Just Acting up

While pre-election performances career from farcical to fatiguing, hapless voters are left counting the days until October 14.

- Michele Hewitson

Just when you thought the election campaign couldn't get even more bonkers, it got even more bonkers at Act's campaign launch at Auckland's Civic Theatre.

They'd already had what everyone thought was their campaign launch back in June at the SkyCity Theatre, where Act leader David Seymour, also known as the Entertainer, drove on stage in a little yellow car. But, hey, who couldn't use a little more spectacle in this dreary election campaign?

So, how do you top the death-defying act of driving a little car on stage? Poof! By making Seymour perhaps we should call him Mr Magic - magically disappear in a puff of Barbie pink smoke. More than a few people would be happy to see him disappear permanently, so that was perhaps not the smartest of tricks.

But then poof! - a clown jumps up in Mr Magic's audience. This was the huge and hugely annoying fellow who popped up over a fence to disrupt National leader Christopher Luxon's press conference in August. He had previously heckled Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at the Õtara Markets. His name is apparently Karl Mokaraka, a candidate for Vision New Zealand, a circus aligned to Destiny Church. Mokaraka likes to shout. He likes attention. He'd like some votes, too. So, in the unlikely event that you want to give him yours, just look for Annoying Shouty Man on the ballot paper.

How did he manage to infiltrate the campaign launch? Not the same way those five now-resigned Act candidates managed to infiltrate the party's list. He wriggled his way in by wearing a false moustache.

Getting rid of the 'tache was the easy bit; getting rid of him was hard. During a 10-minute circus act to get rid of Mokaraka, some over-stimulated Act supporters decided to join in and began whacking some members of the media with their signs. Whump! A camera geezer fell into some seats and was smacked in the noggin by an elderly lady.