CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5

Interview with Jay Laga'aia by Merrick and Russo on Triple J
2day FM Morning Crew
Sydney, Australia

Disclaimer:

The following transcript is an edited version of the interview with Jay Laga'aia and Triple J presenters Merrick and Russo from Monday the 19th I tried to edit out all the non essential parts, because I was wearing out the rewind button on my walkman, and even this piece took me 20 minutes!!!

In the first half of the interview M & R were asking Jay about his role as Tommy Tavito? on Water Rats, and how members of the public tried to make jokes about his role when they meet him on the street.

The second half was about Jay's new role in an upcoming episode of Xena, there are some very mild spoilers in this interview!!!

M: Now tell us , you're in a radio station and we play music and music is great, and obviously you love it because you're involved in a a very special musical.

J Well yeah I am at the momemt, I'm just getting ready to go over and do this Xena musical and it's a contained episode about this great huge fight over this golden lyre, that the Draconian barbarians that I head want, and so Xena decides alright we'll have a real battle of the bands. So there are four different factions that go away and rehearse.

M It sounds more like Xena the rock eistedford!! Can you hold a note?, here's a bag!!

J I had a look at the script, its' very interesting , we've got a weeks rehearsal when I get over there, I fly over there on Sunday.

M To Wellington....

J To Auckland actually, I've got a weeks rehearsal in which not only will we rehearse the songs but also rehearse these dance moves, and dream sequences!

M And then it's on.

J And then it's on baby

R Is it doing theatres or shopping centers?

J No No No , It's actually an episode, its an actual episode of the show.

M Ah its an episode of the show, not a live ...

R No No I got an impresson that the..

J I know I know, I could see the notes that you wrote down in crayon , hey nice hand man.

R "What's it like being Xena? Have you played a woman before?"

J What's it like being a post operative transvestite? Fine thanks!

M I'm dissappointed, I thought it was going to be like "Fame: The Musical".

J Well if it was going to be like that then Wilbur Wilde would be there as well.

M It'd be like a pantomime gone wrong. Do you play an instruments Jay?

J I play several instruments, I mean I come from a large family, so we all kept swapping instuments because we had an attention span of a 5 year old. I used to play clarinet until I realised the brass section would drown you out. I play alto sax, guitar, bass keyboard, anything I can steal, ah borrow.

M So what are you going to be playing in this episode of Xena?

J Well I'll be playing a character I'm reprising ,Draco, and I did the first episode of Xena, and what will happen is basically he will play the bad guy, and we will do a lot of fighting, its sort of like Grease meets Conan the Barbarian. Adopts Arnold Shwartzenegger accent, "You killed my father, you took his sword"

M You said you were reprising it because you were in the first episode of Xena?.

J I did the first, I've actually done about 4 or 5 different Xena's, so its an on going character, because of my involvement with Water Rats it's difficult to get the time off to go across because it takes 2 1/2 weeks to film an episode over there.

R Does it really, that long?

J Well you know , she has to warm up killing other people first!

M Let me guess how this is going to happen, you're going to lose in this episode , you're not going to win?

J Well what happens it that normally there is a lot of fighting , and she does win in the end, and you do do a lot of fighting and usually you end up fighting and if you do win its usually against one of your own men who didn't acutally (do what you say)

Draco voice "Go get Xena, now I want her now"

Silly voice "But boss boss she attacked us"

Whoosh!! And then you smack them over the head, "Manuell, go out and get her now "

R Like the 3 Stooges?

J Yeah

M And what about more Water Rats?

J I will be back on Water Rats, It starts back on the 16th of September, before that I'll come back on the 18th there's a big acapella concert in Sydney that I'm MC'ing, and then I'm singing the New Zealand anthem at the Bledisloe cup at the Australia New Zealand Rugby game at stadium Australia.

M Well Jay good luck with Xena the Musical and Water Rats,

J Thankyou very much