How Have You Been Paying Attention? went from radio filler to Logie-winning TV comedy hit

Have You Been Paying Attention? has come from humble beginnings as a segment to fill in airtime on radio to a Logie-winning comedy hit, but its creators still don’t get enough credit for fostering comedic talent.

Ed Kavalee still has to pinch himself every time he sits down across the table from Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner.

While Sitch and Gleisner have become Kavalee’s friends and colleagues over the past decade thanks to their collaboration on Thank God You’re Here and Have You Been Paying Attention? he considers himself to be first and foremost a fan of the well-known comics.

Like many of his generation, Kavalee, 39, grew up watching Sitch, Gleisner and many of their Working Dog cohort on The Late Show, Frontline and The Panel.

He laughs about having the Late Show Champagne Edition VHS tape on heavy rotation while working in a video shop for more than eight years.

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“I was a big, big fan,” he recalls.

“I can still vividly recall the exact moment that someone from Working Dog called me.

“I was asleep in one of the Black Thunder cars at a petrol station in Campbelltown [while working with the promotions team for Sydney’s Triple M radio station]. They had seen some of my improv[isation] work and thought I would be good for Thank God You’re Here. I couldn’t believe it.”

Have You Been Paying Attention? stars Ed Kavalee, Tom Gleisner and Sam Pang.

Fast forward 10 years and Kavalee is now a Sydney radio breakfast host, actor and TV star. And he credits much of his ongoing success to the fact that his childhood heroes championed and fostered his talent through programs like Have You Been Paying Attention?

On Have You Been Paying Attention? Kavalee and Sam Pang (along with an eclectic weekly rotation of guests) have spent six years answering Gleisner’s questions about the week’s headlines.

“I don’t think they get enough credit for what they do for promoting and encouraging talent in this country,” he says.

“You take someone like Urzila Carlson. I am a huge fan of hers, she is enormously talented, but there would be a lot of people who may not have heard of her before Have You Been Paying Attention?”

Kavalee and Carlson aren’t the only entertainers who owe much of their mainstream success to being part of Working Dog’s projects. There’s a long and illustrious list of funny men and women who have reached a wider audience through their appearances on their shows.

And that’s not just as celebrity contestants on Have You Been Paying Attention? but also as weekly quizmasters.

Gleisner says one of the funniest guests they’ve had on the show was someone who may or may not have been trying to be funny. Conservative Liberal politician Christopher Pyne was one of the most unexpectedly amusing people to appear.

“I am not sure he was meaning to be funny,” Gleisner says.

“Everything he says just sounds a lot like a Bond villain.”

Regular panellist Ed Kavalee (back left) says that the Have You Been Paying Attention? creators don’t get enough credit for fostering comedy talent such as Urzila Carlson (back right).

Many politicians avoid doing shows with comedians for fear of looking foolish. But the reason Pyne and others make an exception for Have You Been Paying Attention? is that Gleisner and the team at Working Dog are not the kind of comics who have made their names from humiliating people for an easy laugh.

That’s not to say they haven’t been known to poke fun at the establishment.

Gleisner says Have You Been Paying Attention? gets some of its best material from the antics of Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer and Barnaby Joyce. And he is hopeful the upcoming election will prove to be a gold mine of comedy material.

“Elections are where we get to see politicians doing things that are outside their comfort zone. Like kissing babies, drinking beer and mixing with the general public,” he smiles.

Believe it or not, the genesis of Have You Been Paying Attention? was to fill airtime on radio. Gleisner, Pang and Santo Cilauro came up with the idea of doing a news quiz while they were hosting a show for Triple M during the London Olympics in 2012.

The trio soon realised the concept would have legs as a TV show. That has always been the Working Dog team’s strength. They have a long history of turning simple concepts into must-see TV.

They also know how to make the news sound funny. For six years, Gleisner, Sitch, Cilauro, Glenn Robbins and Kate Langbroek dissected the week’s news on The Panel.

The team also had huge success with Frontline, a comedy series revolving around a fictional current affairs newsroom.

Working Dog’s Tom Gleisner has ruled out a return for the company’s much loved current affairs satire Frontline.

To this day, Frontline remains laugh-out-loud funny. But Gleisner says fans shouldn’t hold out hope for a reboot any time soon.

“I don’t think it would work now quite simply because current affairs programs just don’t have the same power that they did back then,” he says.

“Back then shows like A Current Affair or Today Tonight set the agenda and could make or break an election. Now they just tend to turn their attentions to miracle diets and dodgy builders.”

Gleisner says Working Dog doesn’t have any film projects on the horizon either. He says the team’s slate is full with their work on Have You Been Paying Attention? and the ABC’s Utopia, which stars Sitch as a frustrated bureaucrat.

Gleisner admires the work of his long-time pal and collaborator Sitch work on Utopia. And while his Working Dog colleagues regularly give Gleisner stick for his wooden acting, the Have You Been paying Attention? host is no way near as harsh about Sitch’s acting abilities, describing him as “one of the country’s best”.

Gleisner and Sitch’s enduring friendship is living proof that it is possible to mix business and pleasure. The pair along with Cilauro and Jane Kennedy have been friends since university. The four, with producer Michael Hirsh, formed Working Dog Productions in 1993.

Despite being some of the biggest names in Aussie show business, all of the Working Dog crew have managed to keep their personal lives relatively private. Gleisner scoffs at the suggestion it’s a conscious effort of the team. He says it’s more to do with the fact that happy families and relationships don’t make for interesting headlines.

“I know, we probably should’ve had a massive falling out, broken up a few times and all gone on to record several solo albums by now,” he laughs.

“But it’s actually a joy to get to work with people who are close friends.”

WATCH: Have You Been Paying Attention? Mondays 8.30pm on Channel 10