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Putting Alex Jay On The Hot Seat

Written by TVSA Team from the blog Interviews on 24 Nov 2006
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I've always been very curious about who exactly Alex Jay is. Of course I've always known who he is from radio and TV etc, but I've always felt I don't know enough and want to know more.

With The Hot Seat (which he hosts) currently on television, I decided it was the perfect time to catch up with him to snoop out the juice on him.

I reckoned that the best way to do it was to give him some of his own medicine by quizzing him on the hot seat.

I plonked him in the show's red chair, swivelled it to dizzy him up then fired away:

Tashi: What's your fave TV show?
Alex: Survivor on SABC3. I have to be very careful to point that out. The international Survivor. I think the South African one was a nice try but it was a washed-out version of the international one. When I sat down to watch it with my kids - who are huge Survivor fans - they were helluva disappointed.

They didn't stick to a lot of the things that make the international one work and they've glossed over very important elements that have been hyper-critical like getting water, getting food and making fire.

When that kind of stuff's glossed over in favour of just putting people in the situation and watching characters develop - if there ain't too many interesting characters it gets very boring, very quickly.

They forgot that the game is king and that the people aren't the show and they didn't get balance right unfortunately. It's a great pity.

It's like a Big Brother on a shitty beach, with none of the gameplay stuff or rules that makes the international one so appealing.

So Survivor's my favourite and then all the usual suspects: Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, 24 - which is awesome.

In terms of local productions ... jeez, I'm trying to think what the last killer production was we saw. It was a while back. Yizo Yizo was probably the best local show I got completely hooked on.

Tashi: Your fave song of all time.
Alex: Don't be ridiculous! The Rachmaninoff Concerto Number 2 in C minor. That's probably the finest piece of music ever written.

Tashi: Who's got a speaking voice that drives you wild?
Alex: Hahaha. I don't know. Nobody springs to mind. I know my wife said to me the other day that Phil Wright - who's ex-Captial Radio and one of the other voiceover people for Top Billing - she went, "He's got the best voice on television," and I was like: "Gee, thanks."

Nobody really floats my boat so it would actually probably be Phil Wright!

Tashi: People on radio don't have to have a particular type of radio vocal quality like they used to have do they?
Alex: Yes, everything changed with Mark Gillman. They let that squeaky rapscallion onto radio and the floorgates opened. But - so what??

Tashi: Who would you cast in a story of your life?

a) Owen Wilson
b) Hugh Grant
c) Russell Crowe
d) None of the above (If so, who?)

Alex: d). It would have to be Jim Carrey. I would just love him to do me as it were, ha.

Tashi: What would the three most dramatic moments in the movie be?
Alex: My God. I don't know. I'm one of those people who doesn't stop to take stock, I just sort of charge ahead. I suppose the beginning, the middle and the end really. The end I'm still working on.

One of the events in the middle would be getting out of Jo'burg and moving down to Cape Town about 16 years ago. That was a dramatic turn around in my family's life. Just getting away from Jo'burg and the insanity that was going on. It was really a rough time in the early '90s.

Things weren't going Jo'burg's way. It was a decent place to work but it was hectic in terms of raising kids. We wanted to raise well balanced, happy, healthy kids so we moved the focus from work to our kids and it really worked for us. It helped me get more balanced and more centred and made us all much happier people.

I didn't hate Jo'burg, we just needed a change of scene where the emphasis was off the malls and studios and work and rather on our family so we could be free to grow in other directions.

It put on us a different path. I'm back in Jo'burg now. I've been here for nearly three years and now that we've got that all sorted out we've got a nice balance.

Coming back was just amazing to see that it's pumping - there's so much positive growth and it's great to be back.

Tashi: Who would you cast as your wife in the movie?
Alex: It would have to be Eva Longoria so that I could be on set as technical adviser. I'd say: "I'm sorry, my wife wears more skimpy outfits than that, you'll have to change."

Tashi: Have you ever been at a loss for words?
Alex: Yes, I was at a complete loss for words when I met Nelson Mandela for the first time. That would go in the movie as well, as one of the defining things.

Being on the executive of the musicians union, we rushed down to meet him seven days after he'd been released. The day after he moved back to Jo'burg, to the old house in Orlando West.

We all got picked up at six in the morning and I was particularly nervous because I was a white male and there's the unknown and all that kind of stuff, but when I saw the seven or eight other people freaking out - all of whom were black - I felt much better.

It made us all feel really one and when he eventually came out I was completely tongue-tied and somebody shouldered me and I ended up at the front of the queue ... I had to shake his hand first and he said: "Ah, come here," and gave me a bear hug. After that everything was easy.

Tashi: You obviously know all about Britney and K-Fed and them divorcing and her telling him the news via SMS. Do you think that this was:

a) perfect punishment for him
b) cheap and trashy
c) not nearly cruel enough for what he's done to her

Alex: Ah, you know, we only hear about what he's apparently done and what she's apparently done and how she's the pop princess who's become white trash - I think it's all a bit common on both sides but that's how they've chosen to live their lives in Heat and People magazine, so good luck to them.

I didn't understand what she saw in him in the first place. It's just a pity that there are kids involved. If it was just up to the pair of them, then please - duke it out in public, go for it, who cares??

Tashi: If you were on The Hot Seat which category would be your weakness?
Alex: I would love to say none. Um, I don't see that I've got any one weakness more than the other. I'm quite well read about South Africa and I know obscure musical things – I think I'm pretty even across the categories.

Tashi: What about natural science? That would be mine.
Alex: Well you know, it's a lot of common sense. If it was maths then that would be me out the back door.

Tashi: Which super power would you most like to have?

a) See the future
b) Fly
c) Teleport
d) Extra long life with perfect health

Alex: Fly, fly, fly, fly. A few years ago it would have been X-ray vision but now it's to fly.

Tashi: Which of these do you think involves the biggest conspiracy:

a) 9/11
b) TV psychics
c) Religion
d) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's relationship
e) None of the above

Alex: How about all of the above! Oh man, what was the famous one about the pet psychic on television who was rubbing the dog and going: "Mmm, yes I can see your dog had had an accident in the past" and the owner was like: "Yes, he's got three legs! DUH." Any kind of psychic ability raises my eyebrow.

Tashi: If you could be anyone else who would you like to be?
Alex: I have no rotating hip action so I couldn't have been Elvis. Um – I couldn't have been Ghandi because I'm too snappy sometimes. Mmm – I'm just happy being me.

Tashi: Who is most like you?

a) Mohammed Ali
b) Christopher Columbus
c) Shakespeare
d) Jim Morrison

Alex: Jim Morrision - just for the sake of dressing up in lizard clothing.

Tashi: Where are you off to next?
Alex: I'm off to walk my dogs. I don't understand people buying Stairmasters and Orbitrek's when you just get a puppy and go walk the bugger. I'm doing about 5/6 k's an hour and big walks at the weekend.

It's good for your cardiovascular, it gets you out and it only takes an hour or so. I do that every morning so I'm doing that and then I'm off to a big radio station meeting.

Ends with Alex turning into toast.



2 Comments

Lady.RO.
23 Aug 2007 05:56

Alex jay Plz, and the Hot Seat!!!!!!!
I prefer THE WEAKEST LINK

Tang
19 Nov 2009 15:33

After all these years Tashi, he is STILL the "LEGEND".  He's the most honest and true human being you will find in the "spot light" and a great family man:)  You Go Alex!!!


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