Down the Soft Toy Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Sam Smith
Producer Samuel Robinson chats with Traitors NZ contestant Sam Smith about a peculiar name that popped up in this weeks' episodes.
Sam Smith (no, not that one) stands out as an industrious figure in New Zealand television. A comedian and former writer on Jono and Ben, known for crafting the iconic parody of Hamilton: The Musical, Sam has also served as a crowd warm-up act for basically every live local TV show. But for ardent fans of The Real Pod, Sam's appearance in the inaugural season of The Traitors NZ is likely the most memorable.
In episode seven, contestants Anna, Julia, and Brooke were rudely kidnapped before breakfast and confined in a boat shed laden with extremely specific questions about their fellow cast members. The questions ranged from “What is the fourth letter in Julia’s middle name” to “Times by three, the amount of letters in King’s star sign”.
Yet, one question in particular grabbed the attention of Jane, Alex, Duncan, and also myself: "What is the first letter of the colour of Sam's childhood toy, Zugaballantyne?" Instantly, our curiosity was piqued, and I delved deeper to unearth the story.
After some exchanges on Instagram, I managed to connect with Sam for a phone interview about his cherished soft toy, its origins, and any potential connections to The Ballantyne Novels...
Sam Smith: I'm so excited to talk about Zug. I got him right here.
Samuel Robinson: I was gonna ask you to describe him but he's here in the flesh.
Yeah, he's blue, he's got rainbow ears. Well, they’re sort of yellow and white and in my mind it has got pink but I can't see it in the sun. It's got a lovely hard pink nose and shifty looking eyes which I'm quite into. When I was born, I had one eye that went off to the side. I got it fixed with surgery and then later, got my low vision thing, which has given me the same lazy eye that I had before. He's got a lovely rainbow belly as well. For 37 years old, his legs are only just starting to come unstitched.
How have you kept him in such pristine condition?
It's probably a well made toy from the 80s, back when we used to make things good and before everything fell apart. He's been all around the world. We got him in Christchurch, then we moved to England and had him there for a while. Then we came back and lived in Nelson and had him there. Then we moved up to Auckland when I went to high school. I took him down to Dunedin with me when I went to university to have him there. Then we moved to Wellington and had him there as well. Then we moved back up to Auckland about 10 years ago and had him there. I think the secret is that I've never ever given him to my own children in the last few years because otherwise they would have destroyed him.
Do you know where he comes from? Is he like a hospital gift shop toy? Is he a claw machine?
See, I don't know. And I should really find this out. But I do know that a bunch of other people who were born in roughly 1985 have the same rabbit. My friend Rebecca had a yellow one. My friend from Nelson, and then my friend Mars who lives up in Auckland, she had a yellow one as well. So it was just sort of the rabbit that was given to children in 1985.
Can you tell me how he came to be?
So I was given Zugaballantyne I think the day after I was born from my godfather Craig. And he’s called Zugaballantyne because there was a restaurant in Dunedin called Zouga Ballantyne’s that Craig went to with my parents. I believe it became The Bowler which was a pub down in Dunedin. I went to uni down there so I know it as this shitty student bar and I only found out last year that yes, Zugaballantyne was named after a bar that used to be where The Bowler was, I think it's gone now.
I had my own theory about his name on the podcast. Have you heard of The Ballantyne novels?
No.
So there is a series of novels called the Ballantyne novels from the 80s set in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with one of the lead characters being called Zouga Ballantyne
Crap, this is amazing! Who wrote these novels?
Wilbur Smith.
Okay! I'm a Smith, and we all know about all the other Smiths. My dad told me recently that Wilbur Smith was a big fan of New Zealand. So I almost wonder if this restaurant is named after the books.
It seems like this rabbit hole goes pretty deep
It goes very deep. Wow. Definitely need to call Craig and see what he was thinking. He probably doesn't even remember…
So, Zugaballantyne's name does not trace back to the character in the Ballantyne novels, but rather pays homage to a family-style restaurant from the 1980s. This eatery, intriguingly enough, may or may not have drawn inspiration from Wilbur Smith's character in the Zimbabwe-based books.
Until the proprietor of Zouga Ballantyne's or Wilbur Smith himself sheds light on these matters, we unfortunately remain as uninformed about the whakapapa of Zugaballantyne's name as we were during the episode.
~ Producer Samuel 🌽
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