By SARAH HARVEY - Sunday Star Times
Last updated 05:00 07/02/2010
Mysterious man, That Guy. A large, upright, walking hominid who at 39 is suitably less hirsute in some regions above the neck line than younger men of the same species.
You can spot him in and around Auckland, or in recent weeks in more exotic locations such as Egypt, Peru, Scotland and even the United States.
Funny man Leigh Hart, best known for his That Guy role in Sports Cafe, has taken on a guise not seen before by New Zealanders – that of a travel show host, archaeologist, Egyptologist, natural history guide and cryptozoologist.
Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet: The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries is not your average travel show, in fact the "mockumentary series", which starts this week, is more about mysteries, something that Hart has been fond of since he was young.
"I have more of a background knowledge than most people would have on the subject," Hart said.
The interest was reignited when he was going through his garage a year ago and came across a book his grandfather had given him when he was a child called – you guessed it – Mysterious Planet.
Hart got out a thick white pen, wrote his name on the top of the book, stepped back to have a look at his handiwork, and realised "that would make a good TV programme".
"I used the first six chapters of the book as the basis for the first six shows in the series."
The mysteries he chose are well-known: Bigfoot, the lost Inca, Loch Ness, UFOs in Roswell, the Bermuda Triangle and Egyptian mummies.
Hart said the study of Big Foot, the first show in the six-part series, almost turned into a study of the strange habits of fanatics at a Big Foot conference in Ohio.
He says the Bigfoot fanatics spend most of their time blogging about the hairy creature, and "unless Bigfoot goes online, I don't think they are going to catch him".
In the second episode, the team goes on the trail of the lost Inca in Peru. Hart admits this mystery was chosen more for selfish reasons as he lived in Peru as a child, while his father was building tunnels in the Andes. The third show is the Loch Ness monster mystery.
"In that one there was a guy who helped us out but ended up having a bit of a nervous breakdown. His wife left him, and he was getting frustrated with things going nowhere."
At Roswell they went to the annual UFO conference. "If we can use the word – it was a real freak show," he said.
In Egypt they were lucky enough to time their visit with the unearthing of a mummy. But Egyptian authorities were less than impressed with the team, and Hart got a telling off because he broke an ancient pot.
"It was very National Geographic-y," he said.
The biggest mystery, the Bermuda Triangle, is saved for last and what happens remains a secret.
There are no New Zealand mysteries in the series, with Hart saying it was all about using Kiwi ingenuity in exotic locations. Such as when they were at Loch Ness and they attached cameras to a remote-controlled speed boat – the only problem being that the cameras were not waterproof.
They made metal detectors to use in Roswell, but they were so sensitive they were picking up items of clothing, so those using the detectors had to do so nude.
Hart said the series did not aim to prove or disprove anything, and was more to look at the mysteries in a comedic light.
"Everybody loves a good mystery. Everyone's looking for something in their life.
"Sometimes we want them to be solved. A lot of times, in these cases, the people looking for them don't want them to be solved."
* Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet: The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries, Friday, 9.30pm, TV One.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/3301174/That-Guys-gone-in-search-of-Bigfoot
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