Honestly, Mum, it sounds like a white woman in her forties wrote that… Nobody will want to watch.” Comedian, writer and director Jackie van Beek has just finished a first draft of an idea and she’s running it past her teenage children, as she often does.
Yes, offspring can be brutal, but as Jackie is quick to point out, they’re also very useful. Back to the drawing board then!
Her children, June 15, Emmett, 14, and Cassie, 10, have “the classic van Griffin strong opinion”, says Jackie, who is married to fellow comedian, writer and director Jesse Griffin.
The pair embrace the criticism, she tells. “I’d written another script about sexism in the workplace and Emmett said, as he went off to make his peanut-butter sandwich, ‘I find that dated. What about nepotism instead?’ I went with nepotism.”
Jackie’s formalised the arrangement now. “I give them $30 pocket money per script for advice,” she laughs.
She and Jesse are a tight unit, with fellow Kiwi comedian Jonny Brugh.
