Tom Gleisner on cancel culture and Have You Been Paying Attention’s loosest comedy units

Tom Gleisner marvels at comedians who can do stand-up without being cancelled, and reveals the guests most likely to get his show sued.

The start of the new season of Have You Been Paying Attention could hardly come at a better time for host Tom Gleisner, permanent panellists Ed Kavalee and Sam Pang, and their rotating roster of top comedians.

The first episode of the Logie-winning comedy-news-quiz show’s 10th season will air on Monday, May 16, just six days before the federal election, meaning there’s sure to be plenty of gold as the pollies crisscross the country trying to make their last desperate pitches to voters.

“It’s one of the few times that the politicians will actually get out and inevitably fall off a stage or badly pour a beer, or try to kiss a baby that clearly doesn’t want to be kissed,” says Gleisner, with a laugh.

“Those are great, great stories for us rather than the dry and dusty Canberra politics that we get for most of the year.”

Gleisner is an integral part of Working Dog Productions, the team behind HYBPA as well as films The Castle and The Dish and TV hits from Frontline to Utopia.

He has spent the last decade as part quizmaster, coming up with questions based on the week’s news, and part ringmaster, trying cajole the mercurial Kavalee, Pang and three guest comedians into coming up with answers that entertain and, very occasionally, inform.

Ed Kavalee, Tom Gleisner and Sam Pang are about to start the tenth season of Have You Been Paying Attention.

He says in times like these, with an election on the line, they try to be even-handed with their politics – “whoever is willing to poke their head out of the burrow and do something or say something we will jump on it with glee” – but says the maverick politicians such as Bob Katter, Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson can be hard to resist.

“You’re absolutely correct,” he agrees. “Even in the quietest of news weeks, one of them will always bob up calling for corporal punishment for eight-year-olds, or something like that. While we might question the validity of the movement, it’s great fodder for us.”

Kavalee concurs, while also marvelling at the unexpected longevity of Have You Been Paying Attention.

“Sometimes Bob Katter is almost doing material so you can’t really make a joke on a joke,” he says.

“But we have been on so long that I think the first election we covered was with Menzies. And I believe the first time Tom did a joke on television, it was about (Australia’s first prime minister) Edmund Barton.”

From humble beginnings – it began life as a makeshift radio segment when Pang and Gleisner’s Working Dog colleague Santo Cilauro were filling in during the 2012 London Olympics – HYBPA has something of a comedy institution, with consistently high ratings, five Logies and as platform for promoting new talent from the ranks of stand-up.

Tom Gleisner says maverick pollies such as Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer and Bob Katter can always be relied on for some comedy gold. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Both Gleisner and Kavalee agree that the secret to the show’s success and longevity is fact that all concerned genuinely enjoy each other’s company and love making the show together on a Sunday night.

While the format has been tweaked over the years and new segments have been introduced, the easy chemistry – and the merciless mutual pisstaking – between the three have endured, and Gleisner says they are loath to tinker too much with a winning formula. That said, what’s new for Season 10?

“Well, the entire set will be made out of Lego,” jokes Gleisner.

“We’re still very original but we’re willing to borrow from other people.”

Kavalee warms to the theme.

“Obviously we will all be marrying each other at first sight – that seems to be what the kids want – and then our chairs are going to spin around. Honestly, I have no idea – I will tell you when I get there. Part of the joy is that me and Sam are sometimes discovering it as it happens. Tom will say he has a new segment – then they obviously edit out the groans – and off he goes.”

Given the number of wildly creative minds in the same room, it’s inevitable that the show sometimes goes off the rails on the night, and Gleisner is glad the team has a day to edit out answers that might get them in hot water for legal or public decency reasons.

Comedian Lloyd Langford, pictured with wife Anne Edmonds, created a Twitter storm last season with a gag about Princess Beatrice’s eyes. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Some wayward jokes about the late Thai king prompted a formal apology in 2016, and Welsh comedian Lloyd Langford sparked an outrage outbreak on Twitter last year when he made a crack about Princess Beatrice’s eyes, which he was surprised made the final edit.

“There are definitely moments where we all cross the line,” Gleisner admits. “But we do have the safely of an edit. In comedy these days, that’s almost essential, and I am in awe of stand-up comedians who can get up there and not find themselves at the centre of a Twitter storm for saying the wrong thing.

“We just have to be more sensitive these days, and there are occasionally things we remove even if they got a huge laugh at the recording session but it’s probably a bit mean or just not the sort of thing we want to go out on air.

“Unfortunately, in this world, trying to defend yourself with the phrase ‘it was just a joke’ just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

But Gleisner and Kavalee are on the same page when asked to name the “loosest units” of their regular guests.

Tom Gleisner and Ed Kavalee agree that Mick Molloy is the most unpredictable guest on HYBPA. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I think the honour probably goes to Mick Molloy, with Marty Sheargold a close second, and Kitty Flanagan has been known to go off piste occasionally,” says Gleisner.

“But we wouldn’t have it any other way – it’s an absolute joy to watch these comedians at their sharpest.”

Kavalee also points the finger at the laconic Molloy, whose association with the Working Dog team goes all the way back to The Late Show in the early ’90s.

“I remember there was a night when Mick Molloy was on and Tom said to us at the end, ‘I think Channel 10 has just brought in an extra lawyer for the evening’,” he says.

“I think it was about segment four where Tom said – jokingly – ‘Mick, at this point we won’t have you in the show – are you planning on saying anything that can be broadcast tonight?’.”

Have You Been Paying Attention, May 16, 8.40pm, Channel 10.