★★★★★ 0/5

Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year

From their Brooklyn warehouse, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee delivered a traditional Tonight show with an undergrad twist, plus 'traxidos', catfish, bobbleheads, and even Neil-Patrick-Harrison-Ford.

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It’s not a holiday. It’s a Gap Year. It’s not a holiday.

So said Hamish Blake and Andy Lee in their own hokey theme song on their new Channel Nine variety show.

Perfect harmonies? Hardly. But that’s just the relaxed approach that has made these boys so successful. To blokes they are perfect drinking buddies. To women they are the guys to take home to mum.

In the first episode of their anticipated new series in New York City the boys greeted us from a warehouse setting in Brooklyn. They had all the trappings of a traditional Tonight show: host desk (sorta), a band (sorta), skyline (sorta), and studio audience, but with an undergrad twist fitting with their style.

There was a giant Statue of Liberty, an open staircase, and a ‘Busker-teers’ band with two saxophone players and a drummer. The audience, we have been told, is made up of many expats -it was hard to see them.

Hamish & Andy were dressed in tuxedo track suits -“the traxido’- and sneakers. Their opening repartee was casual, and with the appearance of veering off script (hmm, or was it?).

Amid their larrikin humour there were Hamish & Andy bobbleheads, an R2ToDo robot and Hamish’s’ Thursday 8:30′ tattoo on his arm. “Timeslots are for life!” he boasted. They are if you rate, which was kinda the point.

The audio in the plastics factory-turned-studio was poor and echoed around the room.

Video packages throughout the show included a “noodling” expedition for catfish in Oklahoma which resulted in a permit warning from the local sherriff, a visit to building resident Oscar (who will presumably become a regular) and a candid camera-style sequence of the boys falling asleep in front of surprised New Yorkers. The latter package fell flat.

There were two interview guests, Taylor Swift, who sang an impromptu “Chaperone Dad” song and a quick-witted Neil Patrick “Thanks for having me dead last on your show” Harris. He was a good sport at the odd notion of becoming Neil Patrick Harrison Ford and parodying Raiders of the Lost Ark. The boys won’t win any prizes for their interview skills, but it’s more about the chemistry they can demonstrate with their guests and on that front they get a tick.

Just as Flight of the Conchords did with New Zealanders, the show works best when it gives us an Australian perspective of America, where everything is big, bizarre and driven by celebrity. The country is often accused of lacking irony and these boys are well-placed to bring some to the table.

For a first effort the show met the brief, but at the moment it feels like a late night show squeezed into a primetime slot. Is it possible to succeed at 8:30 with a 10:30 tone? We’ll know soon enough. I’m prepared to watch and find out.

Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year airs 8:30pm Thursdays on Nine.

64 Responses

  5. The show was typically hit and miss from Hamish and Andy, although I enjoyed it overall. The more interesting stuff is when they’re out poking fun at the Americans, although stunts like the jet lag are a bit cringeworthy. I think Adam Hills’ format was more innovative.

  6. yeh agree…i know the boys work well off each other…but more spent time on quality guests like the two they had last night….. and more sketches would be better than the banter at the table…. first show so maybe they needed to set a few things up…. fishing sketch was good… sleeping one not so funny…. bring on the next 9 shows i say…. and the whole reason for being in NYC is to get quality guests as well week in week out

  8. I was a bit disappointed with this last night. I love Hamish and Andy but I was expecting more. I agree with you David. It was just like every other Late Show on TV.

    Hosts sitting behind a desk, guests coming down the stairs and then sitting on a couch next to the hosts, house band in the corner. Are all of these shows produced by the same person???

    I was just expecting something different. I’ll give it another go but I hope it gets better.

  9. Geez – I dunno guys. I hope it was first show nerves, but the material needs a little more meat on it’s bones. We don’t need to see you go around the US finding weird and wonderful people as you’ve done that already (twice even!!). The sleeping bit was o.k., but I fear the boys might have drank their own bath water after the success of ‘Ghosting’ and thought they could produce funny clips doing just about anything.

  10. Didn’t think ,much of it really. I won’t watch it again. It’s a shame, I am a fan of these 2 but it was just average.

  12. Yep, those audio problems were very distracting. It didn’t seem just like the warehouse space was the issue – it seemed like an issue with the mics too.

  13. I watched it an felt that it was okay. There was some humour, but I felt it dragged a bit towards the end. A good effort, may tune in again!

  14. Love Hamish and Andy and most of the stuff they do, but last night was not a great night for them. Not sure what was wrong, but it all felt a little forced and lacked their usual natural quick wit. Will give it one more chance!

  15. I’m sad to say that I found it one big mess. The whole gap year, cheap set, basic graphics stuff isn’t a bad premise, but unfortunately it’s the same premise they used on Ch 31 about 10 years ago. As comedians get older and more mature, you expect their comedy to get sharper and more refined (I’m thinking of the trajectory of the D Gen guys)…unfortunately Hamish and Andy’s stuff is more of the same. I guess it’s still working for them so why change a good thing, but I won’t be watching.

  16. I didn’t catch it so can’t really say what I thought, but let’s just say that so far this morning from a few who tuned into yet another night of 9’s drum roll comedy, the vibe has been less than good. In fact “car crash” telly and “cringe” is what some have said. I just don’t think kids like H + A belong on network tv, but call me old fashioned.

  17. A little too cringe worthy for me. Why not make the video packages in America and then show them in a live tonight show in Australia? The American audience was confused and completely missed all the references and made me feel awkward laughing by myself. Not sure if I will invest an hour to watch another two funny 5 minute videos of value next week. Sorry guys but I think the curse of Mick Molloy, Shaun Macalief, and Ben Elton will strike again, I give it two more weeks…

  20. It was slow to start with, but I thought they did a good job.
    The falling asleep in NY package was a bit….boring. But the rest was great.
    I’ll be watching next week. But I’d hope that they improve. It was good but not great.

  23. I liked it. It’s certainly better than another million cooking and renovation shows. They hit the right note with their guests – it’s always been their “thing” to do a game or song type thing with their guests (baby namin’ with Matt Damon being one of my faves!) and that worked well with their guests. Hopefully their tv interviewing style will improve over time – different to radio obviously so it’s a settling in thing. But overall, for a first show in a new format, I thought they did great! Happy viewers in this house!!

  24. Really? I thought the show was simply awful. This isn’t a format that suits their style of performance one little bit.

    It dragged to the point of being embarassing for them, the laughs were very far apart and the content was largely disinteresting. To add insult to injury, it was quite obvious when a laugh track had to be played, to make up for the audience who were nodding off (as I was).

  25. I think they should lose all the in studio stuff and just have video packages like Caravan of Courage because the format at the moment doesn’t work. Perhaps they could also cut it back to half an hour because it seemed really padded out.

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