everything. He wouldn't. He wouldn't.
Oh my god, what a frascal.
No, you haven't hearned it exactly, Like that's your choice. That's a stranger. You don't have top.
Stranger danger, that's smart, that's straight, safe, well done.
So many things that happen that you know, either just happen or things that we do to keep each other lights as well to heavy show to heavy show. Sometimes those things happen off stage. We do them to just to keep the just keep the vibe up and then we can go on and do the heavy stuff keep it light off stage.
Yeah, it's crazy, how like, especially if it's your second show in the day, like the audience doesn't know for them it's their first, and so it's amazing that you guys can bring that same energy again even though it's exactly the same as what you have literally just done. I used to be ballerina and people would always say, like, you just did this, this exact same thing, how do
you enjoy it? And I'm like, that's when you know that you love what you do, when as soon as the music comes on, it just you're there And I could do it a million times and never get bored. It's not one of those normal jobs where you're sort of like, what am I going to do for dinner tonight? Like you you can't think about that stuff, you know, while you're singing or do you like, do you do you have a tune out?
Sometimes it happens.
Where am I? Oh I'm on stage?
Yeah, no's it's not that you're not enjoying it. It's just I mean you're a human, right, and.
It's like autopilot.
Yeah, you'd like to say you're at the actor. It doesn't switch off. But I mean there's been moments. And that's the beautiful thing of just being there for your scene partner because sometimes it happens for them and you can see it happen.
And you you're like, oh, you're god.
It's the beauty of the right.
Have you ever needed to like pay in the middle a show or like like do you eat before you perform? Like how do you manage your digestion?
You know what? Before I say that last night on stage and I need to find out when I go back to work today. Someone did the biggest fart that the smelliest part okay, and no one stage on stage, one stage, in the in the in the scene, in the dreamland scene and I'm at the bar. Who did that? Who did that? And you see I used it in the scene and yeah, no one owned up.
I mean, if you've got to go you got, I mean, what are you going to do?
But it's great. I think the other night was at the end of the show and the final final scene in the dressing room and I needed to sneeze, and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to ruin the end, but the ending is about to happen when Kim and Chris are together, and I'm like, if I sneeze, everyone is going to look this way. But I don't know. I held it back. It's crazy what you off stage. I'm never be able to hold off
a sneeze. You always have to sneeze, but just that just held it and there was like it's not coming down, but.
You're just like I'm just not because I'm emotional. Okay. See that's even something that we don't think about that you guys are on stage for a really long time and like if you need a pee, it's like, do you like you can't drink five liters before you go on because like you're going to need to go logistics Oh my gosh. Well, I have actually quite a few friends who have seen it twice. They've loved it so much.
So I will definitely include all the links to Missigone to everyone and then of course Rent, which is so exciting, But I would also love to know. I think we do spend a lot of time, like most of us introduce ourselves by our name and our job, not like anything else about our personality. It's just like I am
my work. But I think what you do when you play and have downtime, or how you choose to spend your voluntary time is just as informative about who you are as the things that you do for your kind of like, you know your profession, So how do you play when you have time off? Does it have to be something that's completely separate to musical theater? Like I think some people have to do something completely opposite. And yeah,
what are your favorite do you? Binge? Netflix? Like what do you do in your spare time?
Right now, we're actually watching Oh my gosh, you know Fresh We your Fresh Princes of Fresh prints from.
Back in the day, you know, like oh yeah.
Yeah, so watching the new version on Netflix. I didn't want to give it a chance because I was like, nah, there's nothing that can that can be Oh but that's quite it's really good.
Yeah, I'm like you, I'm like, nothing will ever replace the old version. Don't even try.
Yeah, I know, but anyway, I mean, we do like to separate it. But because we I mean, why if he's at Sally, my son makes music gets to My daughter is already you know, singing and dancing.
She's like one and a half.
Yeah, wow, Yeah, she's screeching and she loves to dance and move, and so I think, yeah, just artistic expression is sort of always happening in our house in some way, you know, because it's the first time for me and my wife with our daughter. It's new, it's really new. So we're trying to create an environment of that while also being on the road, like we're touring with our family. That's another thing right now, it's like whoa, Okay, maybe we wanted this, but do we really?
Yeah, that's rough. You're living at a suke. There's four of.
You litually literally How long have.
You When did you leave New Zealand?
Uh? July?
Oh my god, you've been out of home since Oh my god for the whole show. I didn't even think of that.
Yeah, yeah, July winter Sydney then came here and that the tour is happening in Asia too. But we we decided not to do it, but then Rent came up.
So is Rent here?
Winter's here?
Oh my gosh, So are you going back home in between?
Yeah, we'll go home. We'll get a three weeks. Three weeks.
Oh, that's right.
So I'm looking forward to that because my family, my sisters, Mum and dad haven't seen Baba in a while, so they're missing her. And we'll go back to our house to see if yeah, it's still standing, if.
It's still there. Yeah, I forgot. That puts so much pressure on just like it's hard to live not in your own bed and not in your own home, but then to do it with kids, like that's an enormous challenge, but amazing that you get to do it together. Do you ever play rugby now? Do you ever like miss it or watch her or play for fun or not?
I try. I try to keep up with my son. He's boughtier. I think he's sportier and faster and more athletic than I actually was. And I think I'm kidding myself that I can keep up with them. I don't want to. I don't want them to hear that.
You just look so scared. You're like, oh shit, I.
Remember that might be my dad and an arm wrestle too. I think I was like fourteen fifteen, no, fourteen, and he's like, you can stay up the day that you beat me in an arm missle and I beat them.
Oh my god, it's still a cool memory for you. So, my gosh, it's.
Still a part of my life. I mean back home when if I'm not doing theater, I'm still involved, like I do m seeing at the games and I sometimes sing the anthem.
I saw that.
Yeah, what a full circle circle. I looked at the side of me and the guys about to that I used to play with, about to go and play, and I'm there singing. So it's it's a special sort of moment.
Oh my gosh, that's beautiful. I forgot to ask you this question at the start. Actually this is so random, but do you and your kids speak someone Maori or Croatian.
I am embarrassed to say that we speak English, you know what I mean. You know it's our language, we speak it, but it was the goal of our's like we're going to speak someone and my wife has you know, I can speak a couple of the dialects from South Africa. You know, we try to inject words where we can, but none of us are fully fluent.
Yeah, so it's just a mishmashing. What is this language? That's cool? You guys can understand it. Who cares.
Has been watching one lot and she's even though we're trying to get her off it, because that's the first thing that she says in the morning. She say on no more none, that TV too much TV.
That none of us are called that, babe, no, mummy, daddy.
The word for tattoo was and someone, And so she will she will look at my tattoo sometimes and say, tattoo.
That's so cute.
Yeah. They pick up things. They pick up things fast, and you wonder where and it's like, okay, it's TV too much.
Yeah. Well, very last question to finish off. I'm a big fan of quotes, and I feel like I love to leave our listeners with a quote or a mantra that you live by. Do you have something that you live by, oh, other than Hakuna matal? I feel like that would just be true stereotypical for you.
Kind of what I was saying before. I mean at the start about it's never over. It's never over. There's always more in the tank. It sounds so.
Like keep going.
I'd gne to share this one because something happened. I was on our version in the New Zealand of you have It Here. I think it's called I'm a celebrity to get out of here?
Oh my gosh, did you do it?
I did one of those in New Zealand.
Amazing.
It was an amazing experience. But I had a moment. I wasn't a challenge and I was in the challenge. It was an endurance challenge. I was therefore about and a half hours standing and I won the challenge, but there were moments in my mind where I was about to give up. This was about half an hour mark, and I ended up staying up there for two and a half hours, and something happened where I just was almost out of body. I couldn't feel. It was quite
painful on my feet. We had to stand on this tower and stand on these pegs, and whoever fell was going to go home. And at about the two hour mark, I stopped feeling pain and I just was there and in my mind I was like, I'm going to stay here the whole night. I hope the camera crew already like.
Yeah, I don't know what's going to hit them.
Yeah, but there's always more like it's so you know, people have done it since the beginning of time. You know, this was so much more powerful than we think. You were talking about South doubt before. You know, once if you just pushed past that little barrier. We don't know what your capacity is, what our potential live, so always know that that is always more. In the tech, I I have the lights on orange gold because your card might break down.
Yeah, also good advice. Oh, Nick, thank you so much for your time. I'm so so excited for the rest of this season and to see what happens Withrent and to see you take on that role with as much gusta as you have the other two incredible roles that you've you've played so far. So thank you so much for making time and using your voice on this as well.
It's all good. Thank you so much, Sarah, thank you podcasts and this has been amazing. So all the best and all the best of your your family and Bubba coming up. It's beautiful. Well.
Nick was definitely our first professional rugby union footballer turned tenor and musical theater start, but first time everything I found this one so fascinating. He just seems like such a warm and wonderful person and blew us away on stage in the show. As you guys know, he has another production coming up. I will share links to that
how to get tickets when that eventually goes love. I hope you guys enjoyed as much as I did, and of course, if it feels right, please do share the episode tag nick tag the show spread the yighborhood love as far and wide as possible. I hope you're all keeping safe and well and relatively stress free as much as possible as the silly season starts to really get underway. It's such an exciting time of year. Are and I will be back recording next week for the last couple
of episodes of the year. We also have a few CZA activities. We're doing a Christmas party with literally just the two of us, so that will be a lot of fun. There's, of course our little bump that's growing on the way, our mini ya and if you guys have any more questions about that following on from our last Q and A episode, we can also answer any of those in the next few years of our lives. Episodes, so as always, don't forget to shoot as a DM
or an email at any time. And in the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful week and seizing your yay.
Ultimate content Intendment, intimate intenet intent.
Yeah,