Question time
As popular current affairs comedy quiz Have You Been Paying Attention? kicks off its 10th season, host Tom Gleisner and panellist Ed Kavalee go behind the headlines with Siobhan Duck
The London Olympics provided many historymaking moments. Who could forget the Spice
Girls performing atop five black cabs? Or the Queen’s parachuting entrance into the opening ceremony? What about when Sally Pearson sprinted her way into the history books with her photofinish hurdles victory?
Closer to home, and the Olympics also gave us one of TV’s most enduring quiz shows.
Have You Been Paying Attention? quizmaster Tom Gleisner explains that the popular Channel 10 show got its start while Santo Cilauro and Sam Pang were filling in on a radio drive-time show because “just about every radio presenter in Australia had scored a junket to London.”
“I came in and we did an Olympic quiz each day, where basically, I lobbed up semiserious questions [for them to answer],” Gleisner says.
“We just had so much fun with the idea of a topical news quiz that we thought this could be more than just a segment on a fill-in drivetime radio shift.
“So, we took it to Channel 10 and went from there.”
While Pang is still answering questions a decade on, Gleisner’s Working Dog production partner Cilauro is not a regular on the show he helped to create. Instead, Pang, Gleisner and co-star Ed Kavalee are joined by a rotating roster of radio personalities, TV stars and stand-up comics (including Cilauro, Marty Sheargold, Kitty Flanagan, Celia Pacquola and Mick Molloy) who try to outwit and out-quip each other on the latest headlines.
Of course, the daily news isn’t always a comedy goldmine, particularly in the last two years.
But even among all the devastation and horror, Gleisner laughs: “There’s always a Kardashian doing something” to provide material.
“We can tend to find the funny in the news,” he says.
“Really, we just don’t go anywhere in the stories of obvious tragedy. I think the last few years, the COVID saturation was the biggest challenge for us because basically, everything in our news kind of worked its way back to being about COVID.
“So, we used to say there’ll be triple points for anyone who can come up with a question where the answer is not ‘COVID-19’.”
The pandemic didn’t just impact the questions on Have You Been Paying Attention? – it also had an effect on how it was taped.
“That first COVID year, 2020, was probably the worst for us and we had to work very hard,” Gleisner says.
“We did a bunch of shows where none of us were in the same room. It was literally like the worst Zoom meeting you’ve ever been on, but throw in Sam Pang.”
During the months that the show is on air, Gleisner and the Working Dog team keep a keen eye on the newspapers, looking for interesting and entertaining stories that could inspire funny one-liners.
“I think the Royal Family rarely fails to amuse although we have to tread carefully because Her Majesty is getting
Tom Gleisner: “It’s just slightly anarchic. There’s some structure there, but beyond that, it’s everyone for themselves on the night and it’s just a ball.”
on in years and [because we pre-record] we don’t want to make an inappropriate joke at the inappropriate time,” he says.
“Hollywood, of course [provides fodder]. And reality TV. I think we’ve you know we’ve single-handedly kept The Bachelor and
The Bachelorette on TV for the last couple of years. It’s a deal we have with 10.”
Kavalee – who once worked in a video store and as a pub quizmaster and so has solid credentials for trivia knowledge – says it’s actually his breakfast radio show that gives him the winning edge.
“People always say to me: ‘How can you win?’ and I will say: ‘Well, a) it’s not a very high bar. These are not intellectuals we are dealing with. And b) doing breakfast radio you get to know a lot of this stuff by osmosis’,” Kavalee laughs.
“I know a lot of stuff that I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know who Kylie Jenner is dating. But I do.
“And so, through the five of us, someone will know something, or someone will have a joke about something.
“There’s been a number of times a number of times where Tom has asked the question, and I’m sitting there thinking: ‘I don’t even know [what] that is’. But then Aaron Chen or Kitty Flanagan will come in with a joke. And I will be like: ‘That is great because I learned something, and it was a really great joke’.”
While Kavalee, Pang and the weekly guests get to muck around and be silly, it’s Gleisner who keeps the show on track.
“You can attribute this to anonymous sources, because I don’t want to be seen to be praising him in public – but Tom is criminally underrated as a host,” Kavalee says.
“The way that he can juggle the five of us, keep things moving and make his own jokes just shows he is unbelievably skilled.”
Gleisner admits that sometimes it can feel a bit like he’s a teacher trying to control a room filled with class clowns.
“I genuinely love the range of what we’ve managed to do over the years here at Working Dog,” Gleisner says.
“I love a series like Utopia, where I sit there with Rob [Sitch] and Santo and we argue over every line and every comma and then it gets filmed and edited. I love the precision of that sort of show.
“But then as a wonderful antidote, you come down the other end of the pool for something like Have You Been Paying Attention?, where it’s just slightly anarchic. There’s some structure there, but beyond that, it’s everyone for themselves on the night and it’s just a ball.”
Gleisner says one of the best parts of the show is seeing new guests rise to the challenge. He says sports people have proven to be the most surprisingly funny presenters. He also has a wish list of people he’d love to be part of the fun in the future.
“I’d probably be a big fanboy about it all, but Hugh [Jackman] would be amazing,” he says.
“There’s such a revolving door of fascinating celebrities. Steve Carell would be great or Ricky Gervais. I am aiming for the stars here.
“We have been trying to get Ash Barty on the show for a while now. So, Ash, if you are reading this, consider this your formal offer.”
Q Have You Been
Paying Attention? Monday, 8.40pm, 10