Between Two Beers Podcast: Laura McGoldrick: My life in the spotlight (re-release)

On this episode of Between Two Beers, we're rewinding the clock back to October of 2021

when we sat down with Laura McGoldrick.

Laura is a broadcaster, presenter, radio host, MC and part-time actress and one of the most

popular faces on television in New Zealand.

She's been a host of the cricket show Holden Golf World, New Zealand Herald Focus, as well

as most of Skye's major sporting events and held breakfast radio roles at Ho-Dakie in

the Hits.

She's also married to black cap star Martin Guptell.

In this episode, we talk about how Laura navigated her post-match Sky TV commitments after watching

her husband's heartbreak following the Cricket World Cup final, growing up with her mum,

the super agent, working with Stephen Colbert, the differences between working on Ho-Dakie

with Matt and Jerry and the Hits with Tony and Sam and the hardest moments across her

career at Sky TV.

Laura is exceptional company, funny, witty, full of energy and an engaging storyteller.

This was a really memorable episode for us.

It was recording during lockdown so the audio is a little patchy in places and we've edited

out some of the painful isolation chat from the start of the year.

Listen on my heart or wherever you get your podcasts from or watch the video on YouTube.

A huge thanks to those supporting the show on Patreon for the cost of a cup of coffee

a month to get involved, head to www.between2beers.com and while you're there, sign up to our new

weekly newsletter which is behind the scenes recaps of each episode.

This episode was brought to you from the export beer garden studio.

Enjoy!

Laura McAlder, welcome to Between Two Beers.

Thank you very much, thank you for having me.

So the way we do things at Between Two Beers is we like to canvass your colleagues and

friends and ask them a little bit about you so we can perhaps go a little bit deeper.

One of the people we contact is actually Tiny Street who obviously works close with you

on breakfast on the hits.

And she said that Laura is obviously loyal, passionate and has an incredible work ethic.

She's not afraid to say what she thinks and family and friends are the centre of her world

which we thought was really nice.

Now the other person who we've all gone that with, and this one went down an alley we were

really quite expecting, is a big fan of the podcast and there's quite a prolific voice

in the sport media world these days.

And when we asked, you know, what do you know of Laura McAlder, he said this, he said, I

talk her to my school leavers ball, she's, and it was a top notch night, but I think

she danced with my dad more than me, said face emoji.

His dad did offer up a lot of good moves.

Oh, that guy at the belt, yeah, so I'm talking about TVNZ, how did this, I mean, he's friends

with your brother, but how did this come about, because you're a couple of years older than

him, right?

I'm just the one who maybe, no, I think I'm already one year older than him, so I don't

think it's creepy, but it might be, but guy is a wonderful, a wonderful, basically part

of our family.

He's been mates with my brother for many, many years.

He went to same school as my brother Christopher and good college boy, loves his sport, loves

his cricket, he was, we're always bound to get on.

And yeah, I don't know.

I might have just said, oh, I'll come to your ball with you.

I don't know.

He probably had another date.

I'm quite the worst.

I, maybe it was less of a suggestion and more about you're taking me, a command yet, but

it was a great night.

I mean, I don't think he 100% banked on his, on his date, having a quick spewed fish and

chips and Christchurch after the football, but I mean, I came back, I came extra over

that even and we had a wonderful time.

And as it transpired, we ended up working together and he is, yeah, he's a great, he's

a great lad.

Now, this story, I was hoping it was going to be some sort of petty thing where he put

a social media post up and said, if I get 5,000 likes, Laura McGoldrick will come to

my school ball.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I think it was more like, you should take me, take me, take me

to the ball.

If you do, it's nice.

We're going to go all over the place tonight, Laura, but the place we want to start, and

I hope it doesn't bring back too many painting memories, is the cricket world final, recent

super over, your husband was obviously doing the business.

So we had Jimmy Neesham on a couple of podcasts ago, I mean, he sort of relived his version

and it got us thinking because you were there as a wife, but also as a professional and

a working capacity, who were like, you're working for Sky, right?

And you had some professional duties to undertake as soon as the game was over.

So first of all, that's nerve wracking on its own, especially with a game in the balance

thinking about what you're going to say, what questions you're going to ask.

But how much more is there added on to when it's your husband out there betting?

I think that was probably one of the worst games for the professional and the wife line

getting really blurred.

It was a really challenging thing because my memories of that day and that game, I mean,

I think it will be the greatest one day game of cricket ever played, but I'll never ever

be able to watch it again.

I can't even watch the highlights of a couple of the balls of the super over.

It's weird.

I wasn't playing the game.

I had skin in the game, being a Kiwi and obviously having Guppy there, but there was

this really wonderful atmosphere that day and going to the ground and you'd walk past

people in Kiwis like Lane who had flown and had just landed and got there in time, Mike

Lane, that is, and arrived the game and they were just so fizzed and hyped and those are

the days when you could travel and masks were not a thing.

It was awesome and there was a contingent of Kiwis that sat in this one area of the ground

and it was actually directly above where the families were sitting and I swear they were

drowning out the rest of the poms.

It was just magnificent.

The noises they were making.

Every time they saw a Kiwi, they'd go, Laura, we've got a water in my cup and I would absolutely

turn to them and go, oh my God.

Just this overwhelming feeling of, oh my God, these boys are going to do something really

special and I've got good things to think about it because it really was and I can't

describe it.

I've never gone to a game with cricket and been so sure of a result and Guy Havout was

there and we were texting each other throughout like, is it enough, yes it's enough, I reckon

they've got, yep, no, and it was just this constant back and forth but there was never

any doubt that we were going to win.

Did we deserve it more, maybe?

They had just a great bunch of lads.

We had had a wonderful trip as a family and professionally for me, I mean any time that

you get to travel to watch cricket and talk to the players so it's such legends, I mean

what a privilege but going as a family, the New Zealand, the Black Caps had done a wonderful

job of creating this really awesome environment where it's these boys on this common journey

as are the women with their children, you know, not many people can understand what

it's really like, taking your kid on tour and trying to get him to sleep and help your

husband be the best version of himself he can be on the cricket field the next day.

So it was actually, we had such a lovely, lovely special time together and there were

a couple of howl against, sort of towards the end, one sprints of mine against England

where it was just like, ooh, there, there, but there was always this feeling that this

team could do something really special.

There was a great game against the West Indies, you might remember it came down to like the

last over.

And I was like, geez, if they can find a way to win and win ugly, surely, you know, anything

can happen.

And there was this just real feeling, oh my God, we're going to win a world cup.

It was obviously a tough tournament for Guffey, but he was really, you know, Guffey's got

an incredible work ethic and he's, you know, if it gets tougher, he works harder and I

was just so proud of the way he keeps, keep turning up and keep working hard and, you

know, keep doing all that he could feel like a demon.

Can I just say, I mean, wow, let's do it, don't need, no, but anyway, so anyway, we

had that amazing semi-final and so it was, we just felt like the meeting was at an all-time

high and you go to the game, you see these people, you hear the key weeks, you watch

it all and there were so many little things and you're like, what the hell is going on?

But at the end of the game, after the, I tell you, I just tell many people this, just before

the last ball of that super over, someone said to me, tap me on the shoulder.

I don't talk a lot during, which was a surprise, a lot of people, but particularly in Guffey's

batting.

I don't talk, I can't because I'm not sure I can really breathe much.

She's fine, I'm not, and I was holding our daughter, we already had one child at that

stage, I was holding our daughter and it was like she knew something that was going on

because everyone had sort of got very quiet.

It was quite bizarre because where the families were sat, there was the New Zealand families

and then there was a velvet rope, a red velvet rope and then the English families and we'd

all played very nice at the beginning and every clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, you know,

nicely, nicely, nicely, by the end of it, one of the English boys' mothers was standing

at the edge of the balcony, thrusting as that going, that's so smart, you're a great child,

oh, and everyone was like, I went to go inside, I had been slapping my hands on tables, smacking

the roof like it was, I mean, it was very, it was very, so at the end it was sort of

this very bizarre feeling like we wanted to cry because we felt how boys deserved it

and they'd been kind of robbed and they didn't actually lose and then you got the English

from a carrying on, like, I just can't, it was like, I don't, can't even see that, that's

so great, helping me right now, but anyway, so just before that last ball was bowled,

someone attacked me on the shoulder, one of the other partners, just before Jovracha ran

into to bowl to Gaffi and she said, it's going to be okay because good things happen to good

people and that was something that I think it might have either been Brenna McCullum

who started when he was cat-dining after the 2015 World Cup or even during, good things

happen to good people and these are a bunch of really, really good people and so you're

like, yeah, and at that time I thought to myself, I cannot believe you just said that

to me, but then I was like, you know what, she's absolutely right and I just remember

the noise, the screaming, my daughter was mortified because I was just making so much

noise and I don't, like I said in Toyota's, they say a lot and then I just remember sitting

down and it felt like everyone sat down on top of me and I was just holding hardly and

like I couldn't look up, but all you could hear was screaming and fireworks and England

went and blah, and it was just, and you're watching the English boys run around and

I can just, all I can see is Gaffi on his haunches and I'm thinking, oh my God, I don't

really know what to do here and then Colin Monroe's wife said to me, you put your head

up, we will never experience anything like this ever again, you soak it up, I know it

hurts and I'm like, okay, you're right, and then I had to wipe my face, pick my kid,

my cram, my bag, walk downstairs, walk onto the field, take Harley onto the field because

at this point no one can get anywhere because everyone has one, no English of one, and then

so no one's sort of moving so I had to take Harley onto the field, oh my God, I'm going

to have to do these interviews with her on a hip, that's fine, don't worry, you can't

take your grandma, let her miss you yet, well look at this point, I'll do whatever I like

for you, but anyway, so we got onto the field and I just remember seeing, because actually

all of the girls just, we just wanted to get to the boys because you just felt like it

needs to hug them and say it's okay, it's going to be okay, it doesn't feel it right

now, but it's going to be okay, but then we got it on the field and I interviewed, like

Jimmy was crying and Jimmy is not a hugely emotional guy, Gaffi was wide as a ghost,

and Brendan McCullum who was doing his commentary due, she came over and he's like, I don't

even know what to say, and no one did, it was this really strange feeling and I'm thinking

myself, hell am I going to ask anyone because they don't want to talk, I don't want to

talk, I would like a very large glass of something and I would like to just sit down

and have a wee cry and you know, being lucky enough to walk onto the field after something

like that happens, you know, you see the ecstasy and the agony, as Swithy said, and you know,

the English boys, a lot of them are our mates, our friends that we have, you know, through

the years, IPL teams, whatever, he's big time with, and one of them is Johnny Biesto and

Johnny Biesto is a lovely, lovely guy and he came over to me and he said, oh God, Laurie,

he said, oh, I'm just so sorry, he put his hand up and I was like, you get up, don't

worry Johnny, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is my mum and I was like, honestly, you're

not the person I want to meet either, lovely to meet you.

Man, Mrs. Biesto, lovely to meet you, they were gorgeous, they were lovely, but you know,

there was that, you know, there was just this really, it was a very, very strange thing,

it was very strange to go to work after their interview, these players, and I had to meet

Gary Steed and he said to me, it was sort of profound in this moment of just Asha chaos,

he said, maybe England just needed to win it more than we did today, and I'm like, I

don't even understand what that means, I just don't even understand what that means,

Gary, and then I walked away, but the whole thing completely stopped for me when Emirates

sponsor the ICC, Emirates are the main sponsors of the ICC Google account, so Emirates were

very, very much there, and we were standing, now I'm standing with the late Alan Henderson,

who was my producer there on the ground, and Keri Russell, who was my cameraman and both

wonderful men, and this woman all dolled up in her beautiful Emirates uniform, came over

as they're preparing to give out the medal, and she came over, she said, excuse me, and

Alan said, yes, and she said, is that your plastic bag?

And Alan said, yes, she goes, could I please have that?

And Alan said, yeah, okay, and he tipped us a couple of things out, I didn't hand her

a plastic bag, she took four steps, dropped to her knees, and just threw up in the back,

and it was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen, and then the bag had holes in it, there's

spews, all rolling down the bloody hill at Lord's, I'm like, that's, that's just too

hard, I'm not even sure what technique, so it was an interesting day, what was the question?

Yeah, there was the, what was the question, what was that, yeah, what a great, sorry,

I took a day to answer that, and I'm sorry.

No, it was a great answer, then I want to ask another question, so as a post-match

interviewer, at this stage in your career, you've already so practised at it, do you

kind of just do it off the fly, or do you have pre-prepared questions that you sort

of got a role with, and then did you have to, obviously, after the 50 overs, it looked

like we were going to win, and you sort of had a bunch of questions prepared, and then

you had to sit down again and go through it all again, is that how it plays out for you,

or do you just get out there and just based on what you've seen, and then you just go?

I think probably earlier on in my career, I was so nervous, certainly about how people

felt about my knowledge of the game, that everything was probably a little bit more

pre-prepared than this now, and now I feel very comfortable that I can watch the game,

I can absorb myself, become absorbed in the game, and go, okay, right, so I really need

to ask you whatever there, or, you know, so I probably had a, I had nothing, I had nothing

when I walked on the field, I had no idea what I was going to ask anyone, it was all

about just sort of gauging things, you know, with Jimmy being emotional, you sort of have

to, you have to ask things differently, I think I just gave him a hug first, you know,

like, you kind of, I'm lucky, I'm in a very privileged position, because I know these

players, because of, you know, Gappy, and I spent a lot of time with him, and Anne had

spent a lot of time in the six weeks build-up, so I was in a really privileged position that

I felt that, that I'd be okay to not have anything super prepared, because nothing could

prepare anyone for what happened that day, so I think, yeah, no, I don't, again, I've

forgotten the question, but no, I don't generally have too much prepared until I'm at the game,

you know, I like to talk about moments and things, you know, things that have happened

during the course of the match, as opposed to going with my pre-prepared questions.

We'll be right back after this short break.

It's obviously a double downer when things don't go well, but what about take you back

to the 2015 pretty world cup, because things did go very well for Gappy, he's the highest

run scorer in tournament, and you're there obviously working for Sky, like, when he hits

a ton, and you've nailed your sort of comms job, or your hosting, or your broadcasting

or whatever, like, is that a really special, you guys, like, we fucking nailed it to the

queue for what has come off that.

There's only one time I reckon we've ever sat down together after a game and gone,

man, I was good today, like, I don't think that's really even that much, and that was

the one time after Gappy got 180 against South Africa and Hamilton, and I was newly pregnant,

and I felt like smack baby's ass, and I was not sure I was going to be, oh, just sort

of do my job that well that day.

He had some hamstring issues and wasn't sure he was going to be able to do his, and we

got in the car to drive back to Auckland, and I was like, damn, we had a good day,

and we really did.

I didn't throw up, and you got all those runs, it was great, you won.

The 2015 World Cup was a completely different experience, being home was just awesome,

and everyone got the fever.

It was like, finally, a lot of my friends who were like, oh, this cricket thing is a

real drag, and now they were like, oh, cool, enough cricket, and I told you, I mean, I

told you for years, and obviously Gappy doing so well.

Gappy is incredibly, he's amazing the way he can keep very even through the good and

the bad, and I think that that's really what makes him so good, and people maybe don't

realise that, but he is very good at staying completely even through the good and the bad,

and I think that that helps me, not all the time though, because I'm not the most hinged

person I've ever met when it comes to watching sport, but he is amazing, so it was really

cool.

The final was completely different because you could accept losing that because you had

your arses handed to you, and we didn't deserve to win that, there's no two ways about it,

we just didn't play well enough.

In 2019, very different, very, very, very different.

I promise this whole podcast isn't going to be about your relationship.

I know that was, it was a gassy word, listen, but I would admit.

But I do have one more question.

So we're going to get into your work history and sort of your path.

I understand it when something like this, push play, cricket show, second interview was

with Martin Guptall, the man you married.

How good was that?

How good was that interview?

Yeah.

Well, see, yeah, no, obviously I was, no, it was, yeah, push play was a doozy, yeah, so

the cricket, yeah, so, yeah, my second interview was with Gappy, he's just, I mean, he has

a really great human being, and you only have talked from five minutes to figure that out.

He's just got a lovely way about him, and he made me very uneasy when I first met him,

like, but not many people, I don't get fazed by a lot of stuff, just true, I guess, nature

of what I've done in my career.

And I wasn't scared of interviewing players or, you know, coming up against anyone that

I, you know, was going to have to ask questions of, but he just made me a bit like, oh, okay,

and I'm not, that's, so he sort of came into the green room at Sky, and this is my, like

say, second cricket show, and I'm the second live television experience ever, and I somehow

decided I was going to get this up into this really weird routine where I was going to have

a can of V, I mean, I was 19, a can of V, and then brush my teeth and then go and do

my thing.

And I don't know why, I don't know why it was a thing, it was super weird.

My teeth thanked me for it, because you don't want to leave that V just sitting in there

with nothing, but, so he came into the green room, and I had my V, and I still got a bit

flustered, and then sort of, and I said, do you want a sip?

He was like, no, and I was like, I don't know, just going to brush my teeth.

I was so, even now, I'm like, I cannot believe, God, yeah, no, I mean, and three years later,

yeah, so that was there.

I don't even remember what I really asked, to be honest.

I had a producer who was quite interested in throwing things out there, randomly, like,

Laura, just check what's on the screen there and ask him about it.

And he put on this pair of, so Duffy's missing toes on one of his, he had an accident when

he was younger, and he's missing three of his toes, and the producer put up a pair of

socks that were like gloves for your toes, and I was like, I can't ask him, I'm not going

to ask that.

I'm thinking about, Mark Richardson in the end asked him, and I remember just going,

I just wouldn't, I just wouldn't, that's just not what I'm going to, so yeah, I don't

know whether it was that that got him across the line, or the V, I don't know.

Did you have a V before the ball with Guy Havelt?

Yes, but it was laced with a couple of things, I think, like, I don't think it was a straight

V.

I might have been mobile for a couple of days when you were like one away from having a heart

attack, you know?

Let's go back to Christchurch and growing up.

Now, you've spoken really passionately about your love of cricket and sport, but I understand

that probably wasn't your first love acting.

You got an acting bloke quite early, and according to Guy, you were the lead in almost every

school performance through that period of Christchurch high school history.

Apparently that would translate into real life.

No, I loved acting, and I studied performing arts when I was in school.

I always wanted to be an actress, clearly I was so pretty good because there hasn't

really gone that well, but yeah, so you're a guy, please.

Yeah, okay, yeah, at school, at high school, it wasn't just sport.

Sport was in my family's blood because of my mum's job.

My mum's a player agent, and she was looked after most of the, actually, the crusaders.

She had like the Justin Marshals and Andrew Merchant, Leo McDonald, and then in cricket,

that sort of golden era for Canterbury Cricket, she looked after a large portion of those

players.

So we were always sort of around them.

They were always at our house.

I had this amazingly bizarre upbringing where we had these extraordinary people just in

our home all of the time, which was really cool, I'm very, very lucky, when you laughed.

As a kid growing up, did you grasp?

Absolutely not.

That these were New Zealand's kind of superhero, or they were just people that worked with

your mum?

Just people that worked with my mum, and my mum is like, and I'm not just saying it's

because my mum's very good at her job, and so she's, and mum is like a nurturer first,

so anything she did, she would always involve the families.

And so the partners, and I don't think that was sort of the year before mum came along,

just purely for the fact that there wasn't really agents until mum started doing what

she did.

And I'll never forget one of the players she looked after, his wife said to me, you know,

your mum just changed everything for us because she was asking questions of the player, but

basing it on family first, and is this the right thing for your family?

And that just hadn't been questions that had been asked before.

So family meant that they came round and hung out with us as a family, and it just was the

way it was.

And, you know, I remember very distinctly this one game of cricket at Jade Stadium.

When I say sport was in my blood, my dad ran what was Jade Stadium back in the day as well.

So we would go to the games, whether it was through dad's work or mum's work, my family

holidays, we would go to the base reserve for the Boxing Day Test Matches.

I mean, watch your Matthew Sinclair get his 200 against the West Indies.

Weird.

Like, this is my childhood.

And I remember the day after a one day against India, the Black Caps won, Chris Keane's got

115, not out, he got dropped a couple of times, I think, and I remember going to the game

and watching it, and then the next day he came round.

And it was cool, you know, I was so young, cool, you got some runs, you know, good for

you, I don't even think I said anything.

But my Nana was there with us the next day, and Nana said, that was pretty good.

And he said, did you want me to sign something so you could take it to the club?

Now, my Nana was the vice president of the Kaipoi Working Meals Club.

And he just sort of said, that's super willy nilly.

And she was like, that'd be great.

And they sort of raffled it off and the club made some money and like, I mean, it was just

like Chris Keane's once turned up to our house dressed as the Easter Bunny for Easter.

And we just thought that was very normal.

So we were incredibly, incredibly lucky.

Is New Zealand such a small pool that once you establish yourself, like your mum did

as a very good player agent, I mean, you've named some of the biggest names in New Zealand

sport there.

Is it just word of mouth that she does this incredible job?

You've got to come and then, like, what did you have a big client to start with that then

filtered down to basically take over the rest of the sporting New Zealand landscape?

I, I probably think probably word of mouth.

And there's a lot of, there's a lot of agents now in the game who are very, very good as

well, but mum was sort of the first of her kind, certainly the first female.

She's just a bit of a badass moment, I think she's pretty rare, she's pretty amazing.

She's someone I massively, massively look up to.

She, yeah, I think a lot of it would have been word of mouth and Canterbury is, you know,

that was such a golden era, the Craig Willens, Nathan Estle, all of those boys, you know,

that was such a golden era.

Once one, you know, I think once this becomes easy and it was actually Martin Crow that

helped my first start.

And because my parents used to have budget rental car, budget rental car were the main

sponsors of the, I think it was the young guns even then.

So she met them and things just evolved and I don't know, you'll have to interview her

one day.

She's got a great story.

Yeah, she'd love to.

She is.

She's totally bored.

She's really good.

I felt what I was going to ask, I had another question about, I'm not even answering the

questions properly.

I'm sorry.

Well, actually, it's more about storytelling than actually asking and answering questions

is just going to get an insight, I better go and get a beat.

That's what I was going to bring up is that we spoke about these athletes that were in

and around your own and I've referenced Jason Dunn as the MC of your wedding earlier on.

But there's people like that that you were in and around as well.

I think they're like, Philip Leishman, is your Godfather?

Yeah, he is.

So he and my dad went to school either.

He and Mark and my dad's from Timaru and yeah, they all grew up together.

So we were, my parents are just magnificent people and yeah.

So we were so lucky with who we spent time with and who was in our house.

My parents were involved in the Variety Club, which is a charity organization.

My dad was really heavily involved and so you meet more and more amazing people through

that.

You know, Yolana Koucrofts, Allie Moore is still a really great friend of my mum's and

I just feel like I'm name dropping now, but yeah, no, my parents are amazing and we were

very, very lucky with the people that we got to spend time with and still get to spend

time with.

And I think that paints a picture and better understanding of kind of, I guess, how you

have evolved as a person, but what I do find interesting is that you've got these personalities

coming through the home, but it's only you that's gravitated towards more of a higher

profile career.

Your two brothers, with respect, probably a little bit of the background, your dad

as well, obviously worked around Jade Stanion, but you've sort of gravitated towards that.

What was, why do you think that might have been?

I think that the broadcasting that I have done is probably an extension of the performing

arts that I wanted to do.

I do a lot of them seeing now and that's the closest thing I get to the theatre and the

theatre was always my favourite, favourite art form, because I get a live audience and

it's really cool, it's really immediate, you know, if your jokes have worked or not.

I don't, I don't, yeah, so I don't know how that sort of, yeah, I do think it's an extension

of my acting because I'm playing the broadcasting version of Laura and I'm playing the BMC

version, the radio version, even though it's all me, you know, you just take on a slightly

different person for each one.

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't know why the boys didn't, but well, they're very, very

good public speakers, actually, ironically, both my dad, we're a very loud family, things

get very loud, it's a lot of storytelling and joke-telling and yeah, poor old guppy's

not a, not a particularly loud bloke, my God, like, that doesn't afire when he first came

to McGoldrick do, but yeah, no, I don't really know how that came to be and my mum at least,

so she's very, very, doesn't like, like, she'll be mortified, I've seen any of this stuff

because she likes to very much be the, the, sort of quietly, quietly, she's very happy

just to do a job, she doesn't, you'll, you'll not find many photos or what, you won't find

any interviews with her, she just doesn't, it's just not, it's not in her nature, she's

not showy, I must have got, I must have got her there, aren't I lucky, aren't you lucky,

love us.

She might be quite hard to pin down for between two beers, that, she might, she might be busy

or babysitting or, yeah, we'll be right back after this short break, but before we, before

we leave acting though, when you have go acting chops, where side you are in, how much truth

for the Shulman Street?

I was in Shulman Street, but I was only here for a couple of episodes, it wasn't, it was

pretty dramatic, I was a girl that Hunter liked at medical school, and I know what you're

thinking, look at her, of course she's been to medical school, I mean, I pulled it off

with her below, but, yeah, no, I don't know how that, yeah, Shulman Street, it was good

fun, it was a hell of a place to learn because there's so many cameras at so fast pace, and

it was sort of like my first television gig at like that, and then I was like, wait,

I think I can do it again, I think I should do it again, they're like, no, no, I've got

to move on, I've got to move on, and you're like, okay, I'm done, okay, great.

There was one other entry in your Ram and FlamDB page, which was an appearance on that.

Ram and FlamDB page?

Yeah, and the late show with Stephen Colby here, when he invested, you said you did it,

now that you did a segment with DJ Forbes and Penny Withard, did you spend a day with

him, what was your lecture of Stephen?

The whole thing was just absolutely wild, so it was part of this New Zealand Tourism

campaign, Jacinda had invited him out, I don't know why I'm talking about her on a first

hand basis, I'm here every day on my television, so I just feel like it's okay to do that.

The Prime Minister had advised him out when she went on the late show, he came out and

yeah, so we were going to teach him how to rugby, that was the premise for the segment.

He was being cubified while he was here, and so we went down to Wanaka, and we went to

a beautiful rugby club there, and I remember we had to get up super early, and it was me,

Penny, DJ, it was just us, and a couple of the other people that were driving us and

stuff, and I was doing my makeup in the middle of the tour with him, because I'm not a bizarre

leave, and I've done a lot of briefings around, I'm not a morning person, I'm just not good

at moving quickly, so in the car I built the, but he's like, would it be good, how

cool have I bumped your elbow, and I'm like, God damn, this is my chance to make it in

America.

So we arrived, and then we went into the club rooms, and everyone just sat down and just

waiting until Stephen Colbert was to arrive, and then his posse was friggin massive.

He brought a camera crew over, I reckon there was 120, I mean, bear in mind this is going

to be a four minute segment, if that, probably 120 people, there was Wardrobe, I mean the

man wears a suit, Wardrobe, my hair and makeup, have you seen what he looks like, hair and

makeup, didn't touch me, I wasn't allowed to get my hair and makeup, I had to do it myself.

What else do they have?

So they had a DOP, they had the camera crew, they had soundies, lighting, all of these

people they had brought catering, I think they managed to hire in New Zealand, which

was great.

Unfortunately, I was like, I just couldn't eat, do you want to wipe that petty, no personally,

I mean, I love a wipe that petty, but I'm not going to breathe, wipe that petty all

over this bloke, I'm fine to just take you back to America with them, so I'm just going

to like, wipe that on the wipe that petty, but thank you so much.

So we waited, and then we were told someone stood up in front of us and said, everyone

must exit the club rooms because Mr Colbert is about to arrive, and it was like, and I'm

like, I, and like, because they had some local, some of the local rugby teams come out because

they were going to use them to teach them how to do a line up, whatever.

And everyone was like, what, what are you me, they're like, no, we're going to, you need

to get us, you know, Mr Colbert is on his way, so we're just getting everyone to move

out of the club rooms, and you can come back in just a minute, if there's anything you

need to grab, take it with you, because you can't come back until Stephen is ready to

go.

Really good at scene, by the way, really good at scene.

Drama school paid to these, but just a smidge, it was kind of like, right, and then I forgot

my phone and a lip gloss, because, you know, God forbid I didn't have a lip gloss, and

I said like, not big, I thought I was going to get in trouble, and we all had to stand

outside, it was plenty freezing, and, and everyone was just sort of waiting, he arrived,

there were three mini buses that arrived, he was in the middle one, I don't know, he

had all the security, he had all this very shiny sort of suit and shoes on, and I was

like, you're going to get so dirty, so like, thank you to myself, and then we were allowed

back in the club rooms, and then we started, and he was like, he was very lovely, he had

a, he had a guy that read the script, so he would, he would have notes, we finished,

and he was lovely, got selfies, I mean, God, if he didn't get a selfie, did it really happen,

he was very lovely in that regard, and, and, and all of this stuff, and all of the producers

that came out were all so lovely, and everyone's finished, and we had to drive straight to the

airport, and we'd drive to the airport, and bizarrely, after all these goodbyes, and thank

you, and it was so great to meet you, oh my God, you guys are wonderful, it's going to

be hilarious, don't worry about it, we arrived at the airport at the exact same time, and

he took a chopper, and we drove, and we go into the Coral Lounge, and they have put,

there's like blue velvet rope around one couch, and a table, cupboard and cheese, this little

area, which is right beside where we are sitting, so he is, he is as close to me as, as my kitchen

sink is beer, and, and it was sort of like, oh he's supposed to just talk to them, talk

to them, we're just, we're going to hold to all of them, or just everyone, and Petty was

like, oh he's supposed to talk to them, but she wouldn't do it, like now it's too obvious,

like we can't move, and we're all just sitting here, and people weren't allowed to go over

to him, you know, but the funniest thing was, as it was very obvious with the, the ball

yards of the velvet thing, this bloke, I heard come into the Coral Lounge, he goes, the bloody

hell is that guy doing, and like no one really knew who he was, because if you don't follow

late night America television, you're not going to know who he is, but it was just, I honestly,

it was hilarious, it was like something out of a movie really, it was Barry and Kiwi,

but I loved it.

So good, I love, we could just probe away, I had no idea that story was coming.

Oh sorry, no I had no idea, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

Before, like I said, obviously not that starstruck with Stephen Colbert, let's say, slightly

different the footage I saw of you meeting Nick and Markle.

Yeah, you know, that is embarrassing.

I'm a massive royalist, like it's just so, I have such great memories of my mum, my

nana and I watching, you know, Diana's, when Lady Diana, when Princess Diana died, that

was my first where was I moment, when I, no, I was at my auntie Theresa's house in Uncle

Warner, we heard it on the radio, and she hadn't died at that point, but Doty Elf I

had had, and 23th Street, Topol, if you wonder, I was a drive there, I was at 23 Katari Street

in Topol on the driveway of Malcolm Nensie's house when I, and how did you hear over the

radio?

I think my mum came and told me, I remember my mum just being devastated, like it was

just devastation, and I was devastated because I loved looking at the pictures that mum and

her magazines and a woman's day had, and I just, and nana and we had the tea towels and

the cups, and oh my God, I have a cup, I have a, Charles and it's up, like it's too high,

I need guppy or a ladder, but I have it, because now we can touch it, I'm saving it for when

like really poor people go, and it's, it's actually probably because it's Diana and Charles

marriage cup, but anyway, we've got the China, so I loved William and Harry always sort of

maybe secretly thought God, I hope they're like cricket and mum can find a way for me

to meet them and maybe marry one of them, I would be a great princess, and that didn't

obviously transpire, but yeah, at that stage Megan had turned into, whatever the hell she's

turned into now, she was like, oh this is awesome, like the, for the royal family to

keep going, they need someone who's a little bit different, what they currently have got

going on in the royal family, she's gonna be a breath of fresh air, she's gonna, she

is not, that was, she was all of the things that I thought she would, she just was very

disappointing, but so yeah, I lost my, completely lost my, it was no, I was embarrassing, I

was super embarrassing meeting her, like that was

My favourite part of that clip though, was you saying, Jacinda and I both had babies,

no, it sounded like we were a couple and we had just had a child together, because Jacinda

had come again, there I go, great night, and we, she, I had interviewed her through work

at the year old, and, and had done this thing about, you know, women in power, and to be

with her, so we had like quite an in-depth conversation with her, and we talked about

having babies and stuff, and so like I was like cool, but she comes past and she's walking

with them, so I've waited for like two hours at the Viaduct to see, ironically, I only

really wanted to see, Harry, just to sort of say, hey look, I love a ginger, she ate

everything, I'm for yours, um, no, but I never saw her, I was so flabbergasted at seeing

her, I just birched at myself, like I was not cool, anyway, so Jacinda comes down first

and she goes, oh my god, Laura, what are you doing here, and I was like, I, what is it,

what do you mean, what am I doing here, I'm here to meet Harry and Megan, and be their

friend, I don't know, and she's like, would you like me to take a photo, and I was like,

it's a friggin' lonely, I want you to take a photo, this is the most bizarre day of my

life, please take my phone, and I, you know, I just had a kid, so there's a lot of photos

of my baby in there, here's my phone, and if you could take a photo, that'd be great,

and she came, look, Megan comes along first, I don't even know where Harry was, and the

girl, Juliet, who I was with, is one of my producers in radio, had a bunch of flowers,

and she'd gone to Great Lakes to get wedding flowers and stuff, I hadn't done any of that,

I was just there, and she was talking through the flowers, and Megan and Jacinda goes,

Megan would just turn around and go, that's just, whatever she was there, but would you

just turn around and I'll just get a photo with you, and she goes, oh, do you guys,

is this, and I was like, oh, we just, we just had a baby, and it just sort of fell out,

and then Jacinda, like, with this look of tear shot, goes, we didn't just have a baby,

and I was like, no, no, no, so, and then I start getting really high pitched and a bit

squeaky, and you can see all the veins on my neck, and I can't breathe, I go all red,

and people are staring, and I'm declaring that I had a child with the Prime Minister,

and I just want Megan to be my friend, and she's just now, she's everywhere, I was the

most uncalled version of myself I have ever been, like, even worse than the V situation

with Gaby, like, not joke, it was so mortified, and what was more mortified is that it's

on video, and people have seen it, and people will continue to watch it, because it will

hurt me for the rest of my life, because I criticize Megan more than I care to tell

you, so everyone's like, yeah, but you lost your, oh, when you read it, totally did, totally

did.

Yeah, well, we'll link it in the show now.

Please don't.

I'd rather you link it in the Gaby interview.

Is that, can we find that?

I was looking for it.

I couldn't get it.

I thought Gaby's was back in the day when it was a long time ago, I couldn't get it.

Let's work through your work career, we sort of spoke about you wanting to be an actress,

but then you sort of found your feet on the cricket show, and you were amazing with your

cricket knowledge and your broadcast talent.

Did you realize during the cricket show that you were actually very good at this, and you

saw a future, and did you think that where you are today was somewhere where you could

get to in those early days?

No, I really didn't.

I didn't know I was any good at all.

I'd always watched the game with great intense, because my brothers played, my brothers were

very good, and I loved watching them, I'd do some scoring every now and again.

I love everything that cricket stands for, I love everything I represent, I love that

I would go to watch my brother play club cricket, and everyone knows your name, and your high

five, and you bring some morning tea, or some afternoon tea, and then you do a bit of scoring,

and you have a chat, and then you have a beer after the game.

Just the whole thing, it's always been a part of my life, obviously going to the games as

well with mum and dad, and then my brother's a huge question asker, so they would talk

to a lot of the players that we would have at our house, and we would hear these stories,

and I would get more and more invested, and understand more and more about the game.

I probably remember really strange things, like when Chris Harris was playing T-Session

India, and he took his helmet off and shundered, like I remember stuff like that, and maybe

not always the stats that my brothers did, but I would remember that, so we worked together

and turned that I had this really bizarre, cricketing knowledge.

I didn't know I had the knowledge until I was forced to use it, which was cool, which

was exciting.

It was like a little thing that surprised a lot of people.

I did feel pressure, though, to prove to a lot of people that I did know my stuff, and

I did know enough about the game, to be talking about it, but I've never declared or said

that I'm an expert, and that I just love the game, and so that will always be the basis

of all my questions being asked, because I love the game.

I want to know X, Y, Z.

It's not because I'm better than you are, it's because, or I think I know better than

you do.

It's just because I love the game, and I want to know more about it.

So I think that that was a nice point of difference for me at that point in time, that I just

wanted to learn more about the game, and I still want to learn more about it.

I asked Guffie a lot about the game.

I'm not scared to ask his teammates.

So no, I didn't realise that this would ever be something that I could eventually do.

But I thought it was, to be honest, when it first started, I was like, oh, this is just

a good opportunity.

I'll just take this opportunity.

I had to audition for it.

I interviewed Shane Bond on Push Play, and I sounded apparently quite knowledgeable.

I don't remember what he talked about.

I sounded quite knowledgeable about the game, apparently, and producer at Sky rang Shane

and said, could I talk to the person who interviewed you?

She seemed to know his stuff, and he said, actually, my agent's daughter, would you

like my agent's phone number?

So I went and auditioned, and I'd never used an auto queue.

I'd never used an earpiece.

I didn't know anything about live television or everything I did on Push Play was sort

of pre-recorded, and it was all very, I don't know, I was for kids.

So you talk differently, I suppose, to kids that you do to adults, I'm not sure.

So I never envisaged that this would be a pathway I went down, but once I got a taste,

I wanted more, and I wanted to, I realised that this was something that I could actually

do.

I loved it.

I loved working on live sport.

I was talking about cricket with people that obviously played the game, or, you know, even

like comedians like Ben Hurley used to come on the cricket show with me a lot, and I just

really enjoyed the banter with him, and I loved this, and I was like, can this really

be a job?

Could this be something I could do, my God.

And then I was like, okay, well, if this is what TV's like, this is like, what's radio

like?

I've always been interested in that, and so I went to Radio Live, what was Radio Live

that then, and I was doing outrageously bizarre hours, and late nights, whatever I could do,

whatever people needed, because I hadn't gone to broadcasting school, I needed to learn,

and I was prepared to do whatever it took, so one day someone was sick, and I read the

news for them, and then I just started getting more gigs like that.

So everything's just sort of evolved up, and very lucky that when the opportunities have

presented themselves, I've been ready, or maybe not been ready, but I've backed myself

enough to have a good crack at it, and things have eventuated, and I've been so lucky I've

worked with some incredible people along the way.

I just never could have seen it going this way, but I like to work hard, and I like to

prove people wrong, and I like, I don't know, I just love my job, I love my job, I'm very,

very lucky.

And you're very good at it, kind of, to say, yeah.

Oh, that's right.

Well, you'd have to say that, because we're...

No, I don't know.

But as at Sky, as you're working your way, I mean, you get the biggest gigs in the game

now, like hosting the Olympics coverage is pretty much as big as it gets, I mean.

But on your way up, when you're getting these bigger and bigger gigs, and the live gigs,

was there any moments where you were really shitting yourself, thinking, holy shit, I've

got the whole country here watching me sort of thing, and were there any moments of real

nerves?

Well, then I'm saying like a dickhead, no, because I am always as prepared as I can be

when I go to do it.

I don't leave any room for error, so I know exactly, even though I might have a script

in front of me, I know it off my heart, I know where I'm going next, I know what I've

got to throw to, I know if someone's not going to turn up, or someone passes out midway through,

I know what I'm going to say, I know where I'm going to get it, so I love that my job

is steering the ship, I'm not Cain Williamson, and I did not mean to make it sound like I

have anything to do with it, but that is just, as the anchor, as the broadcaster, that's

my role, and I love that, and I love the feeling of it live, and it's funny, you know, if I

go back to the question you asked about when Guff and I have good days, it always makes

me laugh, because I don't really talk about my job a lot to a lot of people, it's easier

to talk about Guff's jobs, because it's easier to see what it's gone well for him, but for

me, he'll be doing his Walmart's behind me, and I'm steering the ship that is the first

half an hour of an ODI, and I've got counts, I've got people counting in my ear, and I've

got to get to hear, and we've got to get to world pictures, and I've got to hit my numbers,

and when I get them, I'm like, here you are, here you are, but no one would know that,

everyone's out there doing something, you know, crushed it, crushed it over here, I don't

need anyone else to know that, I know that, but I love that, I find it really thrilling,

every time I get it right, it just makes me want to get it right more and more and more,

you know, so no, I don't get nervous, there was probably a couple of times early on that

I did certainly get nervous, there was one occasion where my godfather, I think did the

last Cricket Awards, the New Zealand Cricket Awards, and then I took over, or there might

have been one year that you were younger, and then I took over, and have done it ever

since, that's what I keep doing, and that was the only time I was a little bit nervous,

I was like, well, I don't want to be compared to my, my fill, like I just, and not too

completely for broadcasters, but I was really lucky that I had still, when I first started,

like he was super proud that I sort of had gone down this broadcasting route that he'd

done and done so well, and I remember like just picking his brains constantly, the poor

guy, about being in broadcasting, what it was like, and what I need to do, and how I

would be better, and really annoying, and he just said to me, you just need to remember

that it's a real privilege to be invited into somebody's living room, even if they're

just watching dinner and you're on the background, it is a privilege to be invited into somebody's

living room, and I've always told myself that, and that's, you know, I want to do the

best because I love that I'm in, I'm just hanging out with someone, is that getting

ready to have their taca, and a beer, and watch the Cricket, or watch the Hellberg

Awards, or whatever it is, and I, so I'm always very, very aware of how lucky I

am to do what I do.

We'll be right back after this short break.

I caught a glimpse during the Olympic coverage of a moment, which I can imagine is probably

the hardest thing a broadcaster has to do.

It was a live coverage, and it was Goran doing, he was waiting to throw to the David

Nica fight, and for whatever reason, it was delayed, so he was hosting it by himself,

he was waiting to throw, and the minutes seemed to go forever, it was like three, four, five

minutes, and he did a really good job, like treating water, you could tell that he didn't

have a lot to use, there was like these Instagram posts that kept coming out, and he kept going

back to it, but I'm thinking, poor guy, that must be the hardest thing ever, by yourself,

on the spot trying to think of new stuff to say, not knowing when you're actually going

to be able to throw to the live feed, can I jump in, did you have to do that for the

Valerie Adams Gold Middle Ceremony, Beth and Wilkin?

That took so long, so is this about the ANZ one?

Yeah.

So there was, when Dane Valerie came second, and then she tested positive, and they took

the gold offer and gave it to Valerie, we had a remiddling ceremony that ANZ were the

main sponsor and host of, and they had it at the cloud, and my job was to do the television

coverage, John Hawksby was doing the inside, the cloud coverage of Dane Valerie accepting

your award, and I don't know what happened, but there was just zero communication, like

there was no, I had no idea how long I had to treat water until I had to throw, and neither

did anyone else, it just, sometimes that happens, and I had no earpiece, but I just kept going,

I think, I think, we're just moments away, so I'm going to say with us, let's just have

a wee, my favourite moments of the, and I reckon I was there for a good 12 minutes,

and I still, with Sue, who is one of the wonderful women who works at ANZ, and we still laugh

about that, well, if worse comes to worse, I'll just put a finger in my ear and puke

or something, it's talking to me, like, because it was a, it was a, great, great story, it's

great now, at the time, and so you're cacking myself, because I was like, I, I, I, I have

said so many different numbers, I'm not sure where we are now, I don't, spy works, oh my

god, but it was a wild success, Dave Valerie got it, I mean, also, that was all that mattered.

But like, like, like that gardening's out there, is that, when, when it finally happens

and the camp was cut away, is it like a, what the fuck just happened there, are you breaking

character and going, what, does someone fucking saw this, oh, literally.

Well, there's not much you can do when it comes to the Olympics, because there's obviously

a lot of moving parts, and with COVID, particularly, there were so many protocols and stuff that

the athletes had to go through, before they were allowed to either start their event, or

get to their medal ceremony.

So there's only a certain chance you can go over it, but yeah, you do, I mean, I certainly

had, I think there was one I had where I cried all the time, like the Olympics, what a nightmare

I am, the very emotional sports watcher.

And I think it's because I've had children as well, and I see it firsthand, when it goes

good, when it goes bad, the work that goes in behind the scenes, so I have this real

empathy with athletes, because I, you know, I get to see, and again, another privileged

position where I get to see the hard work and whether it goes well or doesn't, it's

like heartbreak, if it doesn't, but you know, if it does, you're, oh God, all the pain,

suffering, tear, driving them to care of fear, oh my God, you know, like, oh, tear, so I

was a nightmare.

So there was literally times where it would just be me on screen, go to others.

That's a second, I'm just gonna, whoo, and that Dane Vow, whoa, two kids, okay, she hasn't

seen them in months, no, I'm good, wow, wow, good, that's good, that's good for our daughters

to see that, you know, like, and there's definitely a face after you come up and you go, what the

hell did I just say, did the occasion that you go, I'm not sure for the last nine minutes

what I have just talked about, but it was like, no, I was out of the right, and you

go, oh thank God, oh God, but yeah, no, you do have the odd, I think Gorin, yeah, Gorin

was sensational, but again, that's just being super prepared and knowing all your, you know,

having notes and knowing all the athletes, and that's where all the league week that

you put in before the Tournamental, you know, starts that you could draw on, and then you

can also talk about it from, you know, as a sports fan, what you loved about it or what

like with Dane Baller, it was certainly easy to talk about that because, you know, you

look at her and you're like, wow, my God, I couldn't even time my own shoes six months

after having my first child, and she won Silver at the Comm Games, now she's won Bronze

after a year after the Olympics, you know, so I was, yeah.

I don't know if you were, but were you on here when Emma tweaked one goal?

Goal, cool, I was a miss, I was an absolute miss, yeah, I was, I was, I was very lucky

to be on here for her, Emma's a wonderful athlete, she's a super athlete, and I'm very

lucky, got to talk about how lucky I am, I am incredibly lucky.

I started working with Emma in 2012 for her second Olympic campaign with A&Z, A&Z have

sponsored her since then, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't sponsor me miss, they are

now, and can you, I'll just go get my polo, hold on, so I was very lucky, I was working

on that campaign, and met Emma, and talked a lot to her, and you know, she was high

hopes and everyone, you know, because it was her, Hamish and Eric, you know, what could

possibly go wrong, and unfortunately for Emma, not much went right on that final race, and

then I remember, sort of the next, the build-up to the next games, and she's like, you know,

this one, this one, this one, and then I had to go on interview where she retired, and

she said to me, and Christchurch airport just before this lockdown happened, and we welcomed

the first lot of the Olympians out of MIQ with A&Z, and Emma said to me, we were talking,

we were just having a cup of tea, and she said, I remember in 2015, 16, after Rio, watching

you, me, on the A&Z bus, driving to the cloud with Blair and Pete, and their medals, and

you taking a selfie with them, and I remember being so devastated, because that should have

been me, that should have been me every year, since I met you for these Olympic games, that

we should have had a selfie together with me with a gold medal, and today we can finally

get that medal, and I looked off for the love of God, I've got that selfie, it's really

good, I'm a little teary in her.

She's awesome, we had her on before the Olympics, and I think Stephen and I were at different

places when that race was on, and she won gold, we messaged each other afterwards, and

I was like, man, so emotional for her, having heard that story, that you get to experience,

I mean you've referenced it a number of times, how lucky you are, but you do get the privilege

of being close to some of these people, and then sharing in that emotion by having a personal

connection, it's a pretty awesome thing.

I could never have in my wildest dreams imagined or hoped for what I get to do and how I get

to do it, and I'm a chatter by nature, so I'm lucky if those who want to talk to me,

I'm like all ears, and I just love hearing other people's stories of how they became

these inspiration, and Emma is, I mean, I just can't think of a better role model for Kiwi

kids, even adults, you know, at first you don't succeed, which gets your ass up and you keep

going until you win that gold medal if that's what you really want, and she is just living

proof that that is the thing that you can do, and I just think that's so bad ass, fantastic.

Moving over back into Radio Land, we are big fans of the Matt and Jerry show, we're part

of the AC Senior, but we're also big fans of the Matt, Jerry and Laura show.

Finally, someone called.

How did that come about?

How was there an audition process for that job?

I was working as a what?

You were already holding call, we did them before that?

Yeah, so actually the boys needed my go, actually, no, I've never been to a audition

where I've gone, yeah, no, I was at MediaWorks and I was reading the news for J.J.

Mike and Dom, and someone came over from NZ means, would you come over and do Hodaki

with Martin Debbon?

And so I did, I came and I was sort of his co-host and he was reading there, and then

Debbon moved to Radio Sport and Matt and Jerry, they were sort of thrown in there, no, no,

they weren't done.

There was a process where I think we did one audition that was, I think it got really

rude real quick and he was like, it's quite funny, so they are just the loveliest lads.

I loved working with them, they were such great fun, they were really sensational, yeah.

I imagine you've got a lot of stories.

One of them we wanted to try to get out of you was, it seems like there was a lot of

things back then that wouldn't fly these days, and like, what do you mean?

What was the no sleep till breakfast, well, was it, I think it was the catalyst for me

actually leaving, but no, no sleep till breakfast was a, I can't, it was a, I remember, I knew

it'd be so good in the old post-show meetings, it's sort of not off of it, and the boys

would sort of get on their tangents and come up with these great plans and I'd think to

myself, my god, how am I going to get away with this?

And this one they came up with, and it was the idea that they would not sleep from break

to show to break to show, so that power through, I was supposed to be powering through as well,

any means necessary to get through to that next break for show.

And I flaked, we had one day where we, I think we might have done it, no we only did it once,

I only did it once with them, I had a drink with them during the second one.

The first, we went to Waikiki for lunch, and then the boys told me to a strip club, and

then I had to do a cross with Mikey Havoc who was then on drive, and one of my proudest

radio moments was, was, Mikey had asked me to sort of talk him through who the talent

was on the, on Pulse, Pulse C, at like two o'clock on a, on a, on a Thursday, so that

was, I was super glad my grandmother wasn't listening to me.

And then we, so I think we might have hit up a couple of strip clubs, and then we ended

up at Lee Hart's house, and I left there, my mum came and picked me up, and I left

there, I want to say about 11, I was like, this is, you know, this is just, and to be

fair, look, women don't necessarily get away with things like that, as well as men do,

you know what I mean?

Like, people go, oh, she shouldn't be, she's a married woman.

So I was, I was grateful, I went over a lot of reasons, I like sleep, and anyway, so next

morning I arrived, very, I was scared, I, I was scared of what I was gonna, and I was

scared of what was gonna happen, and I was scared that no one was gonna turn up, but

turn up they did, turn up they did.

Matt Heath was wearing Lee Hart's wife's fur coat, Jeremy had gone out in this beautiful,

beautiful, I think this, either his shoes were Prada, or his suit was Prada, but he

was beautiful, he was immaculately dressed, as, as he, as he often is, and, yeah, so Matt

was wearing the fur, Jeremy was wearing the suit, I don't know if Jay Reeve had pants

on, Lee was definitely there, I offered to make a cup of tea and nobody wanted one,

I do recall that, and it was one of the more interesting shows I've ever been a part of.

Yeah, I remember listening to it as it was progressing, and to the slurred sloppiness

of Matt Heath in particular, I was like, man, that's so, like, they're gonna do that,

that's nice.

I mean, what a, what a, what a, when we talk about luck and privilege, the privilege was

all mine to be a part of it, can I just say.

Slightly different vibe when you move to the hits, I mean.

What a funny, what a funny, what a funny, what a funny, and, yeah, no, it was slightly different,

it was slightly different, probably more family-orientated.

You did the all-sleep until breakfast, yeah, all-sleep, sleep at nine, right through, and

the only time you were up during the night was because of your children, there was never

anything else, but it's just, it was just like a natural progression for me, I guess,

in my career, and having kids, it was easy to talk about kids, because, you know, what

it can be like, you know, you have your babies, and then, well, you do talk about them a lot,

and so it was easy, and the hits was awesome, and I'm very lucky to be a part of it.

That's why we started the podcast, so I could stop Stephen from giving me kid chat, it was

zero interest.

Does it really, does it really hurt you, because I was going to send you photos, but if you

don't...

No, no, no, no.

Yeah, you're cool.

You can deal with it.

I can deal with it.

Laura, I wanted to talk to you about some of the more difficult moments as well.

I understand being a woman in a sort of male-dominated field comes with its challenges.

Are there any instances that stick out, or particularly tough moments, you can remember,

whether it be on the boundary of the black caps, or sort of feedback you've been getting,

which really sort of shook you or tested you?

I would be definitely lying if I said there hadn't been stuff that had tested me over

the years, and it shocks me that it still happens.

I still get a lot of stuff said or thrown at you or written on social media.

There was a couple of instances that really got to me, a couple of times I bit back, where

I probably shouldn't have.

A lot of occasions where I've read the comments when I shouldn't have.

I have developed a thicker skin now, and unfortunately that is part of my duty, and I now come under

that umbrella of women who had to put up with crap from men to do what she loved as a job,

and I don't love that.

It's sort of once I had a daughter, I will never let them, or what they say, or how they

treat me affect me enough to change my mood or really get on top of me, because some of

the stuff that gets yelled out, but to really affect me, because it shouldn't happen, and

I hope to God things start to change soon, so when my daughter decides to do it, or if

she wants to go into a field where it's mainly males, that she doesn't have to put up with

any of the crap I have, I think people underestimate how hard it has been to get to this point in

my career.

I just haven't said anything, you just get on with it.

There are many moments where, like how do you respond when you get some bad, someone

says someone truly shocking, or you hear something in the crowd, do you just sort of shut down,

or are you confrontational, do you go up and present something?

Probably depends what day you got me on.

For the longest time I would just put my head down and keep walking.

A couple of times I got older and slightly more established and more confident in what

I was doing, that I would turn around and go, okay, come over here and say that right

to my face then.

It's always interesting once they think that you're not going to say anything, reply, and

then all of a sudden they do, and they're in front of their mates, and it's all very

embarrassing for them, but you don't really want to give it the time of day as well.

There's been a couple of occasions, mainly around obviously having children that has

affected, or not affected me, but just really ticked me off, that I have said something.

I remember there was this one occasion, and I had my daughter in October, and it was working

on a one-day international at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, which was my home route,

and I'm super proud of Hagley Oval.

I think it's the best cricket ground in the country.

I had my baby girl there, and she's six weeks old, and walking around the boundary.

I'd just done my first cross, like, yeah, girl, you got your baby in the pavilion with

your mum.

You're about to go and breastfeed it.

You can just float back there.

You had a C-section.

You're an absolute agony, but here we are, and I had this like moment where I was like,

yeah, girl, yeah.

And then as I walked around, someone yelled out to me, did you have the baby, or did you

eat the baby?

That was one way to have everything, you know, just sort of, and you're like, wow, you just

have no idea.

You just have absolutely no idea.

Like, here I am, like walking around, you have no idea that I am, and, you know, I'm

hurting this, you know, like, you just, not emotionally, but like physically, because

I have to.

But I'm like, you just don't understand what it's taken for me to get to this point,

and you think you're being funny by saying that.

And there's been a couple of those when we first announced I was pregnant as well, you

know.

I mean, you know, some of the comments, I mean, you can only imagine what they say,

I'm a girl, I married a cricketer and the team.

Yeah, what is the strategy now, you just don't, just shut off the comments, you go on social

media, yeah.

Yeah, there's been a couple of times where I've maybe, I don't know how to answer that,

something like, absolutely loser.

Yeah, no, I do switch off the comments, I don't read the comments anymore.

It's best not to, it's best, my blood pressure not to, just get angry, I just get annoyed

because you're like, God damn it, man, I don't come to your work and yell at you.

I do not come to your work and tell you what I think of what you're wearing, or come to

your work and tell you who I think that you'll put where and what.

I just don't do that.

And I don't know why you think you have the right to do that to me.

And that's probably the thing that annoys me most.

And it only, I just, I have to switch, I have switched off, I'm better at switching

off now.

But, you know, I had a lovely producer who's just recently moved to TVNZ and he worked

as a cabler for Sky and he said to me, my whole, I never could understand how you could

stand there and do your job with what you get yelled at you.

You're standing there talking about the weather or, you know, the cricket or you're into being

a player and there are just these grown men who probably have daughters at home yelling

that stuff at you.

He said, I just never realised how bad it was and I'm so sorry that it happened to you.

And that was a really sad moment for me that this young lad who's coming, he's, you know,

he's 22 years old, he's coming through trying to work in television.

He was just, you know, shocked at what was happening and these are, these are seriously

grown men that think it's okay to yell that.

So it's been trying, it's been, it's been an interesting journey, but here we are.

And there's obviously levels of abuse and then there's levels of abuse, right?

So you've been, there were recent reports, the last click, you know, when the New Zealand

cricket tour of Pakistan got, got called off and your name was linked in these reports

suggesting that you got some emails sort of with threats.

Is there anything you're able to say about that?

All I can really say is that I did receive some threats and I went through the proper

channels and that was before the tour had even started and before anyone of them got

on a plane and they were not the reason that the, the tour was cancelled by any stretch

of the imagination.

I think things changed pretty fast once they got over there.

That was, that was scary.

You don't like reading some of the stuff that you said.

I'd be lying if I said I haven't had, we as a family haven't had that in the past.

Wow.

And so yeah, that's, there's not really much else I can say that's exciting or interesting

or anything there, it just, it's just, it's what it is, unfortunately.

I mean, have you received stuff like that, are you, are you tense whenever Guppy goes

away?

I mean, I guess there's a game, let's, to Stephen's point, there's levels of places

that you go, but you know, the world is the world now and people get to go everywhere.

So is there an element of, I don't really want you to go on this tour, right?

That's just the job and it's got to be done.

All that's is, that's his job and New Zealand Cricket, one of their jobs is to protect the

players and look after them and they have their processes, their security processes.

And you know, Guppy felt really safe when he landed in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Cricket Board and the government took really good care of them and he felt

really safe and was really excited to play cricket over there.

I mean, how cool to be a part of that.

Some of those young Pakistani boys never played a game at home and he was going to be a part

of that.

He talked about that a lot as a couple, how cool that was, but you know, things change

and you can only do what you can do with the information that you get given and that's

exactly what New Zealand Cricket did.

And they do a good job of looking after the players.

So we trust New Zealand Cricket and that's all you can do.

And then in terms of your position amongst other partners of other players, are you often

– are they seeking your counsel when they're new into the team and dealing with some of

these things themselves?

So are you the unofficial team captain of – oh, God, no, no, there's no unofficial

team.

Watch, captain.

It doesn't – not that I'm a world.

We – I mean, we – it's great to have a collective bunch of women who understand

exactly what sort of – what you're going through when you spend a lot of time on your

own and if you've got kids and you're doing it on your own so your husband can follow

their dream or your partner can follow their dream.

So in that regard, we have got a – there's a harem of women that have a WhatsApp group

and we, you know, check in with each other and stuff, but New Zealand Cricket, you know,

like I said, look after us and make sure we're in the loop in the voice.

Do a good job of that.

We're lucky to see, you know, your WhatsApps and Vibers and all those other things.

So we're constantly in contact so we know what's going on and, yeah, there's a few

of us who have been around a little while now, my God, and we, you know, I had some

very great mates out of this, which is cool.

Beauty of the Longhorn podcast, eh?

We can just transition from strippers in the middle of the day, the death threats that

–

I know.

Yeah, that's just – we are covering ground.

This is –

We won't take you too much longer.

There are a few other areas I do want to touch on.

MCN, seems like you are the go-to MC.

It seems like – and from what I've seen, you absolutely nailed it.

You talk about being so prepared for, you know, sort of sky sports stuff.

If you – a corporate company reaches out, says that we want you to MC our gig, what's

your process of where do you go from there?

How do you plan the night?

How much effort do you put into what you've got to say?

Or at this point, is it kind of just quite easy?

Bear in mind that I'm at the start of my MC journey as well, so I'm going to be taking

very close notes.

Okay, so what you need to do straight away is you need to find out the whole sole purpose

of the night.

I do a lot of charity MC events, which I love.

So the purpose of the night is very easy.

You want to make money.

While people have a good time, some of them have too much of a good time and spend more

money than they might have initially thought they were going to that night.

And so it's all about, you know, like why you're there, what you need to talk about,

the key messages that you need to get out.

And then people, I mean, nights out are getting rarer and rarer because of what's going on

in the world.

So you want to make sure that you're attending a really, really good time.

And that generally is the consensus of the people who are planning the event as well.

So I do my prep in that regard.

I talk a lot to the client, whoever it is, and find out what, yeah, the hope is the

goal of the night and go from there.

I do quite a lot of prep, I write a script after I get some of the key messages that

they want.

And I don't always stick to the script.

Sometimes I'm either really funny that night and people are getting it and they're digging

it, or they are not.

And it's like, we'll just stick to your nesting, just going to get through and that's on it.

That's awesome.

Shae, I'm just looking at my notes here.

Any other things you wanted to take up?

You mentioned Hady Oval just before.

How special was it to host into BMC, to host the opening of the 2015 Cricket World Cup

at your home ground?

Was that an?

I was really rare.

It was such a highlight in my career.

It was cool.

I loved it.

I got to start with Metangerie as well.

I'll tell you a secret about that.

Nice.

God, I've only had one last shampoo and it was one of those bougie little bottles as well

that I got on a hamper and I don't know how old it was.

So I don't know what they were.

So everything was going really well.

Metangerie was already doing half the show and then I was continuing on.

And I'd like practiced in the shower, like, please welcome the stage, shoo, shoo, shoo.

Like I was like, I always wanted to do Christmas in the park.

I wanted to sing in Christmas in the park, so I was like, it's my time.

And if someone says Laura, sing a song, you best get your sweet little ass ready.

No, but so it's fine.

There was a great moment where I can't actually remember the name of the girl who was singing.

She was up on stage and I had to stand in the middle of the stage and the teams would

circle around me and then walk back.

And my mother has managed Ross Taylor since he was, I think, about 17 or 18.

And New Zealand was obviously one of the last teams to come on.

And I'm standing there and I get to go, New Zealand and the captain, Brita McConaugher.

Everyone walks around me and like, for some reason, the teams started getting closer and

I suppose take like quite a wide berth around me and they just keep getting closer and closer

and closer and closer.

So close, in fact, that Ross leans and he goes, you're doing a really good job, Laura.

You can just hear a little out of Ross Hagley Oval.

I had to leave the park.

Ross Hagley, you're doing a really good job, Laura.

And then I was like, oh, God, look at her.

Thanks, Ross.

You're great.

So that all happens.

And then I had to welcome John Key and the ICC president, Dave Richardson, on to the

stage.

And John Key does his speech over to you, Big Dave.

And Dave Stout, and then he takes this pause and he's only said about three sentences.

I'm like, oh, well, okay.

And then I just launched into a short short.

And I have just, he had a four minute speech prepared and I just completely cut him up.

I've got no idea what he wanted to say.

I'm not sure anyone else did.

I don't know if I did anyone a favor, but all I know is I completely, because I'd never

seen his script.

I didn't know what he was going to say.

I was like, cool.

Well, I'll do you off you.

And it was, yeah, he didn't, I don't think he loved me very much, I think.

Can you talk to us about the Harlem Globetrotters of Cricut and the year you spent in the UK

with Lashings?

Yeah.

What do you want to know?

Wow.

Really.

You did some Googling.

Zero, Lashings is was, I'm interested in what it is and who they are, what they do.

So Lashings was a, um, a Cricut team, a Cricut 11 that was, um, brought to life by a guy

called David Fulp, who is over in England.

He had a pub called Lashings.

He's been a lot of time in there.

And he hired, um, a 11 of the best cricketers in the world at that time to travel around

England and play games with Club Cricut against real Cricut Nuffies, people who just wanted

to play the game and love Cricut.

We take, um, marquees, we have lunches, charity auctions, different charities for different

places that we were at.

And then they'd have this game of Cricut, this exhibition match against whatever, you

know, whoever bought Lashings for a day, effectively, that makes sense.

Um, and I helped with the organization of it, um, so there was when the year I was there,

there was Chris Harris, Sacha Tendulka, uh, Greg Bluitt, Herschel Gibbs, Ian Butler,

Helen, um, oh, um, oh, that's so bad.

I'm, I have really ending old, um, an English cricketer whose name has escaped me, but I

can remember the most inappropriate story about him.

Um, just give me a second.

It'll come to me.

John Embry.

There you go.

Um, who else is there?

I've got to think of another, Henry O'Longa, Renan Taylor, um, they, they would interchange

a little bit as well, but those were the sort of the key players that I can remember.

Um, yeah, so we would, uh, travel around England, uh, watching a bunch of, oh, Richie

Richardson, Picky Pounder was another, and, um, yeah, so there was, there was quite a

few.

I could go, I really, really want to see how much I could do.

I was, I was actually on the secret cricket nude as well.

Okay.

So just hearing those names and kind of the thought of that team traveling around, there

must have been some incredible stories, which probably are best kept in the, uh, in the

pavilion maybe.

Well, push to turn the record, but I'll tell you, you want to know, no, no, no, I'll take

those three to the ground.

We, I had so much fun.

I had such great time.

Chris Harris and his wife, Linda were very heavily involved and they took great care

of me.

Um, we had the, oh my God, I had so much fun.

It was wild.

It was utterly bizarre.

It was just fantastic.

Like you read us some, we read us some, Alan Mullally was another one, I was singing about

Ireland.

We missed our flight because we were in the, we were at the pub.

Um, and yeah, no, just a wonderful, wonderful time.

Tino Bess, he got sent home because he swore at a kid.

I had, I have some stories.

Yes.

Well, buy me that dinner and we should talk to you.

Very good.

Just to sort of close off the, the sort of career arc chat, um, mc, radio, tv, commentary.

Where do you see the journey going?

Where's the next, what sort of shape will next five years take, you're again?

Uh, I just want to keep doing it all.

Um, I love it.

I love my job and I just would like to keep doing it.

I'd like to keep doing more.

Some slightly different stuff, um, there's a lot of cricket happening around the world

that I'd like to be a part of, like, I think the hundreds really cool.

Um, I enjoyed watching some of that.

Um, so I don't know, I don't know.

I've got a family as well, so I have to, um, be realistic.

I am not very good at saying no to things that I really love doing my job and it's important

to me that I show particularly my daughter that we can do, women can do it all and they

can have it all and, and be great mums and, you know, great at their job and keep it all

together.

And that's what my mum did.

I watched her do it and I got a lot of my work ethic from her and my dad as well.

So, um, trying to, trying to do all that over the next five years.

I don't know.

Um, there's a, yeah, there's more events coming up.

Lots happening here in New Zealand.

The women's cricket World Cup is happening, um, early next year.

I really want to be a part of, um, the women's rugby World Cup.

I really want to be a part of, um, it's just such a fantastic thing.

It's a fantastic time to love sport as much as I do.

So hopefully there'll be more of me, not less.

Um, well, that has been epic.

We've covered so much crowd and that's been so entertaining and it's just, and I am so

sorry.

I waffle.

I get onto a story.

It was being too long on the cricket.

See, before, before we finish, can I say something and take it slightly, slightly serious, um,

and the leader to the podcast, I watched, I watched your, um, your story on the hits

where you spoke about falling pregnant with Teddy and the challenges that you'd had around

the two miscarriages.

See, you know, I checked this around beforehand and it would bring it up.

It's, you know, it's, it's, it's out there and I sort of see it on, well, mate, as someone

who's not married, clearly, and you will be invited to the wedding, I can't wait.

And then someone who doesn't have children as well.

I said, look, it's, if that happened to a friend of mine's wife or my niece or someone

like that, I'd want to know how to react and how to, how to handle that.

And we talk about mental health and a mean sense quite openly and freely now with normalized

that conversation, but around fertility issues, I think that's actually really important for

you to use your platform to talk about those sorts of things and the people like me can

understand how to navigate it because it's a taboo subject.

So I just wanted to say, continue to use that platform that you do have to push those sorts

of messages because there are people that aren't female that do pick up and listen to

it and think, fuck, actually, it's a really good way to handle it.

And it's good that, you know, someone that's relatable, that talks about it in a way that

you understand.

So thank you very much, Bert, for that.

Thank you for saying that.

I really appreciate that.

That's all right.

Well, good.

You can tell me about all the bad stories another time.

Yeah, I will.

There's no, just interesting strong, strong finish.

Yeah.

Thanks so much, Laura.

That was amazing.

Good luck on your future journey.

Hopefully catch up in real life sometime when you guys are allowed out of your home.

I look forward to it.

You will be a lot of beer.

I've told more stories almost every week on the radio, so I look forward to it.

Thank you so much for having me.

Cheers, Laura.

Hey, guys, if you've made it this far, hopefully that means you've enjoyed this episode.

And if you feel strongly enough about it to share on social media, that would be much

appreciated.

Also, make sure you subscribe to the show in your podcast app and leave a review.

That stuff is really important for helping us grow.

I'll catch you next week.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.