★★★★★ 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

  2. These guys are great on the radio but as soon as they put a camera on them they turn into turds that become unfunny. See you later cos i am not watching this borefest next week.

  3. Was almost unwatchable in parts. The really really really annoying thing was the interviews, you could see the guests struggling to get a word in , and like why am i here? Just was self-indulgent by Hamish and Andy not really caring about the guests just their weak jokes. I like Hamish and Andy and think they will improve and the ratings will stay strong. The first pre-recorded clip was very entertaing second one very poor. Put me to sleep so to speak! haha

  4. I forgot to watch this. It’ll be interesting to see the numbers next week, but I heard alarm bells as soon as I heard about their pay. It broke the spell.

  9. I watched it and just htought it would be like there other shows. I didnt expect them to have guests. But getting Taylor Swift and Neil Patrick Harris in is pretty good. The interviews didnt go for long enough and they sort of just ended.

    The other thing is Hamish kept talking over Andy and poor Andy couldnt get a word in. Im prepared to watch it next week.

    But I want to see them ghosting wspecially doing it to the americans. The falling asleep thing was ok but ghosting was way funnier.

  11. Next weeks ratings.

    Nine: Gap year 800,000
    Seven: L&O LA 750.000
    TEN: The Renovators1.2

    I wanted to turn of at the 5 minute mark gave it until 8 minutes and switched to the Renovators where the characters are coming out and the production quality is 300% better. Very disappointing for the hype and expectation.

  12. @FlossAus – I pretty much agree with everything you said. If you aren’t great tv interviewers (which Hamish and Andy are not yet) let the talent guide the interview – Neil Patrick Harris could certainly have done more if allowed.

    Otherwise, just send the funny clips down the line in a few specials.

    Also – they really need to fix the sound issues.

  13. @camo and @slydoggie is exaclty what I was thinking last night while watching and now as I started to read comments. This week H & A need to brush up on their interview skill big time and have their studio guests stay for a bit longer. Taylor Swift was great and Neil Patrick Harris you could tell wanted to say do more.

    I like the bobble head idea for each guest that may work but the jetlag skit did not. FlossAus you bit about a producer who will not be a yes person is spot on also.

  14. Along with Angry Boys, this was one of my most anticipated shows of 2011, and just like Angry Boys it let me down and failed miserably. I gave Angry Boys 3 weeks to “hook” me. I doubt I will afford H+A the same luxury. Based on last nights showing it failed on many levels, and for me was an epic failure.

  15. Only thing I looked forward to was the Taylor Swift part and thank God she got to sing otherwise she would not have got a word in.
    Actually went to sleep half way through and the dream I had was funnier than their sleep bit.
    Will not waste my time again soon, if it is still on in three weeks will give it another go as it will have had to improved, Nine have cancelled better than this after 2 weeks so one would imagine no prisoners will be taken.

  18. Next week’s “To-Do” list

    – Dick the intro – Looks like someone from Hye Hey produced it
    – Snappier editing on the outside bits, it just dragged.
    – Less Desk Banter, stand up every now and then , move around the set
    – Throw in some surprises, where was the Wow factor

    IMHO LOL!

  19. I love H+A but the show had some serious problems last night. First and foremost the audio – I had to volume up during the show and then dash for the remote when the ads came on as the audio blasted me.

    The intro and chat at the desk wasn’t tight enough – I know their humour is very relaxed and for radio that’s great when you’ve got Top 40 songs to build on every 2 – 3 mins but in TV it needs to be sharper.

    I agree the sleeping gag was lame, and I wonder if a production team locally based would have let that through to show?

    My biggest issue though, was the guests. The guys talked all over Talyor Swift and basically she gave two or three word answers before they talked onto a new topic. Worse still though, the rehearsed feeling of Neil Patrick Harris – Andy seemed shocked when Neil tried to derail him from the superactor setup. NPH is an Awesome guest on talk shows, a quick YouTube search will show you that, so why they didn’t use some of his known talents ie magic tricks etc, for some fun instead of that lame steal the bobble head routine. Also more time with the guests – the better sketches with H+A on TV have often been the ones in which celebrities are involved in the gag. I’m thinking Jack Black ghosting Michael Buble and Bob Saget in the Gang-a-Roos.

    I really want this show to work, I think it has potential but I think they need a producer who can say no to their pitches, ask them to try again on some gags and generally steer the ship from funny uni standup to something more watchable.

  21. Great first effort. But, falling asleep was crap. And way more time should be spent with the guests…it felt like they had guests for the sake of having guests. They should take a leaf out of Graham Norton’s book and keep them on the couch at the same time. Both guests were great sports, Taylor Swift’s performance was gold, but Neil Patrick Harris was way too under utilised. They should have bobble-heads produced for whatever guests they have on and get a collection going which features near their mum photo.

  22. Doesn’t work in a large studio like this one..This show was really boring..they have no idea on how to interview…I was a huge fan of the radio show , but this is a badly lit, bad audio, badly produced show.
    To make matters worse, there was very little humour.
    They were far better when they appeared on Rove and did their segments.
    I felt embarassed for them, that they were flopping so much

  23. after seeing the first 5 seconds of their theme intro i wanted to turn off… but i stuck with it to give it a go. i only lasted to the bobble heads bit. i’m a fan of ny and will try again next week, but not really a fan of hamish and andy. sorry boys.

  24. This show was rubbish – these guys were lame on Rove, and now they have an hour-long telecast? Catfish? ‘Traxedos’? Taylor Swift?

    I predict at least 400,000 people won’t be back next week. Even worse than Ben Elton!!

    Law and Order: LA’s first episode was pretty good last night, more people should be watching this show.

  25. It was just one big in joke that I wasn’t apart of. This has to be one of the worst shows these two have come up with.
    I can take a little immature laugh once in a while but this was just crap.
    I’ll not be tuning in again.

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