Lie of the land
CHRISSIE SWAN HAS VOWED TO STOP RUSHING. BUT IS THAT THE TRUTH?
Chrissie Swan usually eschews New Year’s resolutions. She’s certainly not a fan of the more traditional pursuits. However, heading into 2023, hot on the heels of the announcement she, Jonathon Brown and Sam Pang would hang up their brekkie radio mics after seven years together, Swan made the goal of no more rushing.
“I’ve been rushing for 20 years,” she shares. “I leave the house every morning as if I’m fleeing a burning building.
“It’s 11 minutes between my alarm going off, clothes on and in the car. And I just rush.
“And then I rushed at the other end of the day because I had to get to bed. It was just go, go, go all the time. Now that’s all miraculously disappeared. And I just feel so much calmer.”
Mind you, with her new eponymously titled, two-hour, afternoon radio show starting on Nova this week, work on TV shows The Masked Singer and Would I Lie To You plus a variety of commercial deals such as being one of the faces of Priceline, her life won’t be all Zen and relaxing. But as Swan told her children – Leo, Kit and Peggy – the other day, she genuinely believes she’s lucky with all of her jobs.
“They’re honestly all just so much fun,” Swan says. “And I value fun very, very highly.”
She was thrilled to have a second crack at Would I Lie To You, having a ball on the first season of Ten’s Australian version of the UK show.
“But there’s a smoothness and a knowledge of the way things go with the second season,” Swan explains.
“It was great to pick up where we left off and we were all still learning the first time around. So it was lovely to have that head start for this second season. It’s much tighter and we were able to capture the joy and the shock and the energy of the experience much better.”
Original captain Frank Woodley is back alongside Swan as host, and Charlie Pickering returns to Channel 10 as the opposing team captain.
“He’s absolutely excellent – he’s a super fan of the UK version,” Swan shares.
“So it was like he’d won the golden ticket by being able to play, it was an absolute dream for him.
“He just slotted in so beautifully with Frank, with me. And he took great delight in shocking me and making me laugh.”
There’s another long list of fabulous guests including comedian Luke McGregor, Gold Logie winner Rebecca Gibney and politician Jacqui Lambie, and some tall tales and truths.
Swan will again not join the story swapping. It turns out just like George Washington – she cannot tell a lie.
Neither can her kids.
“It’s a lie-free zone – they have inherited from me a total inability to sell a lie,” she says.
“They never have been able to do it. They crack up laughing.
“We know what we are good at and that’s not it.”
Another family talent is photography. Swan’s Instagram is filled with snaps from her lengthy daily walks – from beautiful front doors, to coffee, to letter boxes and corgis – her treasures as she terms them.
The family headed to the US over the Christmas holidays and walked all over from Los Angeles and Disneyland, San Francisco and Yosemite to Mexico.
“I just loved – because I’m an old advertising broad – the typefaces of their ads,” she exclaims.
“Just everywhere I looked in America – the colours, the signs and oh, I just loved the differences.
“I have to drive to different suburbs in Melbourne for my walks to get my fix of that. So just to have it in abundance was wonderful.”
The 49-year-old has also loved discovering her abilities have been passed down to the next generation. Her daughter Peggy was constantly stopping to take her own snaps.
“I’d be like ‘where is she?’ and she’d be lining up a photo,” Swan says, with a laugh. “She’s got a good eye – they’re really, really gorgeous photos.”
She clarifies it’s not all joy on their walks.
“I must bore them stupid with my exclamations whenever we’re out walking,” Swan says.
“I’m always like, ‘See, this wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t walking, you know, if we were Ubering there and Ubering home – we would have missed all the treasures in between.’
“And they are rolling their eyes, but hopefully some of it lands.”
Despite the eye-rolling, Swan’s genuinely looking forward to having mornings with her tribe – cooking them eggs for breakfast, getting them off to school. She’s also looking forward to some night-time socialising.
“I think that is in my future – it’s almost bizarre to think I might be able to see a movie at the cinemas,” Swan laughs.
“It’s a miracle.”
The only downside is not seeing Pang and Browny daily.
“Yes, doing breakfast radio meant that I got to see my best friends essentially every morning and we didn’t have to schedule it.
“The fact that we now have to make time for each other is going to be a bit of a challenge, but I reckon we are up to it.”
Would I Lie To You?, Monday, February 13, 8.30pm, Channel 10
It was great to pick up where we left off and we were all still learning the first time around