Pio Terei – Presenter, Performer, Actor [Ngāpuhi, Ngā Te Rarawa]

Pio Terei is one of television’s great survivors. He has carved himself a career as a Māori entertainer, and feels passionate about both those roles. He has always been proud of being Māori, and has always entertained easily and effortlessly.

Pio derives sustenance from being a part of the wider whakapapa of Māori entertainment. Ancestors in that illustrious family tree include the marae orators and singers of his Tai Tokerau tribes. More recent forebears include the Māori showband generation, and icons like Ricky May, Prince Tui Teka, Sir Howard Morrison and Billy T James. Pio has continued the tradition of someone who is the total package: singer, musician and comic.

Pio’s good fortune owes much to being raised by parents who loved him and encouraged him to apply himself to whatever he wished. As a boy he enjoyed singing Beatles songs, so Pio’s father bought him a ukulele. When an uncle got him a guitar, Pio learned to play from records featuring legendary Māori guitarist Ben Tawhiti. One night he was practicing in his bedroom, when his father came in and turned the lights out. He made Pio continue in the dark. Today, he can still go to any chord on the guitar without having to look at it.

Before long, Pio was in a covers band that played all over West Auckland. It was a valuable experience that he never forgot. “People would ask: ‘Bro, is your band any good?’ And I’d say: ‘I don’t know if we’re any good, but you gotta book us a year out.’ We were working all over the place…rugby league clubs and stuff like that. But it gave me the foundation to own a stage, like entertainers do.”

Pio then turned to selling cars. But after a decade of it, he was fed up and wanted a change. In the early 1990s, urban and tribal radio stations were starting to have an impact. Māori audiences enjoyed the novelty of programming that spoke directly to them. Pio was a fan of indie station Aotearoa Radio — in particular its morning show, featuring Temuera Morrison and Jay Laga’aia. The duo had won a devoted audience with their easy humour, guitar at the ready. Pio began at the station in the sales department, hoping for an opportunity if someone got sick. Soon he was asked to fill in for Temuera, who had gone on tour with Aaron Neville.

Pio’s easy confidence on air was noticed by pioneering Māori broadcaster Brendan Butt. Butt has his own enthusiastic sense of humour, and recognised in Pio a talent that would shine on the small screen. He partnered Pio with established funnyman Peter Rowley (A Week of It), for the popular Pete & Pio. In the show’s second season, the duo won an NZ TV Award for Best Performance in an Entertainment Show. Pio scored further awards when he headlined three seasons of his own series, Pio!

In some ways Pio has been suggested as the logical inheritor of the comic mantle of Billy T James. The comparison is understandable, but wrong. Pio, like Billy, can do the happy character, with corny one-liners and an infectious giggle. Yet his humour also brings a political edge. The Life And Times Of Te Tutu made razor-sharp commentary about colonisation within an absurdist comedy vehicle. Pio talks in this interview about the show’s reception — and how he was chastised for daring to “take the piss out of Pākehā” as a Māori.

Pio has forged a long career by being himself. His on-screen interactions — with guests, actors, band members, and members of the public — are remarkable for being good fun. His friendliness is as genuine as his obvious talent. His keen intelligence comes with a ready wit that adds weight to his affability. There is a depth to Pio which is shaped by his northern Māori pride. He has always been easy and comfortable in the Māori world. People feel it, and warm to it.