Actor Arthur Meek playing Richard Meros is pictured with a whimsical look on his face against a pink background. A thought bubble with a picture of Hillary Clinton with yellow flower wreathes either side of her is off to the left.Dash­ing Mil­len­ni­al Richard Mer­os is back in town with a per­suas­ive argu­ment that out­lines the con­di­tions and pos­sib­il­it­ies of Hil­lary Clin­ton tak­ing him as her Young Lov­er pri­or to the 2016 Pres­id­en­tial Elec­tion. (You may recall him attempt­ing the same thing with Helen Clark before elec­tion night 2008.)  I asked him some ques­tions before his lec­tures (fea­tur­ing a ‘Nuc­le­ar-Power­Point’) start tomor­row night.

Q: This is the second time you’ve tried to get laid by a woman in power via the medi­um of theatre. Why do you keep try­ing?

A: I have to coach your lan­guage. This isn’t about get­ting laid, I’m not an egg. It’s about get­ting loved. I’m a romantic. I feel it’s bet­ter to woo and be ignored than nev­er to have wooed at all (as Byron would have put it if he’d been any good at poetry) Also, no offence to Helen Clark, but Hil­lary is a much big­ger catch. If she’s Pres­id­ent she’ll have her own plane with a bed in it, which is way bet­ter than cuddle class on Air New Zea­l­and.

Q. On the face of it, Hil­lary Clin­ton seems to be an unusu­al choice but the US Demo­crat­ic primar­ies seem to fas­cin­ate a lot of people in New Zea­l­and. Why do you think that is?

A: As Kiwis, we look to the US to tell us what to eat, watch, wear and buy. They help us decide who to spy on, arrest and blow up. Let’s face it, we’re in love with the US, so why don’t we face it and get our hump on rather than stand about like wall­flowers at the bot­tom of the world wait­ing for the cute kid to ask us to dance?

Q. If I’ve seen On the Con­di­tions and Pos­sib­il­it­ies of Helen Clark Tak­ing Me as Her Young Lov­er will this just be more of the same?

A: Yes. Just like The Lion King and Frozen are more of the same Dis­ney anim­a­tions. This is the latest adven­ture of Richard Mer­os, B.A. It’s everything you’ll love – the humour the style and tone, and a com­pletely dif­fer­ent story presen­ted by a man who’s eight years older and more beau­ti­fully delu­sion­al than ever.

Q. The show was described as ‘demen­ted’ – in a good way –  by New York Magazine when it was per­formed in the US. Auck­land audi­ences seemed to be favour­able as well. Do you anti­cip­ate Wel­ling­ton audi­ences feel­ing dif­fer­ently?

A. The thing you’ve got to under­stand about Wel­ling­to­ni­ans is that they’re smarter and sex­i­er than any oth­er audi­ences on the plan­et. New York­ers may have thought the show demen­ted, but then they think that about pub­lic health care. Auck­landers admire any­thing that increases in value with time. So of course they like us. But Wel­ling­to­ni­ans, they will be encircled in the swiftly flow­ing moat of pure reas­on.