Ed Kavalee reflects on the legacy of the show that gave him - and many others - their start
It’s Australia’s star-making factory — the show that unearthed Rebel Wilson and Hamish Blake — and it’s back to showcase the next big names in Aussie entertainment.
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Some 16 years ago, Ed Kavalee received one of his greatest-ever birthday presents – a call from Working Dog productions offering him a role on their latest TV project.
Much-loved Australian comedian Glenn Robbins had spotted him doing live theatre sports at Sydney Uni, where Kavalee had finished his Arts degree.
“I nearly fell out of the (Today FM) Black Thunder I was driving,” he jokes.
“These guys were my heroes, you know what I mean.”
Those heroes were actors Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner and producer Michael Hirsh who founded the iconic production company. And the project was Thank God You’re Here.
Fourteen years since it last aired on Australian TV, and 16 years since its original run on Ten, the noughties improv favourite is back this week with a new host in Celia Pacquola and a series of guest judges.
Back in 2006, when the Working Dog creation burst on to TV screens it was hosted by Shane Bourne, with Gleisner as the judge. It was theatre sports live on air with different guests each episode asked to walk through a big blue door, greeted with “Thank God You’re Here’ and left to hold their own in unexpected scenes with a regular comedy ensemble.
Kavalee was part of that ensemble over the original iteration’s four-season run. And while more established comedians such as Robbins, Frank Woodley and Shaun Micallef made a number of trips through the iconic blue door, there were a whole host of fresh faces introduced to wider audiences.
Think Angus Sampson, Hamish Blake, Josh Lawson, Rebel Wilson, Julia Zemiro and Fifi Box.
Some such as Sampson, Blake, Lawson and Wilson – were in their mid-twenties and only just getting their start in the industry. Zemiro and Box were known in the industry, but not for their comedy.
Wilson and Lawson have since gone on to huge Hollywood success with movie roles including Pitch Perfect and Anchorman 2 and Mortal Kombat respectively.
While Sampson has added a variety of roles from the Insidious movie franchises to a lead role in the popular TV series Bump.
“Josh Lawson was my best friend – he’d just been sacked from Sea Patrol,” Kavalee says.
“Angus was just one of those actors if you knew him you knew him – but lots of people didn’t.
And Hamish wasn’t Hamish Blake in capital letters with Gold Logies hanging off him.
“Those people are now household names and have had 15-year careers.
“But at the time they weren’t that – they were people that Working Dog literally saw at Sydney and Melbourne Comedy Festival. Or saw people on obscure TV shows and plucked them out and said, ‘We back this person. We think they’re going to do a great job on prime time commercial television’. “And they were proved correct by building a show that is only about making people look good.”
And that already lengthy legacy – which has continued through Have You Been Paying Attention and Utopia – looks set to continue with TGYH’s revival. Paramount ANZ content and programming senior vice president Daniel Monaghan emphasised the effect the series could have on platforming a new generation of comedians.
“It was one of the most talked about shows on Australian television and was responsible for launching and celebrating a wealth of intelligent, lively and hilarious Australian talent,” he said.
It’s a full circle moment with Kavalee taking over from Robbins as the director of this new ensemble. He’s now tasked with identifying and giving opportunities to the next generation of comic talent.
“Look, I hope I’m allowed to say it,” he says.
“We’ve got some absolute weapons, and they are far better than I ever was.
“I’m not one for sentimentality – yet to be able to make a phone call saying ‘Hello. My name’s Ed. I’m calling from the production company Working Dog. May I start by saying we never had this conversation’. Which is the exact thing that was said to me 16 years ago.
“And then to be able to meet people and help provide them with an opportunity like the one I had, it was so rewarding and fun.
“It’s been one of the absolute great joys of my life in my career so far.”
And in terms of legacy, the father of two with wife Tiff Hall is genuinely serious when he says no one has benefited more from a Working Dog “sponsored program”. Kavalee’s now enjoyed 16 years in podcasting, radio, and TV including 11 seasons as a regular on Have You been Paying Attention. There’s already been six Logies for that panel show – with the very real possibility of adding another to their haul on Sunday night, and Kavalee can’t imagine where he’d be without his sliding door moment.
“I was an actor that was failing pretty quickly,” he says.
“I wasn’t a stand up. I didn’t really have a discernible skill set. It’s not something I ever take for granted.
“But also I’m witness every day, every week how hard Working Dog as a collective works inn the service of people doing well on their programs.
“I don’t think that’s something that people talk about enough – and yet it’s something that they’ve been doing for nearly 40 years.
“People say ‘Don’t meet your heroes’ Not only did I meet my heroes, but I refuse to let them go.”
Thank God You’re Here, Wednesday, 7.30pm, Ten
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