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10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
LAUREN MABBETT Newsreader, comedienne, drummer, plane aficionado, Backstreet Boys fangirl, and she worked at Alcatraz – we hope The Hits radio personality Lauren Mabbett has an opening for a new best friend, because we want that job. WO R DS C A R LY G I B B S I MAG E S S U PPLI E D
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auren is The Hits day show announcer for the Bay of Plenty (9am-3pm on 95.0FM). Born and bred in Tauranga, she started her radio career in the Bay, then worked on air in Auckland and Wellington before returning home late last year to take up her current dream role. 1. I have a weird fascination with America. Growing up seeing America on TV, that’s what I thought life was: Living on Full House in a San Francisco townhouse. I’ve visited about 30 of America’s 50 states. When I was 27, I lived in San Francisco for a year and worked at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. My job was on the landing giving out tickets, but once a week I would go out to Alcatraz Island and welcome guests. People have ghost stories about Alcatraz (which closed in 1963 and is now a museum), but I didn’t get any weird vibes. 2. I was twice a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I was at broadcasting school in 2009 when my two
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roommates and I made YouTube videos about how we wanted to raise money to go to America for a holiday. Within a week, someone at The Ellen DeGeneres Show had found the videos and contacted us. Then it snowballed. Ellen called us live on air telling us she was flying us over. We had VIP treatment: Picked up from the airport in a limo, tickets to Disneyland, a baseball game, and they surprised us by putting us on the show, where we met fellow guest and Friends actor Matthew Perry. Ellen was lovely. Very tiny. I remember hugging her and thinking, “Oh, I’m going to break you.” We stayed in the presidential suite of the Bonaventure Hotel in LA. You could stand at one end of our apartment and yell and the person at the other end couldn’t hear you. It was a whirlwind. We appeared on the show a second time at the end of our trip for a recap. It’s a claim to fame I don’t think I’ll ever beat. 3. I used to be a full-time drummer. I was 12 when I started playing the drums. I was in a few original metal bands, but the one where I got paid (in my early 20s) was the cover band Budokan. We’d play at
