Ewen Gilmour – Super Mayor? Fu*k Yeah!

12 hours out from seeing his latest show (Ewen Gilmour: super mayor- fu*k yeah) @ Papakura’s stampede bar and grill, I am still using fu*k yeah to answer everything I like. As infectious as ever Ewen Gilmour laid down some of the super ideas he has ‘planned’ for Auckland when he wins his mayoral seat. I don’t want to ruin his show lets just say the money is going back to the people instead of pointless projects like the other candidates. He knows he has an up hill battle being a comedian people tend to take things as a joke, but the sad thing he says is that people don’t think the other two candidates are ‘They are reading from the same script that has been put together by a pr team for the last thousand years. They had years to get Auckland right and they haven’t and won’t, they will keep spending money we don’t have on Legacy projects that will be worthless before we have finished paying for it.’ Being a former Waitakere city counsellor, he knows what it takes and isn’t afraid to listen to what people want as apposed to what he thinks they need. He wants people to see just how bringing in a real bloke with real world experience will help this great city so bring in a realistic bloke who isn’t afraid to tell it how it is.

Before comedy Ewen had several jobs mostly transient jobs just passing through like wrecking cars. However in 1996 upon winning the very first Billy T award he found what I would refer to as his calling. Now in full time comedy Ewen performed in comedy galas and has made several appearances on TV in shows from dancing with the stars to celebrity treasure island, always a recognisable face ‘the westie’ knows how to keep a show entertaining and has garnered a mass following and is welcomed everywhere he goes whether it be East Timor supporting the troops or his latest tour around Auckland city.

He would be the first to tell you his fame blindsided him, but being a working class man from west Auckland just felt people could relate and reckons that’s what got him where he is. After 15 years of traveling around the country and abroad I asked him what his top memory is. His reply was simple the people he’s met sounds cliché but I think it fits his character he is genuinely the type of guy that just wants to have a beer and tell a yarn with a few jokes thrown in.

Aside from his comedy, Ewen Gilmour is a two wheel terror, he rides a 2005 Triumph Bonnie America, he’s put 45000km’s on it since new, he says, ‘I put running boards and a rocker gear change on it but took them off after I stacked it a couple of times. I ride it pretty hard and have been through 4 front discs due to warping’. Definitely gets ridden hard and would put many a ‘biker’ to shame.

He is the pilot of the GT Radials ford limousine for the variety bash, a job he is massively proud off and has been doing since 1996, ‘it’s great bunch of really good people who have become a family. To see the looks on kids faces when we turn up and hand over something of need, some thing that will change their life. Awesome!’  he also does a lot of other local fundraising, while he picks and chooses what he does you can guarantee its for a top cause when he does help out.

Another ‘extra curricular’ activity of this hopeful super mayor is marriage celebrant, not something really expected but is great, ‘Being a Celebrant is cool it’s the best day of a couples life, a mate said if I became a Celebrant he’d get married, so I did it to Spite him’ was the unexpected answer when I ask him the question on everyones lips – why? So I guess we owe this mate of his a beer next time we see him because I don’t think I’m the only thinking that ‘the westie’ would make it a day to remember for sure.

One thing a lot people don’t realize is as a side project he makes vodka from kumara, Purple Monkey Finger is available in limited quantities and is hand made by the man himself. To quote him ‘its awesome’ available at Classic Comedy Club and Bar 321Queen Street, Auckland,  Empire Liquor Centre 81 Victoria Street, Dargaville, and Hotel Ruawai 16 Freyberg Road, Ruawai.

After becoming super mayor he says he’ll find something else. However it leaves you to question what next for the westie? Well we need a decent prime minister is my opinion….

EBMF!