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The very unsupervised Tim McDonald & Melanie Bracewell

They are let loose on The Cheap Seats, armed with clips and punchlines, with Working Dog and 10 at arm's length.

“We don’t really chat to Channel 10 about what we’re going to do,” The Cheap Seats Melanie Bracewell reveals.

“We chat a little bit to the Working Dog guys and do a run through of what we’ve come up with for the first couple of segments.”

“It feels like we’ve just been given the keys to the car and allowed to drive off without our parents knowing,” admits Tim McDonald.

“I love that metaphor because Tim does not have a licence,” Bracewell quips.

Riffing comes naturally to these Gen Y comedians.

Now in their second season on 10, their show produced by Working Dog showcases comedic clips from the past week with McDonald and New Zealander Bracewell in rapid-fire punchlines in front of a small studio audience.

When the show first launched with little fanfare last July, it was also during the pandemic and no public in the studio audience. The chemistry between the two, who met on Have You Been Paying Attention?, has generated early buzz, a growing fanbase and two Logie nominations, including Bracewell for Most Popular New Talent.

The irreverent title stems from their snarky, youthful observations.

“We have no right to be making fun of these people,” concedes Bracewell. “No right to make fun of these journalists that have been doing their job for years and years when we’ve literally just sat down, and we’ve stuffed up a million times. But that’s the fun of it, I think. We’re aware that we are in The Cheap Seats, as much as the viewers.”

“We’re really just the kids at the back of the bus who are looking at their phones”

McDonald agrees: “That’s the attitude of the show. We’re not trying to educate, we’re not trying to inform or start a conversation. We’re really just the kids at the back of the bus who are looking at their phones going, ‘Hey, did you see this clip?'”

“We watch every single piece of news from all around the country and we show you the funny parts of it, I guess. Because who has the time? We do!” Bracewell laughs.

“We try and avoid all the bleakest topics and just bring you the fun of the week, essentially. Because it is quite difficult to watch the news at the moment. It just feels like it’s horrible story after horrible story. We try to bring fun back into news.”

McDonald explains. “So rather than having to catch up on 100 hours of Sunrise, you can watch an hour a week of the best bits.”

Favourite news sources for the duo and their 4 researchers include anything from kooky web clips to Alan Jones, and especially regional news.

“The more regional you go, the more gold you find,” Bracewell explains. “… some random small town has their own news channel where someone’s been putting trolleys in the lake again. This is the kind of news that we want to cover on our show!”

“We love finding these little characters that no one would have heard of.”

McDonald adds, “There’s a BBC news reader who we discovered sneezing on air. We did a quick Google search and found about 40 examples of the times he’s been sneezing during the news. So we love finding these little characters that no one would have heard of.

“But it’s everything: the big city news, the regional news, Tasmania, Darwin, the Gold Coast. And even even worse than that -Auckland!”

Also featuring are Sport with Titus O’Reilly, Entertainment with Mel Tracina, and favourite segments ‘Pacific Update Update’, ‘Across The Ditch’ and ‘What’s On What’s On In The Warehouse’ with Bracewell getting a first-hand response on its reception.

“We make fun of Chemist’s Warehouse and my pharmacist said, “This is for making fun of us on The Cheap Seats,’ and he handed me some free samples. I thought, ‘He must love it,’ but then I saw that the free samples were anti-wrinkle cream,” she said.

“We love that little fan base that we’ve started to build and we love that it spreads through word of mouth. You hear people say, ‘Did you see this show?’ Hopefully, that continues to spread around,” McDonald adds.

With around 100 clips played each episode, just a day after Working Dog’s other hit Have You Been Paying Attention? is there a tussle over where clips play out?

Bracewell explains both have different a comedic purpose.

HYBPA? might play four clips that are intended to be funny. A lot of them are just clips out of context and you have to guess the context. The fun is in the banter between the people doing the quiz. Whereas our show, every single clip has got to be funny for one reason or another.

“Sometimes when we scour things, I’m like, ‘Don’t tell them about that one. That’s too good,’ because they are before us, so we don’t want them to get a sniff of it!”

McDonald jokes, “They have to leave room for Sam and Ed’s Mitsubishi ads, so they don’t have as much time.

“Our motto is always ‘The clips have got to be funny.'”

“We can also do a deep dive into a story and look at longer clips. Our motto is always ‘The clips have got to be funny.’ So we’re not trying to necessarily cover all the big news in the world, we’re really just trying to bring the funniest clips.”

But as longtime admirers of Working Dog, McDonald and Bracewell appreciate the level of trust they have been afforded to make the show.

“They’ve given Mel & I such free range”

“We’re mostly unsupervised. They come to the meeting and they go, ‘I watched this clip, does this look good for you?’ The fact that they’re asking us, rather than us asking them, just feels so odd,” Bracewell admits.

“I’m concerned that their judgment is waning in later years because they’ve given Mel & I such free range. There’s a point where you ask, ‘Are you sure you guys want us to do the TV show?'” McDonald reveals.

“We’ve been fans for a while so to be the show that kills their legacy is such an enormous honour”

The Cheap Seats 8:40pm Tuesdays on 10.

14 Responses

  1. I’m not a fan. I tried watching the first couple of episodes, but found them unfunny.

    I do find them entertaining generally – I love them both on HYBPA. I just think I don’t enjoy this format. Which is okay – not everyone has to enjoy everything. I always like to see new Working Dog shows because Aussie comedy (and comedians) are so undervalued.

  2. I’ve always thought this show was like Year 12s being let loose in a TV studio. It seems this is how it’s meant be. This is not a criticism; I love the show and never miss it, even if I’m not really the demographic – I’m over 60!

    1. Ahhh Mike, have you actually watched it? If you can keep a straight face watching this for an hour, then what do you chuckle about? I’m 56 and find this show to be truly entertaining. It’s not trying to be a serious documentary teaching us about important issues that affect our lives.

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