By Emma Mackie
He’s a man who loves his mum and says his three daughters are more important to him than anything in the world. What’s not to love about that?
On my way to ‘An Evening with Paul Henry’ this week I had a conversation with my Punjabi taxi driver, an endearing man who wanted to know where I was going in such a hurry and in the midst of a thunderstorm. “I’m going to see Paul Henry” I exclaimed, finding it hard to hide my excitement.
It takes a few minutes of explaining before the penny drops “ah! Paul Henry,” he says, “good man, little mistake!”
However, Paul Henry does not make apologies for the outrage he caused by making fun of the name Sheila Dikshit, one of several comments that were the nails in the coffin of his TVNZ career.
Unafraid that Henry’s charm could likely knock me off my feet, my boyfriend got us tickets to the evening, so this was not a junket. I’m a real fan. I don’t go through his rubbish or anything but I do like to spend my evenings watching YouTube clips of him.
The audience were a little bit tipsy. One woman was so excited she heckled Henry from the front row “I love ya Paul”. He’s not perturbed, “hold the alcohol” he retorts.
No doubt Henry divides people in terms of his popularity, but my affinity for him is unwavering.
To quote the man himself, “I don’t need everyone to agree with me, but I’m bloody right”.
When I watch him in action I don’t see so much, arrogance, as someone just having a laugh. Let’s face it, some of the things he says are so outrageous they shouldn’t be taken seriously. Henry finds humour in everything and I like that in a broadcaster.
“There’s humour in life and in death...I mean how many people get the giggles at funerals? I know I do,” he says giggling.
Reporting on “some war or another” he talks about discovering a helmet in a trench, picking it up and finding the head still in it. For a second I wonder if people will laugh. They do and it makes you wonder how the hell he does it. But to think this kind of quip means he doesn’t care, or that he thinks war is funny, is a giant leap. Seeing the humour in something is different to not caring and we could all do with laughing a bit more.
Reading his memoir, What Was I Thinking, is as close as you could get to sitting down with him over a wine and having a chat. Something his fans would delight in and his critics would probably pass up.
Being a dyslexic he says he hopes his book is fun to read. And it is.
As someone who only arrived in New Zealand in 2006, unaware of his previous political career, his dangerous years as a foreign correspondent, that he once owned a cafe in Featherston where he would bake cakes, and that he started making his money selling roofs, the book was a real eye-opener.
He cheated death on a number of occasions, not least navigating land mines in Bosnia. Some would say he treads an equally dangerous line in broadcasting, entering metaphorical minefields many of his peers would steer clear of.
Ultimately this bullish disregard for what is apparently correct was his comeuppance though, and even if I don’t agree with his well-publicised resignation, I know many who do.
I put a photo of myself and Mr Henry up on my Facebook profile saying he was fabulous, my friend wasted no time in replying “fabulously awful”.
It’s often what he doesn’t say that really gets me rolling on the floor. Henry’s comic timing is brilliant. There are moments when he looks into camera and pauses, adjusts his glasses and starts to smirk. That’s when I usually laugh the most.
He talks about wanting to “keep the magic alive” for his kids. When they came home from school one day and told him there was no Father Christmas, he asked them “where’s the evidence?” He’s not entirely convinced himself that the man in the red suit is not real.
He says little about love and relationships in his book, with the odd mention of his ex-wife Rachael, he keeps everything else under wraps.
On the evening he starts one story, “My wife…” then laughs and quickly corrects himself, “my ex-wife now...is there any wonder there?”
And I can’t help thinking there are many women sitting there thinking “Yes! Yes! there is wonder there! Pick me Paul!” (Ed. Really?)
But he disappoints the female-dominated audience when he says he’s not single.
The lucky woman who does hold his heart, does have a few foibles to put up with though – the self-proclaimed obsessive-compulsive might test even the most ardent fan.
He’s a man with issues around which way the toilet paper goes on the holder and he has an unnerving passion for the number ‘three’ - idiosyncrasies he seems proud of rather than furtive.
The book is a collection of stories, from safety-averse games he played with his children to near-death encounters as a foreign correspondent in war-torn corners of the world.
He’s asked how much he paid his mum for providing the drawings that illustrate his book.
“Nothing, she’d be in a bloody shoe box in a swamp if it weren’t for me. She should be happy where she is...in the cheapest rest home in Auckland.”
Finally discussion comes round to TVNZ and whether he was reckless. But that’s not the way he sees it. He says some broadcasters are playing a role and being very careful about what they say and how they say it. That’s not for him.
“Unless you want to tread such a safe line that you end up standing for nothing and meaning nothing...those people survive.”
When the cameras roll he is nothing more or less than himself. For better or worse.
Asked if he’s stock piling opinions for his upcoming work with RadioLIVE, he doesn’t have to think long.
“$350 million per week deficit and we’re setting up a commission for penguins that eat sand?!” he screeches.
God only knows what he would make of TV3’s Happy Feet Live Stream.
Talking about the latest prominent figure to put his foot in it and face the consequences, he says Alasdair Thompson’s comments about female productivity were badly reported on TV.
In the full interview Alasdair Thompson also said one of the biggest problems with productivity in the workplace is testosterone-fuelled men, but that wasn’t reported says Henry.
What Was I Thinking makes you wonder if he has said something he regrets, but he hasn’t. He has no real regrets. But he is sorry for upsetting Greenpeace worker Stephanie Mills.
My evening with Paul Henry climaxed when he signed my book and joined me for a photo.
It wasn’t until I got home and had another look that I realised myself and Paul Henry might actually have been separated at birth.
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