Thank The Lord For Your Presence # 8

Last night saw the eighth episode of Thank God You're Here (TGYH).

I was a little surprised to see Angus Sampson back for a fifth appearance. Don't get me wrong; I think he's good an' all, but I'd enjoy the concept a lot more if they were to juggle the victims contestants around a bit more and have them on for a total of perhaps three appearances per season. But maybe it's harder to come by willing celebrities who are available at the scheduled times or something, so fair enough.

Joining Angus this week were TGYH 'veteran' (of the past two weeks) Josh Lawson, and new-comers Hamish Blake (on the left of the picture) and Tanya Bulmer. Tanya was one female comedian I hadn't previously considered, but when she ran through her improv experience with host Shane Bourne at the top of the show, I was very impressed and glad they'd managed to 'book her in'. I've liked Hamish since he and his regular sparring partner Andy Lee (on the right of the picture) hosted the short-lived weekly comedy programme in the style of a tonight show on Channel Seven in 2004 creatively called Hamish & Andy ... featuring a pre-Deal or No Deal comedian Andrew O'Keefe. Unfortunately for the boys, their show didn't exactly take off, lasting just four episodes. But I've found both Blake and Lee quite amusing whenever I've seen them on anything since.

There is no doubt in my mind, though, that Josh Lawson was the stand-out performance of the night this week. Coming from (apparently) not knowing that his gun was a 'six-shooter' until Shane mentioned it seconds before he walked through the blue door, and becoming a western-cliché-regurgitating legend for the duration of his scene, he easily provided the most hilarious lines of the night. His kisses with actress Nicola Parry, his descriptions of the oft-misunderstood 'Wee Willy Wiley' tribe of Indians ("They're not so Willy, and they're kinda wee, but man, are they wiley!"), the names he came up with for his archnemisis and Maggie May (whose actual name, it turned out, was Trixie ... so he then called her Trixie-Maggie-May-Belle), and my favourite of them all; his insult to the nasty cowboy who had insulted him:

Cowboy: "You're about as yella as fresh-cut corn in the midday sun."
Josh: "Oh yeah?
Cowboy: "Yeah."
Josh: "Well you're about as mauve as the eyelashes on a pritty lil' Chinese girl."

Brilliant. He was also very funny with his 'fast talking' which ended the scene, and although his input into the group scene at the tail-end of the night (with the superhero theme) wasn't very much at all, his expertly-underplayed comment to judge Tom Gleisner: "I'm surprised you haven't heard of me" was a perfect moment. I haven't seen too much of Josh Lawson in the past (and what I've seen has featured him in dramatic roles), but I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of him in the future. I hope his role in Boytown is a comical one, and that he lands a lot more comic roles after appearing in TGYH.

Angus' scene in this episode was largely forgettable, as the CEO of a corrupt pie-making company being asked by his investors why they should continue to support him. He still had an occasional amusing comment such as saying that 'Ozzie Pies' were made in New Zealand, and when asked about the box saying 'Thailand', explaining that it's a little-known fact that there's a town on the north of the south island of NZ by that name. He was very game to eat one of the pies on display (who knew how old or questionable they were!), and his deciphering of the 'coded motto' of the company on the wall behind the investors was pure gold.

Tanya's first appearance on the show had her dressing up in a bridal gown, and making a joint speech with her new husband at their wedding reception. She showed her skill at improvising when he mentioned that she especially wanted to thank ... and she immediately came out with a rambling long list of girls' names. Turning on her two bridesmaids (once she found out they were her sisters) and clearly favouring one over the other was highly amusing, especially when she kept referring back to it. The talk of her third sister not being there due to "the car accident", and then her missing aunt being remembered as "the driver of the car" were risque but very well done. I don't think it was the funniest scene of the night by a long shot, but I certainly don't think that was Tanya's fault at all. It seems somehow that the creators of the show have trouble coming up with good situations for the female contestants. Is anybody else noticing that? I'm not saying the female contestants are to blame, because obviously that can't be the case every week. I think it might be that the boys who are sitting down thinking up the ideas for the scenes each week may struggle a bit when it comes to working out a good one for the female guest. But I digress. Tanya was very good and demonstrated her ability to ad lib with lightning speed, particularly when the groom said she chose not to put the words "love, honour and obey" in her vows, but rather ... "love, honour and eBay", she finished immediately.

Hamish Blake had his solo scene last, and came out dressed in an outfit that he perfectly described as "Bono the Vampire Slayer". Realising he was some kind of rock legend (which was helped along by Shane's spoily-question, "Are you ready to rock?"), Hamish entered the same late night TV show set we'd seen earlier in the series when Angus was a TV chef who appeared on the set with an entirely silent Natalie Bassingthwaighte from Neighbours. As there were two 'guest' chairs set up and both were empty, I assumed someone famous would be making a surprise entry during the scene ... and I was right. After being questioned about his duet with Kate Ceberano on his latest "billion-selling" album, Hamish was forced to welcome Kate to the stage so they could sing their duet live - which seconds earlier Hamish had made the mistake of titling "Pussycats and Angels". Once he stopped groping the singer in a prolonged embrace, and after he'd started the song without allowing her to sing the first line so he was forced to rhyme his second line to it, he eventually caught on to the idea and did a pretty impressive job of having the song make sense, rhyme, and stick (somewhat) to the theme of pussycats and angels. A tough scene, but one he handled fairly well.

As I mentioned, the group scene at the end was four superheroes being called to headquarters to discuss the threat of a meteor that had been discovered hurtling towards Earth. Apart from a couple of tiny moments (such as suggesting a "rope and pulley system" for moving Earth out of the meteor's path), Tanya and Josh seemed almost to disappear in this scene, as a lot of time was spent on Angus (either on his prop speaking piece which made it difficult to hear him, or his apparent incapacitation that actor Daniel Cordeaux had to overcome to get him back into the scene by 'healing him' with his mind and commanding him to stand up). Hamish also had some quality screen time during this scene; mostly as he called his mate 'Geoff' to see about moving Earth out of harm's way ("I know a guy"), and speaking into the laser contraption strapped to his wrist. When the 'bad guy' appeared on the large screen behind them, Josh claimed that the voice was Geoff, and that Hamish had left his wrist communication device 'on speakerphone'.

Most notable in this episode was that there were only two (instead of the regular three or four) pre-recorded bits. The one where the contestants had to make announcements (which hadn't been provided in full, leaving the contestants to be creative with how each one was supposed to finish) at the sports stadium wasn't very good, but the one where the contestant was the deputy or acting headmaster showing a prospective family around their school was highly amusing. The young girl in this bit, who also played the daughter in the pre-recorded pet shop bit a few weeks ago, was credited under a different surname this time, but I believe she is somehow related to Nicola Parry (presumably her daughter or niece).

While we're on the topic of the ensemble cast members, I must say that I think very highly of the extremely-talented Parry and Cordeaux, as well as Ed Kavalee and Heidi Arena. The others (such as Simon Dowling, Andrew Bayly, Jason Geary, Rebekah Foord and so on) are by no means any less impressive, but have simply not appeared in as many episodes. The skill it takes to keep a straight face while the contestant comes up with often ludicrous answers to the questions being put to them, as well as remembering all their own lines and gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) steering the scene in the direction in which it needs to be going -- and quickly -- is so much work, they all deserve more credit than they probably receive. I hope the audiences who are lucky enough to watch the live tapings at least get to show their appreciation to the ensemble cast after the taping has concluded, because apart from Shane mentioning Nicola Parry by name (although he mentioned her only as 'Nikki') after Josh's kissing scene with her, they don't get any of the attention. Obviously I understand why this is the case (the contestant is the celebrity we're meant to be focussing on), but the others all do such a remarkable and tough job that I wanted to credit them here briefly. As an aside, if you look at this page, where I grabbed Daniel and Nicola's photos, you'll see that both of them have acted before with both Andrew O'Keefe and Josh Lawson! Makes you wonder ...

So anyway, here are the main four, with no disrespect intended to the many other highly-talented individuals who make up the ensemble cast:


Nicola Parry


Daniel Cordeaux


Heidi Arena


Ed Kavalee



Sorry some of those photos are a bit poxy. They're not the easiest people to source pics of. And please pardon the poor grammar in the previous sentence.

With "only two episodes left until the season finale" (does that mean inclusive?), things are looking good that Judith Lucy won't be appearing on the show at all.

... Thank the Lord she's not gonna be there.



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