Hayden Meikle: How's the glamorous, high-paced world of television up in Auckland?
Andrew Mulligan: Oh mate, it's brilliant. Just so glamorous.
HM: Tell me how a bloke goes from hosting Cow TV to a plum gig like the Commonwealth Games?
AM: Well, I served about nine months in purgatory, otherwise known as Hamilton. I paid my dues doing the devil's work for a radio station there. Somehow, I managed to weasel my way into TV3 and then just sort of ended up doing what I'm doing now. Just the right place at the right time.
AM: Yeah. I was at university and I was ambling through a marketing and management degree. I was thinking, `You know what, I really can't wait to get out of here but I'm not going to have the grades to get a plum job'.
The idea of a TV career probably seemed a bit pie in the sky, but in this country everyone is sort of linked by two degrees of separation. A mate started up Cow TV and I got the bug from there. My parents had been in the radio business for years. Mum still is. So some of it is in my blood.
HM: Did you come from down here originally?
AM: No, but my mother did and my dad went to university down there. Both of them worked in Dunedin. I've got cousins in Gore and I spent a few summers in Riversdale and Milton.
HM: Your Wikipedia page says you claimed to be a direct descendant of John Logie Baird, the inventor of television. Please discuss.
AM: Ha ha. Yeah, my mother's maiden name is Baird, and she has it on good authority from her side of the family that John Logie Baird fits in somewhere, and he is apparently the guy that invented the television in Scotland. I've tried to find out something more substantial, but it does sound really good.
HM: Did you know Mark Richardson before The Crowd Goes Wild?
AM: I did. I met him a couple of times on another show when I worked with Dion Nash. He did a story on what Black Caps get up to. We went to Mark's house and just sort of hung out for a couple of hours. We played a bit of backyard cricket. I thought then that he wasn't your run-of-the-mill sportsman. He's a strange man.
HM: How does a guy who made Geoffrey Boycott look expansive turn out to have such a wacky sense of humour?
AM: I think a lot of things Mark says people take as gospel. He's so dry. He's almost too dry for TV. I think people don't realise that he's playing an extension of his character, of what he's like in real life. He's genuinely funny.
HM: Is he going to India as well?
AM: No, he's not. Initially he didn't want to to go. Then he realised it would be quite a bit of fun but it was too late. It would have been hilarious to see him back in India, because anyone who plays cricket is revered there.
HM: What or who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Games?
AM: I'm actually just looking forward to seeing them get under way. I went to the Commonwealth Games briefly in Melbourne, and I went to the 1990 Games in Auckland. I remember it being huge, but nowadays the Commonwealth Games is sort of like the forgotten international competition.
I think some people don't really care any more. But for me, the best thing is going to be seeing New Zealanders winning something.
HM: Name your top three all-time favourite Commonwealth Games moments.
AM: I'd have to say Nikki Jenkins winning gymnastics gold in Auckland. Nick Willis getting the gold in Melbourne was pretty cool. I was working on TV that night. And probably the guy who fell over, Craig Barrett, the walker. That was painfully hilarious.
• Tomorrow: The Games countdown continues with a catch-up with champion cyclist Alison Shanks.
