Scott Blanks - Funny As Interview

Scott Blanks helped launch New Zealand's stand-up comedy scene in the 1980s. The owner and co-founder of Auckland's iconic comedy club The Classic muses about building the live comedy scene and other subjects, including:

• Getting his start in showbusiness when he was 19, acting in an amateur production of West Side Story
• Helping form comedy group Funny Business, and being a jack of all trades on their early gigs: "provide a stage, get the lights and sound sorted, and the marketing and the promo..."
• Starting a rookie comedy night at Auckland pub Kitty O'Brien's, where several comedians (e.g Brendhan Lovegrove, Sugar and Spice) first got their break
• The excitement of finding and setting up New Zealand's first dedicated live comedy club, The Classic, in 1997 
• How television stand-up show Pulp Comedy boosted The Classic's audience
• How his accounting degree helped save The Classic when it ran into money troubles 

This interview was recorded for 2019 TV series Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy. All audiovisual content is copyright to Augusto, and may not be reproduced. Publication of Funny As extended interviews made possible with funding from the NZ Lotteries Grants Board.