Thank God You’re Here featured many of Australia’s funniest stars, but there was one in particular that the ensemble cast found more challenging than any other.
If you don’t remember the show, the format was pretty simple.
A guest comedian was invited by host Shane Bourne to walk through a blue door and was thrust onto a set filled with props and an ensemble cast.
It was then up to the comedian to improvise the remainder of the scene in character for five minutes.
Ed Kavalee, who now co-hosts the Hit Network’s Hughesy and Ed show, was part of the ensemble cast during all four seasons of the show which ran from 2006 to 2009.
To celebrate the first two seasons of Thank God You’re Here now being available to stream on 10 Play (seasons 3 and 4 will follow in the next few weeks), Kavalee opened up to news.com.au about what it was like appearing on the iconic show.
How did you land a role as part of the ensemble cast?
I was doing theatre sports at university and I didn’t know at the time but Working Dog (production company) had sent some of their operatives to watch improv shows. They found me and we didn’t even know. I remember I was working for a radio station at the time and I was asleep on my birthday in a Black Thunder promotional vehicle at a Campbelltown petrol station. My phone rang and it was a lady called Deb from Working Dog, and that was it.
Do you remember the very first show?
There was an audience of 450 people jammed into this warehouse that they sort of semi-converted and all the audience saw was two boards that said, ‘Thank God You’re Here’. But at that stage, the audience had no idea how the show worked.
We (the ensemble cast) were standing behind one of the boards … The first guest was Angus Sampson and he was about to wander in as a surgeon. And I’ll never forget when the screen pulled back and the looks on the faces of the audience in the front rows were just like, ‘What is going on?’
Angus walked in and we said, ‘Thank god you’re here, there’s a patient that needs work.’ Angus made his first joke and there was a little bit of laughter as people got used to it, but then about 30 seconds in, we were pausing because people were laughing so much.
It was incredible to watch all of these people get the idea and come on board with it at the same time.
There were some amazing guests on the show, including Rebel Wilson, Hamish Blake, Tony Martin, Arj Barker and your radio co-host Dave Hughes. Was there one guest who was more challenging for the ensemble cast?
Shaun Micallef looks like a lawyer, because he is one, but he’s an anarchist. He would pick up things, he would flip pieces of the set and he would try and open doors on the set that weren’t meant to open.
When we knew Micallef was coming in, we (ensemble cast) would position ourselves in the corners of the set so that he couldn’t escape. If you watch closely you can see us doing it, sort of forming human barriers around him as he tried to tear the place apart.
There was a time Micallef just turned around started asking the audience questions, so one of us had to go and get him and drag him back onto the set.
And there was the time he tried to pull host Shane Bourne into the scenario. We were all looking at each other going, ‘Right, if he pulls Shane in, we’re just going to have to say, thank god you’re here, but excuse me, you’re not required.’
Apart from Shaun Micallef, Frank Woodley would always try to kiss me all the time. I ended up knowing that was probably going to take place so I always had a few things in my head of how I was going to left or right him.
It must have been so hard not to laugh. Did you ever crack up during a scenario?
Absolutely not. I never laughed. People can go through every piece of footage they want and you will never see me crack. I just didn’t.
The secret was, we were always taking what the guest said seriously, not too seriously, but seriously enough.
Josh Lawson is one of my closest friends and he was on the show as a guest and as soon as he saw me, he would just walk up to me in the scenario and just try and start making me laugh and I was like, ‘It’s not going to happen.’
Series 1 and 2 of Thank God You’re Here are streaming for free on 10 Play now. Series 3 will drop June 29 and Series 4 will drop July 6
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMirwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3R2L2ZsYXNoYmFjay90aGFuay1nb2QteW91cmUtaGVyZS1lZC1rYXZhbGVlLXJldmVhbHMtd2hpY2gtY2VsZWJyaXR5LXdhcy10aGUtbW9zdC1jaGFsbGVuZ2luZy9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzU3NTYyMDdkZDExMjg1NDRjMWQxZWIzZWVlMzM3YjVm0gGvAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLm5ld3MuY29tLmF1L2VudGVydGFpbm1lbnQvdHYvZmxhc2hiYWNrL3RoYW5rLWdvZC15b3VyZS1oZXJlLWVkLWthdmFsZWUtcmV2ZWFscy13aGljaC1jZWxlYnJpdHktd2FzLXRoZS1tb3N0LWNoYWxsZW5naW5nL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvNTc1NjIwN2RkMTEyODU0NGMxZDFlYjNlZWUzMzdiNWY?oc=5
2020-06-25 20:44:36Z
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