Andrew Hansen: ‘I don’t like upsetting people’

HE may have courted controversy during his years on The Chaser’s War On Everything. But now the comedian reveals he was never comfortable with getting on people’s nerves.

Andrew Hansen: “I think because we were young and thoughtless we were more insensitive than we’d be today.” (Pic: Damien Pleming for Stellar)

SHE was just a face in the crowd, but even from where he stood on the stage, comic Andrew Hansen knew in an instant that she was the girl for him. “I noticed her,” he tells Stellar. “It sounds made up, but I did. I can remember thinking, ‘Oh my goodness... the most amazing and attractive girl in the whole of Melbourne is here!’”

It was something of a fluke that designer Jessica Roberts, now his wife, was in the audience for The Chaser’s live performance at the ABC’s 75th anniversary show in Melbourne in 2007; she’d been dragged along by her flatmate, but had never watched their series. At the end of the performance, she was pushed into having a photo alongside the boys from the cast. “I felt it would have been impolite not to be in it,” Roberts recalls. “So, we actually have a photo of the exact moment we met, which is weird. I didn’t really know him or what he did, I just liked him.”

With wife Jessica Roberts. (Pic: Damien Pleming for Stellar)

Looking back, Hansen credits the ABC costume department with helping him woo Roberts by making him appear to be somewhat stylish — when he admittedly has no taste whatsoever. “I really needed coaching in what to wear,” he says, confessing that his wife now dresses him. “Before that I was wearing T-shirts that I had won in pub trivia contests that were four sizes too big and said Tooheys on them.”

It’s not just style matters on which they are worlds apart. Roberts is organised. Hansen can’t find things even when they’re right in front of him. Roberts is an outdoorsy sports fanatic who was raised in the country. Hansen, meanwhile, grew up “a classic nerd” who was constantly sneezing because of his allergies.

“It was like the end of the world for me when we got told it was time to go out onto the [sports] field,” he says. “I would try and arrange myself to be opposite wherever the ball was, to be as far as possible from it. I would run away from the ball.”

Initially, even visiting his in-laws’ farm presented a challenge. “I was just terrified driving into Jess’s parents’ place down all these dirt roads in the middle of the night,” he recalls.

“I was thinking, ‘What have I done?’ I am not a country person. I am absolutely terrified of bugs and grass and things like that. Sticks? I don’t want to go near a stick. They’re so poky.”

But he got on with it, and the pair have now been married for four years. They are raising their toddler daughter Audrey in their new home in Melbourne’s inner west, having moved down from Sydney this year.

At work for The Chaser accosting then-deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard for a skit in 2007.

Hansen, a born and bred Sydney boy, is still trying to get his head around Melbourne’s fickle weather but says he has equal affection for Australia’s two major cities.

“I find that Sydney-Melbourne rivalry so tiresome,” he says. He admits it takes very little to make him irritated. “People enjoy getting cross,” he laughs. “I do. I think it’s lots of fun. Almost everything makes me cross. Weather. And the fact that seats face each other on public transport. I think it’s very awkward to stare into the face of a stranger. It’s just insanity. I won’t tolerate anything by the time I am 80!”

The family is still in the throes of unpacking, but already their light-filled brick cottage displays hallmarks of their quirky style. Roberts has decorated the lounge room with her own artworks, while an antique orange leather bar, rescued from her father’s shed, takes pride of place in the dining room. An entire room next to the kitchen has been set aside for Audrey, and is a riot of bright colours, toys and books.

They’re hands-on parents, spending much of their time hanging out in their new home with their daughter. Roberts says she’s trying hard not to be a “helicopter parent”, but Hansen is finding it more challenging not to fret. “People talk about getting help but you want to be with the kid yourself, don’t you?” he wonders. “Even if you had all the money in the world to hire nannies or whatever, I don’t know I would want to hand her over. It’s not what it’s about.”

And since Audrey arrived 17 months ago, it has been all about her — with the exception of one creative outlet. Hansen and Roberts have teamed up to co-author the book Bab Sharkey And The Animal Mummies: The Weird Beard, with Roberts also taking on illustrating duties. The idea for the story, about 12-year-old Bab and his mummified mates, came during a holiday to Egypt the couple took long before they became parents. But it took the shift to Melbourne for the possibility of a book series to turn into a reality — now the couple are closer to Roberts’s family, who live on a property in Kyneton, so her mum can look after Audrey and the couple can work on their books together.

“I find that Sydney-Melbourne rivalry so tiresome.” (Pic: Damien Pleming for Stellar)

“We are so blessed and boring because we seem to agree on most things,” says Hansen of working with his wife. “We have similar tastes. It’s lucky because it doesn’t work that way with most creative groups. It wasn’t like that with The Chaser. We were arguing all the time. I don’t like upsetting people at all. It means a lot of the pranks we filmed, I found stressful. Craig [Reucassel] and Julian [Morrow] love doing that. Chris [Taylor] and Chas [Licciardello] and I don’t. But we did it because hopefully it makes for a funnier piece and that’s what we care about.”

Despite their occasional creative differences, Hansen still considers his The Chaser co-stars close friends. They met at university and became household names in the noughties when The Chaser’s War On Everything came under fire for its controversial stunts. “It was weird to read these news reports on how dreadful we supposedly were because I thought it was a harmless, innocent sort of show that was just trying to amuse people once a week,” Hansen says. He was taken aback when he was accused of cruelty for performing a song poking fun at dead celebrities such as Steve Irwin and Princess Diana, having performed the song countless times for a live audience without complaint. Yet television had opened the sketch to criticism from people who weren’t fans of the group. Hansen still performs the song (with a few updates to include the likes of Robin Williams in the death toll), but he’s softened some of the original lyrics.

Andrew Hansen features in Stellar magazine.

“I think because we were young and thoughtless we were more insensitive than we’d be today,” he says. “Dredging up one of the authors I studied at uni, Thea Astley, she called it the natural cruelty of the young. I think we had a bit of that. But I think all young comedians do.”

He readily accepts that media scrutiny is part of his job, but found it “utterly ridiculous” when politicians like former Prime Minister John Howard attacked the show. “Surely they have more important things to talk about?”

Fortunately, perhaps, his in-laws-to-be hadn’t even heard of him. “They thought he was just a nice boy. Later, they started watching the show and loved it,” Roberts says. “The first time they met Andrew he flew down and then drove to my parents’ place which is in the middle of the bush. I had a little dog, Pip...” Hansen jumps in: “Had I known how important it was [to impress Pip] I would have brought some dog treats with me. She was a funny little dog, I opened the car door and she just jumped on to my lap into the car.” Roberts smiles. “She wouldn’t do that with just anybody. I remember my parents saying: ‘Well, if Pip has taken a shine to him, he must be a good guy.’”

Bab Sharkey And The Animal Mummies: The Weird Beard (Walker Books Australia, $14.99) is out on Tuesday, May 1.

Originally published as Andrew Hansen: ‘I don’t like upsetting people’