Jason Maverick's Memories of Havakazoo

In my last blog post. I talked about the Channel 5's Milkshake programme Havakazoo. Which can be read here.

One of the presenters of the original series was Jason Maverick. Who has spent many years entertaining people all over the world. Performing juggling, mime and robotics. As well as appearing at events as a living statue!

Jason in his Havakazoo days

I recently sent an email to Jason and he very kindly agreed to do a Q&A for me about his days in kids telly...

First off. Can you tell me about your entertaining background?

I studied mime at The Desmond Jones school in London and that set me on a path of performing visual comedy around the world. 35 countries so far.

From reading your website. You've entertained a lot of celebrities and even The Queen! What was that like?

Entertaining The Queen was unique. I've entertained a lot of celebrities. George Harrison at his mansion etc etc. But entertaining The Queen did make me a little nervous.

Can you explain a bit about what Havakazoo was?

Havakazoo was set in a windmill and was based around the lives of three different types of artists and their interactions...plus of course the ever popular Messy The Robot!

Where did the name Havakazoo come from?

The show outline was devised by Look Lively TV and Channel 5.

How did you get the Havakazoo role? Am I right in thinking you wrote some of the material for it too?

My showreel was shown to them. Which highlighted all my physical comedy. They called me in for an audition to test me verbally and as luck would have it i'd written 50 kids poems about animals. They become the poems I used for the elephant puppet character. I devised all my solo routines on the programme and the slugs world scripts. Plus I helped with story outlines along with Gabrielle. The scripts themselves were written by the very talented Brian Jordan. 

Was the show good fun to present?

It was great fun, bonkers and very hard work with long filming days. 

I recall you presented a lot of segments about animals. They always say never work with animals...did anything go wrong?

Yes, we had a bat which wriggled out of my hands (I was afraid of crushing it) and it flew high in to the studio ceiling. The real bat man had to rescue it.

You presented the show along with Gabrielle Bradshaw and Vo Fletcher. Do you still keep in touch and remain friends?

Gabrielle is still a very good friend and Vo and I are very loosely in touch. 

Where was the show filmed?

Southampton Studios (The now demolished Meridian TV studios)

How many episodes of Havakazoo did you present?

156 episodes!

After a few series. Havakazoo relaunched with different presenters. How come you left?

I think they wanted to keep it fresh and change direction which was fair enough.

Since Havakazoo have you appeared in any other TV shows? If so, which ones?

I played Robot Dad opposite Harry Hill in the TV film. The Adventures of Professor Brainstawm.

Jason still continues to entertain the world.

A huge thank you to Jason for taking part and for providing the photos shown too. If you want to check out Jason's website. You can by clicking here