The King Boys, a short film by the Clark Brothers, 2006

I have a favourite song by a collective of Wellington musicians who call themselves 'Fly My Pretties' that goes:

"Wellington's just a small town but it packs a lot of punch,

There's talent oozing from the walls and they eat ideas for lunch."

Some of that talent makes films. And I'm actually in one of them. A whole 11 seconds of fame.

I guess that last factoid makes me biased, but Fraser and Chris Clark are people I greatly admire for their film-making and story-telling talents.

Waiting interminably for a green light and a critical co-finance deal from the NZ Film Commission, they were challenged to make a short film that would show off the essence of their feature film idea, and test their resolve as film-makers by giving them 1/5 of the money actually needed to make a 15 minute short film.

They gathered favours, friends and emerging kiwi talent, tapped the Wellington film community for studios, costumes, make-up, cameras, set constructors and actors; as well as the artistic and design community for poster designs, music, printers, photography, web designers, and the result is something else.

Geoff Clark (the boys' Dad) took the role as referee, Fraser's father-in-law was a ringside judge. Costumes came from the recently completed King Kong courtesy of Peter Jackson. A couple of dozen enthusiastic extras combined with Adam Clark's camera wizardy made up a whole stadium full of wrestling fans.

It featured on the opening night of the Wellington Film Festival in 2006, as a prequel to Tommy Lee Jones' tour de force The 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Sadly, I missed my own debut on one of the biggest screens in the Southern Hemisphere owing to a work commitment in Auckland that evening that could not be escaped.

It went on to do a round of pretty good film festivals, was bought by Rialto channel and won an Air NZ screen award. Only recently Fraser made a high resolution edition of the film available on YouTube in 2 parts:





My role was to play the gelatinous man-mountain of a wrestler who the hero, returning from war and recovering from shell-shock finds himself facing for the 1947 NZ Wrestling crown. An actual bona fide actor had stepped up for the role, but was called away to paying work just a filming was scheduled.

Needless to say it was great fun, despite hanging around a cold warehouse shooting the finale for a weekend in nothing more than black-painted basketball boots and shorts that were pulled up so high I looked like an alien with no belly button. Mike Clare's great still photography from the shoot captured me with a clarity that made me question the sensibility of that extra slice of R+R pizza at lunch on Fridays.

Wrestling was a huge deal in NZ in the pre and post-war periods. Wellington had weekly bouts in the town hall, several gyms where people trained, and the great Lofty Blomfield reached a World Championship final bout where his famous Octopus Clamp earned him a draw.

Drawing on this as background, The King Boys paints a rich psychological, sporting and family landscape in the post-war period, with the acting talents of Rangi Ngamoki, Karlos Drinkwater and Grant Tilly at the fore.

The boys have now put the feature on the back-burner and have another project cooking with strong interest in all the right places. Watch out for it. Hope they're writing a part for a 6'3 slightly graying wrestler in there somewhere - I'm owed another 4 seconds of fame.

Fraser, Chris and Adam (no relation) Clark on set during filming.

Chris and Rangi on set