This weekend, lend your eyeballs to our three new shows: Two Sketches with Toby Morris, Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends and On the Rag.
Look, it’s the weekend and you’ve already watched all the things. You’ve watched Game of Thrones. You’ve watched Dancing With the Stars NZ. You’ve watched the video of the goat in the Rotorua supermarket. But have you watched The Spinoff’s new online shows, all made with the support of New Zealand on Air?
Get to know our The Big Three below.
ON THE RAG
“Any woman that has ever been to a sleepover, a coffee group, or assembled drunkenly in a bathroom knows that a very special thing happens when we get together in a tight circle. Safe from the rest of the world, we begin to relax our shoulders, laugh louder, share things that we wouldn’t dare to otherwise. On the Rag is our attempt at recreating that circle, a media space for women to rage, to laugh and to cry about the world around us.”
Beginning as a column and then a podcast and then an intermittent TV segment and now an online chat show, hosts Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden jelly wrestle with every issue affecting women under the sun. The first episode, naturally is about periods. What is menstruation exactly? What’s the blue stuff in the ads? What does a decolonised period look like? And who has the best period horror story of all time? You’ll have to watch to find out.
TWO SKETCHES WITH TOBY MORRIS
“Drawing is a meditative and reflective activity – for me I usually need to be quite relaxed, and my mind wanders while I do it. When I shared a studio with other illustrators I found the conversations we had while we drew were often quite weird but honest and insightful. I think it’s like talking in front of a bonfire, or a killer view – with a big chunk of your mind fixed somewhere else I think you can often be less guarded.” – Toby Morris
In the first episode of Two Sketches, Toby draws and chats with Samoan artist Michel Mulipola. Apart from being a pro wrestler, Michel is also a comic book artist working for WWE and Marvel. Michel talks about his early days learning his craft, why he feels like an outsider in the local comic scene and explains that you have to be chill to win in the ring.
SCRATCHED: AOTEAROA’S LOST SPORTING LEGENDS
“There are many sportspeople whose names are uttered regularly by New Zealanders, and whose stories have been told over and over again. But what about the athletes whose lives and careers have faded from the national memory? New Zealand has produced more athletic legends than we realise and for some, acknowledgement of their achievements is long overdue.”
Get to know Ruia Morrison in episode one of Scratched. Ruia is the first New Zealand woman and first Māori tennis player to compete at Wimbledon in 1957 at the age of 20. Despite a stunning career that spanned over two decades, and generally being considered one of the greatest tennis players of her time, Morrison remains largely unknown outside of her community in Rotorua. Until now.
On the Rag, Two Sketches and Scratched are made with the support of NZ On Air.