HYBPA?: From underneath the radar to bonafide hit

There were no previews, no press interviews, no hype when Have You Been Paying Attention? first launched in 2013.

Screening quietly at 7pm on a Sunday night in November, the show was deliberately pushed under the radar by Working Dog so that it could find its comic feet and not be yanked off air. The first show pulled just 301,000 viewers. By February it was rating only 168,000.

“Our lead-in was David Attenborough’s most boring animal sexual encounters,” Ed Kavalee recalls.

“There was one week where two slugs were procreating. And David Attenborough said, ‘The dance of life continue!’ From a picture of two slugs copulating on a stick, to Tom saying, ‘Welcome!'”

“I think they’ve earned that trust, because no one works harder.”

To their credit 10 trusted them and stuck with the show -and now has a bonafide hit that is the envy of all the networks. Working Dog’s lowering of expectations paid off in the long run -their experience paid off.

“They’ve been doing this so long, I think they’ve earned that trust. I’ve been very lucky with how much time I’ve spent with them. But I don’t think you’d find anyone who works harder on their programs and continues to work on them. I was talking to Rob (Sitch) the other day, and he said that he’d had an idea about the show for this year that he was just so excited about it,” he explains.

“That’s probably that’s the defining part of them… their work ethic and the care for the things that they that they put out, which I should stress, is not them being the stars of it. This is all in the aid of showcasing the talents of others.”

The show returns tonight for their 10th season, after two years of pivoting around COVID-19 restrictions, with panelists shoulder to shoulder and a studio audience returned.

Kavalee, who with host Tom Gleisner and panelist Sam Pang is part of the the 3 man resident cast, is nervous about what changes Working Dog may introduce.

“Maybe there’ll be a Golden Buzzer, where get to be get straight through to the final round. But I’m very excited to be back. Everyone together, I’m very excited. It sounds twee, but it’ we love hanging out. This is one of life’s great joys.”

“No one’s allowed to look him in the eye or speak to him”

Kavalee graciously agrees to an interview given Sam Pang no longer does press interviews, prefering to create a mystique for reasons that are unclear. It’s a characteristic that Kavalee happily adopts as comic schtick.

“Sam is developed to the point now where no one’s allowed to look him in the eye or speak to him. So he’ll obviously arrive by helicopter,” he quips.

“Part of the joy of the show is the social aspect. We see each other, have a little chat and muck around a little bit and then we’re on.

“Sometimes Tom will ask a question. None of us have a joke. None of us have the answer. He’ll just move on and they cut it out. It doesn’t happen all that often. That’s part of the fun almost, sometimes. Last year we had new people coming on and doing a great job…. Emma Holland, Aaron Chen had great series last year. They brought their own unique voice to it, as part of the group.”

So who has the show not been able to get as a guest?

“Tom mentioned Hugh Jackman in an interview the other day. I didn’t know that was someone that they were keen on. So I’m thinking ‘Surely he has a musical to promote at some point?’ I’ll never forget when Sam was away one week, and we have the genie from Aladdin fill in. It was amazing.”

“If he was going to come on, I’d want him as Mike Moore”

Yet 10 seasons in, Working Dog’s own Rob Sitch is yet to join his colleagues Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Santo Cilauro.

“I never thought of that. To be honest, if he was going to come on, I’d want him as (Frontline host) Mike Moore,” Kavalee suggests.

“It is the collegiate nature of Have You Been that really inspires me”

Meanwhile Kavalee continues with 2DayFM, is about to become a father for the second time, and is working on his feature script with Lachy Hulme – a comedy slasher set in the world of radio. The project also draws upon an ensemble comedy cast.

“It is the collegiate nature of Have You Been that really inspires me, to be honest. Comedy is a team sport and the fact that the production can be as fun as the end result. I’m so inspired by the way Working Dog have the making of things as fun as the as the end result. That’s why people work with them for such a long time.”

Have You Been Paying Attention? returns 8:40pm tonight on 10.