Guy Montgomery (born 29September 1988) is a comedian from New Zealand. He is known for his panel game show Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee, which he began as a web series before becoming a TV series, for +HR=E in New Zealand, and later, adapted to a slightly higher budget Australian version for the ABC. He won the Fred Award in 2023.
Early life and career
Montgomery was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 29September 1988. At a young age, Montgomery's family moved to Sydney and back to Wellington before settling in Christchurch.[1][2] He has an older and younger sister.[2] Montgomery studied at Victoria University of Wellington, from which he graduated with a bachelor of arts in theatre, film, and media.[2] He briefly considered becoming a teacher or working in advertising.[3]
To begin his career in comedy, Montgomery moved to Canada in 2010 — first Montreal, and then Toronto, which had more open mic nights.[3][4][2] He explained in an interview, "Every comedian starts off shit. I wanted to make sure I wasn't shit in front of my friends."[5] Reflecting on the time in 2024, he said that "it was such an incredible year, and I do think it's probably made me".[3] Montgomery returned to New Zealand in part to co-host U Late.[4] He later moved to New York City.[6]
Podcasts and radio
The Worst Idea of All Time was started in 2014 by Montgomery and Tim Batt.[7][8] The podcast follows them as they report upon the viewing experience of re-watching the same movie each week for a year.[9] The first season was focused on the Adam Sandler movie Grown Ups 2;[10] the second on Sex and the City 2; the third season on We Are Your Friends; and the fourth on the first Sex and the City film.[11][12][13] After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the duo did an "emergency season" in which they watched the film Home Alone 3 every three days until their local New Zealand lockdown orders were lifted.[14][15] The fifth season began in 2020, with Batt and Montgomery reviewing the French–American Emmanuelle series of softcore pornography films.[13][better source needed] The sixth season features the Fast and Furious franchise.[2]
They also record Friendzone, dedicated to answering fan mail.[1]
Montgomery and Batt are also co-hosts of 'Til Death Do Us Blart, a once-yearly, "eternal" Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 review podcast that will air every American Thanksgiving. After each of the five hosts dies, they will be replaced by a new host.
He performed Guy Montcomedy in 2015 in Auckland, and then in 2016 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[17][18] This was followed by Guy Montgomery Christmas! at the 2016 NZICF.[19]
At the 2017 NZ International Comedy Festival, Montgomery was nominated for the Fred Award for Let's All Get in a Room Together.[20]
His show Guy Montgomery Doesn't Check His Phone For An Hour played at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2018, which explored his move to New York.[5][21] He and others from the MICF toured India for a month that year.[22] He presented I'm Friends With These People! in New York in early 2019, featuring Rachel Sennott, Pat Regan, Rachel Pegram, Cam Spence, and Joe Pera.[23]
In 2019, Montgomery presented his sixth solo show, I Was Part Of The Problem Before We Were Talking About It, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival;[24] he described it as "about personal growth and reconciling who I am today with all the iterations of myself I've been throughout the years".[12][25]
He presented Guy Montgomery By Name, Guy Montgomery By Nature at the NZICF in 2021, and later took the show around New Zealand.[26]
His show My Brain is Blowing Me Crazy premiered in 2023 and won the Fred Award at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. In May 2024, Montgomery went on tour with a new show, 50,000,000 Guy Fans Can't be Wrong.[27][2]
Montgomery is also a member of the improv group Snort.[12]
Television and film
Montgomery's first appearance on TV was on the TVNZU channel, where from 2011 he was a fill-in host on ULive and later hosted the "interactive" 2013 show Ulate alongside Tim Lambourne.[28][29][30] He wanted the show, which aired on weeknights on TVNZU, to "fill the void that's been left by Eating Media Lunch, Moon TV, [and] Back of the Y".[31] He and Lambourne had previously worked together at George FM on the show Monty and the Face.
From Ulate, where he first met his podcast partner Tim Batt,[32] Montgomery moved into writing for several different comedy shows in New Zealand, such as Jono and Ben at 10.[citation needed] Montgomery was also a writer and presenter of Fail Army.[33][2] He appeared on Cadbury Dream Factory in 2014.
In 2017, Montgomery and Tim Batt recorded a pilot episode of a The Worst Idea of All Time TV series for YouTube Red, in which they spent five days in a New York City sewer watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. The show was never ordered to series.
Montgomery appeared on the 2020 May the 4th fundraiser episode of The George Lucas Talk Show, titled The George Lucas Talk Show All Day Star Wars Movie Watch Along. He was also co-host of Survive the 80s.[37]
.jpg)