‘Awkward blind date’ created one of Australia’s greatest comedy bromances
WHEN a uni mate insisted Andy Lee meet a young Hamish Blake, it seemed a bit strange. But the pair hit it off instantly, creating one of Australia’s most loved comedy duos.
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“YOU’VE got to meet this guy Hamish.” It was this glowing endorsement from a bloke named Peter Nowlan that brought together one of Australian television’s best-loved comedy duos.
If not for Nowlan’s intervention, Gold Logie winner Hamish Blake may have spent his days bent over a computer making tech support guys giggle with his office banter.
And one-time Bachelor of the Year Andy Lee might have worked tirelessly in an office, trying to bring smiles to the faces of clients by presenting them with impressive tax refunds.
Young Lee, then studying commerce/arts at Melbourne University, was intrigued by his pal Nowlan’s insistence that he must become friends with Blake.
After all, teenage guys don’t usually try to set up friendships between two strangers. Lee knew that, somehow, this Hamish character must be something special.
When Lee and Blake finally met four months later, in 2001, they hit it off straight away, with Lee quickly suggesting they skip class and head to the pub.
“Looking back at it, it was a really strange thing for Pete to have done. He must have sensed it (the chemistry),” Lee says with a laugh.
“I would never say that about anyone,” Blake interjects. “I know that if I said to Andy, ‘You’ve got to meet this guy,’ immediately in Andy’s head he’d be thinking, ‘This guy better do a quadruple backflip in the first few minutes or I am walking.’ So, Pete put me in a terrible position because Ando just does not have time for anyone’s hype.”
No physical gymnastics were needed to impress Lee. Blake’s banter was sufficient. Laconic Lee also made a huge impression.
“I went to uni with high expectations,” Blake says. “I had been promised, ‘O (Orientation) Week is so fun and you’re going to meet all these great people’ and, look no offence to the rest of the alumni, but I was looking around those first few days and I’ve got to say I was underwhelmed.
“So, when I met Andy I was like, ‘This is more like it. I might just cash in now and make one friend and that’s it.’ I hung in there for a few more years but I didn’t get my degree. But I did get one good thing out of Melbourne Uni and that was Andy.”
Nowlan recalls the first meeting between the boys was like an “awkward blind date” because he had “built it up a bit”.
“But in an instant, they were laughing and disappeared for what turned out to be a pretty life-changing first beer,” he says.
They downed $1 pots at a Carlton pub, played pool and ate pizza. And, over the course of the year, the duo started hatching a plan to turn their jocular chatter into something more.
Blake entered a university stand-up competition and came third. He later won the statewide final. But like Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton or Roy & HG before them, Blake and Lee soon realised their greatest comic strength lay in their partnership.
Blake’s wife, Wrong Girl creator Zoe Foster-Blake, has had a front-row seat to the relationship for more than a decade.
“I’ve had the pleasure (and laughter) of knowing the boys since they were 21. They have not changed a whisker,” Foster-Blake says. “Despite their success they remain unaffected, driven by a singular desire to make people laugh, and have fun. That’s their superpower, I think, having fun. It’s authentic, it’s a delight to witness, and it’s deeply contagious.”
While both have taken on independent projects — Blake in New Zealand film Two Little Boys and Lee as author of kids’ story Do Not Open this Book, published last year — they clearly prefer working together.
Their latest project, True Story with Hamish & Andy, for Channel 9, sees them join forces with some of their A-list pals as well as childhood buddies.
Blake admits it was Lee who first truly believed they could have a future as entertainers. If left to his own devices, Blake suspects he would have favoured financial security over rolling the dice on comedy.
“We both did drama at school but I thought I was going to be an accountant,” Lee says. “I obviously had an interest in drama and creating things. It wasn’t ever like this was going to be the career path.
“It all felt hobbyish until we got to uni. Then I met Hame and was getting along with him so well and having so much fun. That is what tipped it. It was like, ‘I’d like to do this with you.’ ”
The blind date had led to a proposal.
“It wasn’t like we were two people going out trying to do this on our own,” Lee says. “We just clicked. Whether people call it chemistry or black magic or pixie dust, it was like this now seems easy and fun.
“When we were together we seemed to be able to make people laugh. Plus, we fire up each other’s curiosity. It seems fun to explore these things together.”
Their breakout show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2003 effectively launched them as the duo we know and love: Hamish & Andy. They then joined forces with Blake’s schoolfriends Ryan Shelton and Tim Bartley to create their Channel 31 show Radio Karate.
“People think it’s just the two of us,” says Lee. “But we have always had a lot of good people and friends that we work with both on radio and in TV.”
One of those people is Shelton, one of Blake’s best mates since they attended St Leonard’s College and part of the boys’ original on-air line-up. He was benched when Blake and Lee moved to commercial radio but, far from creating waves, the shift strengthened the friendship between the trio, who work together to this day.
“Hamish came to my school in Year 9 and what you see of him now is probably just a more polished version of what he was like back then,” Shelton says. “He and I bonded staying up all night watching my dad’s Blackadder and Monty Python tapes.
“As teenagers, our dream was to have our own company and make our own stuff.
If I was honest with myself, I never actually thought it would happen so I did an advertising course.
“My parents warned that acting isn’t a very secure job and they’re probably right. But what we had is a team that could help bolster each other up. And if I’d been on my own it would have been hard but because we all have that team, it’s much easier.”
Not long after finding their feet on radio as a duo, Channel 7 came calling with an offer of their own national comedy show. The Hamish and Andy Show debuted in March, 2005, but failed to rate and was canned a few weeks later.
“I was still at home, I did my final uni exam the morning of one of our TV shows,” Lee says. “It felt like a giant administrative mishap. We were only 22 and we could never quite believe they even gave us a show.
“We learned a lot from it. There were parts of that show that we hated doing. Even though it was our name on it. So, to be honest, I’m thrilled with that failure because it inspired us to really consolidate our own (production) company, only work on our own things and have creative control.”
About this time the boys were taken under the wing of Rove McManus, who recruited them for his hugely successful, self-named chat show.
“Working with them is like having a couple of puppies in the office because they are just infectiously enthusiastic about everything they do,” McManus says. “They are also creative powerhouses. Despite all their successes, I don’t think there is anyone better connected to their audience.
“When they first came to me to get some advice on working in TV, I warned them about the dangers of doing stuff for the networks and the benefits of instead going with a smaller production company. It was all a bit wink, wink, nudge, nudge as I was really hoping they might sign with me.
“But the next time I saw them they had taken my sage advice and started their own company so that really backfired on me.”
The disaster at Seven prompted the boys to start their own production company, Radio Karate. with Bartley and Shelton. Radio Karate now creates shows such as the Caravan of Courage and Gap Year franchises and their latest offering, True Story with Hamish & Andy.
The 10-episode series puts ordinary Aussies in the spotlight, sharing extraordinary real-life stories with Lee and Blake. The format involves the storytellers relating their tales, interspersed with versions scripted by the duo and dramatised by the likes of Kat Stewart, John Wood, Rob Sitch, Sam Pang and Mick Molloy, as well as a host of newcomers.
When casting, the guys reached out to pals and people they admired. Sometimes, as in the case of award-winning Stewart, Blake and Lee went through her agent. At other times, like with Working Dog’s Jane Kennedy, a simple text message asking, “Hey Jano, what are you doing later today? Could you do a voice-over for us?” did the trick.
“It was a great experience to get to do this and see how they work,” Stewart says. “They are so funny and clever but they are also completely involved in every aspect of what they are doing.
“As an actor, you get used to having to audition for roles and then sweat over whether you’ll get it. To be invited to just come and play for a few days with people who you admire is just such a joy.”
Even though he was initially a bit baffled by the program, Blue Heelers star John Wood agreed to do the show because he just “really likes” Hamish and Andy.
The show was inspired, quite simply, by the pair’s love of a good story. Lee says their radio job, coupled with travelling around Australia filming, meant spending hours in conversation with strangers.
He claims, quite remarkably, that he can find enjoyment in almost any story that bends his ear — even the bad or boring ones. And one could imagine he’s heard quite a few over the years. One of the hazards of being as approachably famous as Blake and Lee is that fans have no qualms about bailing them up for a chat.
“No one is ever in awe of us,” Lee laughs. “It’s not like seeing a movie star, it’s like seeing a friend and you have beers with them and they share tales.”
Blake adds: “We are very lucky that, for whatever fame is, we have got a very easy run of it. If you’re a footy player, one 18th of the population like you and the rest, especially if you’re polarising, just want to get in your face.
“I think that would be a hard thing to deal with.”
Outside work, they don’t spend as much time together as people would think. The arrival of Blake’s first child, Sonny, three years ago has meant the halcyon days of playing bocce all weekend have given way to occasional catch-ups at the pub midway between their homes to watch some footy on a Saturday afternoon.
Refreshingly, Blake and Lee, both 35, accept all that fame brings with it, including the intrusive interest in their personal lives.
Lee jokes that he’s “been married a number of times”, according to the women’s magazines, but says he and his girlfriend, Rebecca Harding, 25, are mostly oblivious to the attention.
Blake adds: “It is an odd thing that someone can chase you and effectively stalk you and because they’ve got a camera it’s OK. The short answer is you can’t stop them, you just have to live your life.”
This positivity means that even when something goes terribly wrong they know it will potentially make great material for any of their many projects.
Perhaps their own meeting could one day make for interesting TV fodder.
One thing’s for sure, both agree that if not for Nowlan all those years ago, things could have been very different.
And as for Nowlan?
His matchmaking days are behind him. But he still likes to dine out on the fact he was behind one of TV’s most successful pairings. True story.
True story with Hamish & Andy premieres Monday, June 5, 7.30pm, on Channel 9
The duo will also appear in an interview with Liz Hayes on 60 Minutes on Sunday, May 28, at 8.40pm on Channel 9.
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