JOKER JAMES 'MY GOAL WAS TO JUST HAVE A LAUGH'

The fan favourite is following in Josh Kronfeld's footsteps

- Penny Lewis

With his quick wit and kindness, James Mustapic is a fan favourite on Celebrity Treasure Island, but the former Tohorā captain had the weight of the world on his shoulders when he was forced to trade three of his teammates with the Kārearea squad.

“I felt terrible doing the team swap,” he recalls. “It was horrifying for someone like me who’s a people pleaser. I really felt like I was going to be public enemy number one. Things weren’t the best at the other camp, but I didn’t realise what the dynamic was like.

“When Blair, Nick and Courtney came over, I thought I was the guy who’d ripped them away from home. But we had a lovely night chatting, and Nick and Laura sang, and I just felt so happy they had come over and seemed happy.

“They were like, ‘At Kārearea, as soon as it gets dark, we all go to bed and we don’t really play any games at night or anything’. We just thought it was normal to have fun in the evenings.”

The new-look Tohorā team bonded by making up a team chant, and they had everyone in stitches the next day when they marched into the face-to-face challenge with James carried on Steve Price and Nick Afoa’s shoulders.

The comedian says, “We thought, ‘Let’s do something silly’. Sometimes silly things are what brings the team together – a bit of levity and lightheartedness. I wasn’t a serious captain, so it was just fun,”