‘Australian pies… they give it a good try’

Sick of getting into arguments about bakeries on social media, TimProvise and a videographer friend started the series Bakery Run back in 2019. Over seven seasons, he’s visited bakeries with Kiwi celebrities to chat over some “nice cheap hood pies that people love”.

Although conversation about who makes the best pies “cuts across age and class and politics and everything” in New Zealand, Tim says, the show’s YouTube comments section can get pretty vicious.

“It’s like part nostalgia and part civil war. Everybody’s scrapping,” he tells On The Air.

“Australian pies… they try. We’ll give them that, they give it a good try.”

The comedan’s number-one pie, though, “because of nostalgia,” is sold at Auckland’s Clendon Bakery.

“There’s a guy that works there, his name is Min. He would let me take out the boxes after school, and then he’d give me a feed, and I’m like, ‘You’re forever the man’.”

In the next few months, TimProvize will visit New Zealand’s favourite small restaurants in a new video seriesMy Shout, G.

He’s also started a toy business called Tee Toys, making 3D-modelled action figures of famous Kiwis and auctioning them on TradeMe.

Although TimProvise now lives in sunny Taranaki town of Stratford, ‘South Side’ – David Dallas’s tribute to South Auckland – remains his “anthem”.

“This is everything about me. I’m south side, I’m Rewa hard to the fullest. And shout out to Mareko and everybody else that reps their hood like this.”