INTERVIEW: Ben Boyce Star Of New TV3 Comedy Wanna-Ben

Wanna-Ben is an imaginative skit comedy series themed each week on a different genre from music to movies, fashion to business.

The main skit sees Ben Boyce, former co-host of Pulp Sport out of work. Ben is on the look out for a new job but he doesn’t just want any old job, he wants to be something cool - like a rock star or fashion icon or maybe even a movie star or millionaire businessman. Ben is a Wanna-be.

Each week we follow Ben as he tries his hand at a new career, attempting to live the life of someone rich and famous, by employing the assistance of well-known kiwis to guide him on his journey. To find out what he’ll need to achieve to get his new dream job, Ben will interview a myriad of international celebrities – Alice Cooper & Richie Sambora in the Rock Star episode, Steven Seagal for Movie Star,  Larry Flynt for Millionaire Businessman,  Fran Drescher for TV Star and even Vanilla Ice & Flavor Flav to become a Hip Hop icon. The celebrity will impart to Ben their accomplishments that have helped them to get to where they are today. Back home in New Zealand, Ben will then attempt to achieve these things in his own unorthodox and very “kiwi” style with the help from New Zealand’s celebrities such as Tammy Davis, Miriama Smith, Elemeno P, Jason Kerrison, Mike McRoberts, Blair Strang, Ali Williams, Antonia Preeble, The Back of the Y boys, Claire Chitham, Mike King, Jeremy Corbett, Aja Rock, Paul Ego, Peter Urlich, Steve Wrigley and many more! Ultimately Ben will discover that his road to a new career and attempting to emulate his new idol will be full of pain and embarrassment. This main narrative will be peppered with a smorgasbord of skits, song parodies and experiments with the public to make ten celebrity-laden, gag- packed episodes.

This is our interview with Ben Boyce.

Which dream job was your favourite to film?

I failed miserably in my attempts to get my dream job – the Top Model judges said ‘No’ at my model audition despite my best poses, Oliver Driver made me be an extra and then fired me from my movie role, trying to be a pro-skater was pretty painful with no actual skating ability and when I tried to be a pop star and join a girl group, selling biscuits in a dress wasn’t quite what I had in mind!

Which dream job would you most like to pursue in real life?

I’ve always wanted to be Roger Federer’s tennis doubles partner – that would be my dream job. I’d get paid thousands, win every single game and all I’d have to do would be just stand on the court and say “Roger, you take this one” and then watch him win every point.

Which kiwi celebrity was the most helpful?

The kiwi celebs weren’t much help at all – they always seemed to push me into embarassing or painful situations. Che Fu, Peter Urlich and Paul Ego dressed me up like an Avatar and bossed me around town, Elemeno P wouldn’t let me join their rock band, Mike McRoberts was hopeless when he joined my band and Antonia Prebble from Outrageous Fortune wasn’t keen on playing Dukes of Hazzard with me!

As part of the filming of WANA-BEn, you got to interview Alice Cooper, Richie Sambora, Steven Seagal, Larry Flynt, Fran Drescher, Vanilla Ice and Flavor Flav. Who was your favourite interview and why?

When Vanilla Ice was at his peak, I was a massive fan. I even had the ‘steps’ in my hair and the ridiculous sized trousers. He was pretty cool to chat to, right up until I played him my new rap video and he told me I sucked! Other favourites included Spice Girl Mel B – although she didn’t like my Old Spice joke! And the Nanny, Fran Drescher – she was loads of fun and it was great to talk to her as I finally found someone with a voice worse than mine!

How does WANNA-BEn compare to Pulp Sport?

With the same sense of humour, I’m hoping WANNA-BEn is similar enough to Pulp Sport so that Pulp Sport fans like it, but with the big international celebrities and a move away from sport, I hope that non Pulp Sport fans like it. So basically I’m hoping that EVERYONE will like it!?!? Or at the very least, my mum will like it!

WANNA-BEn will be full of skits, song parodies and experiments with the public. Which one of these was the most fun to put together?

The song parodies were pretty epic to film but lots of fun. They were made much harder as I have very little singing ability so autotune is now my new best friend. Also I sound like “Murray” from Flight of the Conchords when I try to rap so that’s no so cool! None the less, I got to make twisted versions of Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Will Smith and Vanilla Ice videos and roped in some pretty famous New Zealand faces to help out like J.Williams, Jason Kerrison, Tammy Davis, Mike King and Toni Marsh.

How long did it take to film all ten episodes?

Bloody ages! My friends give me grief by saying all I do in a year is 10 half hour episodes of TV – so I only work 5 hours in total.  But sadly, it’s not that cushy when you’re part of a small team doing everything. I started writing the series in Febuary, then we organised it, filmed it and I’m still editing it now. But there’s far worse jobs you can do… actually I’m not sure… this series I endured bee stings, many paintballs, facial acupunture and injections, drinking my own blood, kissing a dog and prositution!

What are you planning next?

Getting each episode together in time for the Friday night broadcast – it’s like handing in a school assignment every week for 10 weeks! Then after that, I’m going to have a holiday before finding out if the series did well enough for me to have a job next year filming a show about me finding a job! It could be a long holiday!

Wanna-Ben starts on Friday 8th October at 10.00pm on TV3.