by Metropol | August 20, 2025 8:40 am
Describe him what you will, Tom Sainsbury is one of the best things to come out of New Zealand’s pop culture. “I’m a nerd,” he says. His WORD debut on 28 August is no shock – Tom will always “jump on board” a literary festival – yet he’s flipping the average book club on its head. Call it “character insight”, because Tom’s Reading Enthusiast’s Soirée is a deep-dive into the psychological behaviours behind each of the characters his guest authors create. Dissecting their humanity, warmth and personality, Tom is seeking more than each book’s blurb. “Reading a book is solitary,” he says, “WORD is creating a space where people who love literature can be together.”
Storytelling, in its written or visual form, intersects in almost every aspect of Tom’s life. He’s been seen on local shows including Shortland Street, Wellington Paranormal, and as a co-host of Snack Masters – ringing up almost 100 appearances across television, theatre and feature film. “If I didn’t do [creative storytelling], I think I would be very depressed and very frustrated, and find some aspect of expressing myself or expressing an idea creatively. It’s how I’m hard-wired, and I just think I’ll do it forever,” he says.
Tom can take one snippet of human behaviour and turn it into a magical social media skit that, for one of his iconic characters, might as well be my own mother. In 2017, his funny-without-trying nature saw those daily short clips explode on the social media scene and launch him into the spotlight. “It started from a love of sketch comedy,” he says, referencing the shows that inspired him: Kath & Kim, French and Saunders, The Office and Little Britain. Tom’s passion for recognising and portraying classic Kiwi behaviours found an audience who could relate it to their friends and family – or so we assume. “You just don’t know how people are interacting with it, because it’s just little numbers on the screen,” he says. From Tom’s quarter of a million Instagram subscribers surpassing that of any other New Zealand comedian I could find, it seems a sincere statement to say his work is well-admired.
Between the hilarious, the humiliating still happens. Standup comedy is a “brutal” industry – “You have to be so vulnerable. I’ve gone on stage thinking I’ve written hilarious gags and no one really laughs. It’s demoralising,” he remembers. Tom had his share of ‘flops’, counting himself lucky to lean on fellow comedians like Christchurch’s Chris Parker – who he credits as a “darling” friend who can “turn any tragedy into a comedy”. “When you’re having a hard time, he just takes a scenario and shines a light on how absurd and silly it is,” Tom says.
There’s a danger that comes with being a constantly funny guy. If he’s not on screen, Tom’s probably doing everything he can to avoid attention. He wears a smile and his ‘clownish’ nature, but he’s not the life-of-the-party, quick-with-comedy guy people think he is. “That’s so far from who I am.”
“My true self is quiet, shy and a little bit impatient,” he laughs, adding that in a social setting he’ll find an interesting person to have a thoughtful conversation with – escaping the attention entirely. “It is a challenge and I haven’t worked it out yet.”
It’s easy to sink into a place of overwhelm, especially in the New Zealand arts industry where creatives must take “little bits of money wherever you can” – and no, Tom doesn’t get paid for his clever daily social media skits. It’s at this point of our conversation when Tom truly opens up, which I’ve read he calls a “toxic” urge to people-please. “I procrastinate. It can sometimes compound into a really sticky situation where I’ve screwed over my boss, or something like that. There have been episodes in my life where I’ve been procrastinating, which leads to overwhelm, which leads to ruined working relationships. I’m trying to get better at seeing what the cycle is,” he admits. For someone who “catastrophises everything” Tom acknowledges his agent Graham Dunster for putting things into perspective.
Discovering the human in Tom feels like a beautiful ode to his WORD Festival event – finding the story behind the person telling it. As for Tom’s character? He’s chronically online or staring at the ceiling in his spare time. He squeezes films from his 300-strong watchlist into three-hour gaps between jobs. He told listeners on Karen O’Leary’s podcast Full Disclosure that he’s 75% gay and 25% straight. He lives a “life full of little highs”, and that’s what brings him back to the surface.
TOM’S BIGGEST FAIL
“The worst, most embarrassing [standup comedy show] was last year in Brisbane.
I did my first show and it was fantastic, and then I did two and the audience just didn’t laugh the entire time. My whole show kind of bombed. I just raced through to the end and scurried back to my hotel and drowned my sorrow in a Paddle Pop”.
CATCH TOM SAINSBURY’S READING ENTHUSIAST’S SOIRÉE on Thursday 28 August from 8 to 9pm at The Piano. Tom chats with guest authors Kate de Goldi, Rachel Paris and Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) about all things literary – from their first favourite book to their reading habits, the sauciest passage they can’t forget, and the author they’re most jealous of. A cheeky, thoughtful deep-dive into the wonderfully weird world of words. wordchristchurch.co.nz
CATCH TOM’S PARODY PODCAST Small Town Scandal on television screens in February.
CATCH TOM’S LESSONS NOT LEARNT TOUR at the Town Hall in October. www.ticketmaster.co.nz
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