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Sammy J: “The PM is yet to return my calls!”

Following from Clarke & Dawe was a big ask, but Sammy J sees light at the end of the tunnel.

When he was asked to succeed the great John Clarke and Bryan Dawe in ABC’s Thursday night satire slot, comedian Sammy J knew he had very big shoes to fill.

Sammy J, often seen regularly alongside wisecracking puppet Randy, had been flying solo with Playground Politics, a web series muckraking during the federal election.

“The ABC came and said ‘Would you like the Thursday night satire slot?’ where Clarke and Dawe had been. It’s a weekly slot for 40 weeks so it was a far more daunting prospect,” he tells TV Tonight.

“It was a huge leap of faith and I feared I would come crashing down in March!”

But with a year of sketches now behind him Sammy J is hand-picking the best for a festive special, Sammy J: The Twelve J’s of Christmas.

“I’m hosting a dinner party with Santa and Rudolph”

“People sometimes assume I’m a ventriloquist,” he laughs.

“We remain best friends and we talk every day. We’ve been doing some writing with a view to doing something, either Live or TV. But it’s been really nice not to have the pressure of having to work together.

“We will be doing more stuff in the future but for now I’m happy riding this ABC wave until badly crashes into rocks, as showbiz tends to do.”

Sammy J: The Twelve J’s of Christmas 9:30pm Thursday on ABC Comedy.

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