Like a high wire act: Celia Pacquola on her madcap new gig

You wouldn’t think it possible but Celia Pacquola says sometimes even when filming a television show, you can almost forget that’s what you’re doing.

“It’s one of those bizarre things that when you’re making TV, like Have You Been Paying Attention?, you forget that a million people are watching – because it’s important to forget. Because otherwise I probably wouldn’t say half the stupid shit that I say on that show, and that is on the internet forever. But because at the time you’re in a small little room, it feels like a dinner party with mates, there’s a small audience there ...”

Celia Pacquola will host the revived improvisational comedy show, Thank God You’re Here.Credit: Hwa Goh

It’s almost the opposite of how things look in her latest foray. As host of Working Dog’s Thank God You’re Here, which launches next month, Pacquola will appear in front of a sizeable audience on a film studio-style set.

“This show, you want them to feel the urgency of, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got to perform with 500 people in front of me’,” she says. “It’s probably the best live taping I’ve ever been to, so if you can get your hands on tickets [do]. Because if you think it feels high-wire act on TV, imagine being half a metre away from the audience.”

Back in 2006, the Working Dog creation burst onto TV screens as a madcap improvisation show unlike anything Australian audiences had seen; it was like theatre sports live on air. Then hosted by Shane Bourne with Tom Gleisner as the judge, it regularly attracted audiences of almost 2 million a week, numbers networks could only dream about these days. The format was subsequently sold to 18 countries around the world.

A star-studded list of comics and actors appeared in the original lineup, which changed every week, including Josh Lawson, Julia Zemiro, Angus Sampson, Fifi Box, Ed Kavalee and Rebel Wilson. “Part of the thrill is introducing the country to new talent. And also the genuine fear that people have, even for a person who’s done it a million times, it’s still just as terrifying,” she says. “There’s something about seeing someone that you know and love in a different way, how are they going to react when they go through the door?”

Celia Pacquola with Luke McGregor in comedy Rosehaven.

The format for the reboot will be similar to the earlier series, which ran from 2006 until 2009. Instead of one judge appearing throughout, the new show features a different guest judge each episode.

Since doing a deep dive into old episodes, Pacquola is full of respect for the show’s original host, whose approach she’s keen to emulate. The ease with which Bourne celebrated performances and made everyone feel warm and comfortable was a key part of the show’s charm.

‘I thought, “There are people who want this more than me and who are better skilled at this than me.” ’

Celia Pacquola

She had her own sliding doors moment with the program back in its heyday, going to a filming when her then-housemate, comedian Felicity Ward, appeared. “I had won best comedy at Fringe and she’d won best newcomer. And that was the last season. So who knows, if they had done just one more? Maybe.”

Pacquola brings a warmth, intelligence and comic timing to each of her roles and was widely acclaimed for her first “straight” acting part in the 2015 mini-series A Beautiful Lie, a modern take on Anna Karenina.

The Yarra Glen-born actor studied professional writing, drama and media at Deakin University but not long after graduating gave up on the idea of acting, figuring it wasn’t her thing. “I genuinely gave it up as a possibility because I didn’t have the talent or the dedication,” she told this masthead in 2015. “There were other people who really wanted it: you had to go around saying, ‘I can do this.’ That didn’t sit well with me, I didn’t like the need to sell yourself. I thought, ‘There are people who want this more than me and who are better skilled at this than me.’”

The reality is she’s a natural. It’s been a big few years for the 40-year-old standup comic turned actor turned writer, who also made a foray into reality TV in 2020 when she won Dancing with the Stars.

Rosehaven, co-written and created with her good friend Luke McGregor, finished after 40 episodes and five seasons in 2021. The show drew its inspiration from McGregor’s parents, who have worked in real estate in Tasmania for years. It illustrated the pair’s writing and acting chops, winning Pacquola an AACTA award for best performance in a comedy in 2017 and McGregor the most popular actor Logie in 2019.

Her role as Nat in Utopia continues, the Working Dog series so close to reality it’s rumoured there’s a leak direct to the writers from sources within the government. Then there was 2021’s The Truth About Anxiety, a documentary about the mental health condition that affects an estimated 3.3 million Australians, in which she revealed her own struggles.

She also met her partner, Irishman and photographer Dara Munnis and had a daughter, who is about to turn one.

Pacquola also appeared in the award-winning Binge drama Love Me, starring Bojana Novakovic, Bob Morley, Hugo Weaving and Heather Mitchell. As well as playing Novakovic’s best friend in season one of the series, she also wrote one episode.

“It’s family and also generational, the whole concept of love and loss. In the first season, the setting is love and grief, but also love and relationships within three generations, the 18-year-olds and 30-[year-olds] and then Hugo Weaving as the dad. So it includes everyone, everyone can see themselves represented somewhere and also, oh my god, Hugo Weaving, I can’t handle watching him be sad.”

In preparation for filming Thank God You’re Here, Pacquola went back to stand-up. “I just wanted to stand in front of an audience before we started filming because I hadn’t been on stage for nine months or whatever. It got a bit like, do I remember how to tell a joke? It was weird but it was excellent, at the Comedy Republic, which is my favourite room in Melbourne and it was a lovely, warm crowd. It is just the greatest space and vibe and I loved it.”

Pacquola as Nat and Rob Sitch as Tony in Utopia.Credit: Hwa Goh

Despite having covered a lot of ground in the entertainment landscape, she is still hankering to do her “dream drama role” – and it’s dark. “I love a UK female-led, gritty cop drama – Happy Valley, Line of Duty kind of stuff – but no one wants to cast me in it, I don’t understand!”

In the future, more writing will definitely be on the agenda, as will working with Luke McGregor, plus a return to her original calling, standup comedy. “I’m sure I’ll get back to it at some point but at the moment, it’s not a priority … after baby goes to bed I’m like arggh,” she says, feigning being exhausted.

If the adapted UK version of Thank God You’re Here is any guide, there may be one other thing on her horizon. “In theirs, I believe, and I don’t want to say it because I don’t want them to do this here, the host went through the door at the end of each episode. I think it’s a terrible, terrible, bad idea,” Pacquola says. “Someone said to me, ‘Are you going to do something crazy for the finale?’ and I don’t want that to be it. I wish to not go through the door. Because if they ask me, I will do it.”

Bring it on.

Thank God You’re Here airs on Wednesday at 7.30pm on Ten And 10 Play.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.