Two former colleagues remember how Nigel Latta swore like a trooper, worked the room like a stand-up comedian, and touched the lives of a huge range of New Zealanders.
TV producer and director Mark McNeil remembers driving through some of Flaxmere's least fancy streets with Latta.
They were filming a piece about poverty in New Zealand and as they passed a gang HQ, their cameraman, who was on foot, was confronted by a couple of "gang prospects" who tried to wrestle his camera from him. Nigel wound down the car window.
“They suddenly see Nigel, and they go, ‘Nigel, what are you doing here?’” recalls McNeil.
“He says, ‘Oh, I'm making a show about how poor people don't get a real fair shake in life’. And they go, ‘alright, good on you, bro. Fine. Go for it’.
From politicians to gang members, Nigel Latta knew how to connect to Kiwis
As they drove away, Nigel suggested they turn around, saying, ‘We should go back, they're my people’.
“I went, ‘Nigel, we're not going back.’”
'On paper, it shouldn't have worked'
By this point McNeil had made several shows with Latta, who’d become a household name in Aotearoa, an entertainer, a brand, a trusted voice. Not that his dazzling career was foreordained.
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McNeil thinks back to the first time he met Latta over a coffee in Auckland's Newmarket, in the late noughts. The clinical psychologist had written just one book at that point and had yet to make his way into the unforgiving visual realm of television.
“He wasn't classically good looking,” says McNeil. “He had a terrible voice for TV and radio, and he was sort of nerdy... He didn't feel like a natural. But as soon as soon as we started working with him, we kind of realised that he had something. On paper, it shouldn't have worked, but it did.”
Not only was Latta a born communicator, but he was also a swift learner. “He didn't have a clue how TV worked, and so we kind of explained stuff to him, and he took that on board and swatted."
And it was when McNeil saw Latta give live talks to crowds that he really understood his gift, not just for turning science into relatable advice, but for working the room. “He was just fantastic. And fantastically funny... The larger the group the better he was.”
Latta was liberal with swear words, says McNeil. “Which really kind of shocked people, because here's a guy who was an expert psychologist, who was talking about ‘f*** this’ and ‘these a***holes’, and they just loved it.”
A maverick, a real individual
Author and speaker Dr Lucy Hone also savours the memory of Latta’s determinedly foul mouth. Hone, who specialises in coping with loss, worked closely with Latta and remembers one conference where he was specifically asked not to swear on stage.
“Did he pay any attention?” she says. “Absolutely not. I laughed to myself sitting in the back row, watching him... I think that kind of speaks to the maverick in him, that real individual personality that he was, that I so admired.”
A maverick with courage. McNeil remembers making the show Nigel Blows Stuff Up. “He was very physically daring... He climbed to the very top of the Sky Tower, and he thought that was fantastic, you know, and he jumped out of aeroplanes.
“He had no qualms about doing that stuff.”
A no-nonsense saviour for parents
The physical bravery reflected something less tangible. Latta was also not afraid to blow up taboos, shatter preconceptions and laugh at anything that took itself too seriously. Case in point: parenting. At one point his Politically Incorrect Parenting Show had the highest ratings in New Zealand. Kiwi mums and dads, exhausted by theories and judgement, lapped up his no-nonsense take on raising kids.
“He was tapping into a sort of parental Zeitgeist," says McNeil who had young kids himself at the time. "A concern amongst modern parents [who were] kind of wondering how and it all got so crazy.”
'Aussies don't want advice from a Kiwi'
Over in Australia Channel 9 spotted the big spike in ratings and attempted to recreate an Aussie version of the show – with average success. One of the problems was they tried (and failed) to get Latta, originally of Oamaru, to sound like an Aussie. They also played up the humour and toned down the advice, arguing, recalls McNeil, “we don't think Australians want to be told what to do by a New Zealander”.
But, behind the jokes, Nigel Latta really was all about sound, usable, relatable advice.
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'Pick up your towel from the floor'
Hone says that, while Latta's work inspired and informed her as a professional, it was as a parent that she applied his tips to everyday life. She points to his book Before Your Teenager Drives You Crazy, Read This!
“It taught me to talk to my boys in particular, in short sentences with no commas... As a mum, I'd be like, ‘pick up your towel from the floor, because if you leave your towel on the floor then it's really annoying, and do you expect someone else to have to pick it up?’ You know, I’d just go on and on. And really, all you need to say is, ‘pick the towel up from the floor.’”
While Latta's voice resonated with ordinary Kiwis, on the flipside, says McNeil, he'd become a star and the prime minister might see him at the Koru club and come over for a chat.
“I don't think it ever went to his head,” he says. “Which is great, you know... It's really hard, I think, not to let celebrity go to your head. And I don't think he ever did.”
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