During lockdown, Guy Montgomery began hosting silly spelling bee competitions on Zoom and YouTube. That idea evolved into a standup comedy show, then a TV show in his native New Zealand and, now, an Australian version on the ABC. Ridiculously titled Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, it is a joy to watch – the Guardian review gave it five stars. Montgomery is still amazed he was able to get it made.
“Even if you think you’ve got an airtight format idea, to get that idea made is so unlikely, and so many bits of good luck have to befall you,” he says. “So by the time we’re actually in the studio filming the show and getting to share it with all of the comedians, it feels like a celebration – like the last week of school.”
Over his 10 years on the road as a standup, Montgomery has learned to nail one part of the travel experience: how he packs his charger cables. Here, he tells us about the special case that makes it possible, as well as the story of two other important personal belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
A small trophy given to me on my 35th birthday by my stepdaughter, which says “Best Stepdad Ever”.
She chose the actual trophy, which is a holographic moon, inside a glass cube that is mounted on a wooden platform. Then it’s got – on a beautiful, little handwritten plaque, in her quite scruffy handwriting – “Best Stepdad Ever”. It’s one of a kind – you can’t find this in stores. I don’t think it would fetch much on the open market, but the sentimental value is through the roof.
My most useful object
This question has been a chance to reflect on just how impractical I am and how little value I add to my home life and, more broadly, life in general. Because I think the most useful item to me, that most pleases me, is a small zip-up travel bag that I use to organise all my chargers and cables.
I used to have a pencil case and a rubber band – I would tie the rubber band around my cables, and chuck them in my bag. Then whenever I was travelling, I’d unzip the pencil case and it would just be a mess of cables – it would really, really bother me. And when you’re travelling a lot for work – especially if you’re a parent in any form, and you’re used to travelling with children – there’s great pleasure in how streamlined and efficient you can make the solo travel experience. And this charger case is a part of it. My partner spotted it when we were shopping one day and said: “You would love that.” She was right.
It’s got a house for the laptop charger. It’s got a house for the phone charger, for the USB. It’s got nothing it doesn’t need and everything it does and I know exactly where everything goes. It’s one of my favourite parts of packing to go away – I get everything exactly where I want it. I zip it up, I put it in my backpack and I think there’s not a situation in the world whereby I would not be able to charge one of my pieces of technology.
The item I most regret losing
I get unreasonably frustrated if I lose anything but the thing I’ve lost the most has been sunglasses.
I found the sunglasses I like when I was at university: a pair of Moscot Originals. When I first bought them, they felt very expensive to me. But I thought, I love these sunglasses so much, it’s worth it. I had them for two years, loyal servants and soldiers, and then I lost them. Instead of going out into the world of sunglasses research and buying a cheaper pair, I thought: those just serve me so well, I’m just going to get a pair again. So I bought another pair, they probably lasted me three years, and then I lost them again. I thought: this is getting ridiculous. Can I really keep losing these sunglasses? But I did.
And now, 16 or 17 years later, I’m embarrassed to say I’m on to my sixth pair of these Moscot sunglasses, which means that they’ve cost me six times more than any pair of sunglasses have the right to. Every pair I lose results in a more anguished and frustrated version of myself than the previous one did.
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee is now available to stream on ABC iView
