Dave Smith

Dave Smith was a law student at Victoria University when he was "accosted" by fellow student Roger Hall to join him onstage. Later the pair acted in university revue One in Five. The popular show, which also starred John Clarke, was released on vinyl. Smith's first television gig was In View of the Circumstances (1969), New Zealand's first comedy sketch show. He went on to write for Edwards on Saturday and Public Eye. Controversy ensued on the former when ex Prime Minister Jack Marshall sued the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, after Smith wrote a sketch calling Keith Holyoake's dog Sir Jack. 

The script would be sent away and it would come back with all kinds of blue markings on it. It was in the days when I think politicians thought they owned... [the NZ Broadcasting Corporation] It was just their advertising arm of government. It didn't want any kind of boat rocking going on. I remember one sketch, we filmed it so many times, eventually the changes that were made were utterly pointless, because it just had to be a government minister or there wasn't a joke. Dave Smith, on local television in the late 1960s, in his extended Funny As interview