Thank The Lord For Your Presence # 10

Last night saw the tenth episode of Thank God You're Here (TGYH), which was the much-hyped and eagerly-anticipated (for all the right reasons) season finale.

For this final foray into celebrity embarrassment and hilarity for this season, we were lucky enough to have an extended episode (an hour and fifteen minutes' worth; not the single hour I mistakenly reported last week) featuring five, yes, five contestants. First-timer Kate Langbroek joined veterans Shaun Micallef, Angus Sampson, Frank Woodley and Akmal Saleh. And as I pointed out last time, each of the men listed have previously 'won' an episode already, apart from Shaun.

It was possibly a little strange, then (or rather fitting, if you believe six appearances are worthy of being rewarded as such), that Angus Sampson won the night instead.

Shaun started us off this week with his portrayal of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, apologising to the minister of another nation who had been terribly offended by his behaviour and a recent oil spill off the coast of his country by an Australian ship. The laughs came thick and fast in this scene, and it was probably one of the better ones of the night. Shaun's repeated attempt to end the scene prematurely (for comic effect only) were hilarious. "I'm so offronted that I'm going to leave!" / "Let's put this whole thing behind us. [Beat] Thank you and good-bye!" Also brilliant was his response (trying not to laugh and then incorporating his laughter into his reply) when his apparent quote about the other country's queen was read back to him, "Queen Mototofu is so fat, that she applied for Australia's Biggest Loser and was told, 'Sorry -- no professionals', by saying, "Yes, that was a good one." A simple reply, really, but from Micallef, simple comes across as genius due to his skill and talent. Many things in this scene were highly amusing; there are simply too many to list here. I thought Shaun had well-and-truly earnt his stripes here to win his first TGYH trophy, but alas, it was not to be. I hope Shaun won't be miffed at this, because I for one desperately want to see him return to the show next season.

Second cab off the rank was Angus, who was dressed in a tux with tails, and entered a scene not dissimilar to the Titanic (although I didn't notice any deliberate reference to that doomed liner). Clearly dressed as a well-to-do gentleman, his friends egged him on to try and seduce the two women across the room in the style for which he was apparently famous. Ensemble actress Nicola Parry was again kissed by a male contestant on stage (the other week it was Josh Lawson -- I wonder if she feels honoured or a little icky about that), but this time the two shared a pastry between them as they smooched. A pastry that clearly wasn't fresh or appetising at all. I'm not surprised -- it had probably been sitting out on the table for hours and hadn't been cooked. There were a few funny lines here with Angus, but all-in-all it was a fairly forgettable scene. No offense to Angus (I've made it clear before this how much he has 'won me over' through his appearances on TGYH), but I can't recall anything else of note from this scene.

Frank came on next, and I don't know what it was about him this week, but he really wasn't 'on form' like his previous appearances. On three separate occasions he broke from the scene and spoke as himself -- once about the accent he was using, once about calling himself by a name other than that ensemble actress Heidi Arena (who was portraying his mother) called him*, and then once when he caught an audience member yawning -- which was two times too many, IMHO. I know it's "just Frank's way", but he did it too much and made things too difficult and awkward for the other actors to move the scene along. Full credit to the other actors, though, for doing their best to keep things moving despite Frank's seemlingly determined efforts to stall everything. Considering he was so brilliant on his previous TGYH outings, I found this scene to be a real disappointment. No wonder people in the audience were yawning; I almost did myself. We all know he's capable of so much more than the performance he gave in this scene, so it was kind of a surprise to hear him butcher it so badly. That said, it wasn't a very interesting scene he'd been presented with, playing an 1890s gold prospector returning home to report on the happenings at the gold fields to his family.

* Note: Heidi covered this by saying she was so sick she couldn't see properly, but Frank continued to make the situation worse by drawing more attention to the error and trying to make it even more uncomfortable for cheap laughs.

Next it was Kate's turn to show us how it's done, and for someone who hadn't done it before, she did a pretty good job. Wifey said she was the best female they've had on the show, but I'm not so sure about that. She was certainly good, but I don't know if she was that good. Playing Cleopatra, Kate had the enviably task of acting out many a girl's fantasy; that of having everyone at her beck and call, and being able to send handsome slaves to her bedroom (for punishment later) while killing any man who is unfaithful to her. For a non-comedian (strictly-speaking), she came up with some good jokes when demanding that the slave kiss her ring and that Marc Antony better not have cheated on her while he was away or she'll have him killed. Her answer to the handmaidens who asked why the slaves are building the pyramids ("every man needs a hobby") was clever (even if the line had a 'rough' delivery), and she seemed to enjoy herself despite her unease with the whole idea.

What was especially pleasing to me, given my penchance to credit the four main ensemble cast members in my TGYH review the other week, was to see host Shane Bourne do the same thing directly after Kate's scene. Daniel, Heidi, Ed and Nicola were all mentioned by name (their full names, too), and the audience applauded them for their immeasurable efforts. Maybe someone from Working Dog is reading my posts? If so, DROP THE DANCES!!

Finally we were treated to diminutive Akmal's excellent scene set in a circus. Dressed as a clown, Akmal provided us with possibly the most laughs of the night. His performance was slightly more amusing than Shaun's, and pretty-much left Kate, Angus and Frank's scenes for dead. With a straight face, Akmal delivered hilarious line after hilarious line, from yelling at Pinto (played by Pip the minature pony -- who was apparently a normal-sized horse until Akmal's magic trick went awry) for speaking badly about him, to setting dogs alight and juggling kittens, the picture he painted about his magic act left us in no uncertainty about how terrible his act must truly be. His references to his own size ("I know he's a miniature horse -- I'm a miniature clown!"), the number of injured audience members ("think about all the people in the audience who weren't injured") and the reasons he smashed the clown car when he wasn't even at work "I was picking Pinto up from the pub") were all handled with aplomb and natural skill. Every line resulted in a big laugh from the audience and us at home, and I don't think anyone could say he wasn't the most amusing of the night.

These five groups scenes were followed by the most superbly-concocted group scene so far attempted. Although I've been relatively unforgiving with the writers of the show for various elements, I want to make it clear how much I love TGYH and almost everything that's gone into it. I only pick at the bits that annoy me because I adore the overall result so much. And the effort that went into creating this final scene of the series is the perfect example of the skill and brilliance the show's creators possess. They are truly outstanding, and this scene was a lot of fun to watch. It started with Angus being sent in one room, Shaun in another, and Frank taken out the back (a pop-up window at the bottom of the screen showed him being taken outside and onto a waiting helicopter). Kate and Akmal were led into the final room, which was set up as a morning TV show studio called 'Daybreak' (similar to Channel Seven's Sunrise program). Kate was co-host of the show and Akmal was one of the newsreaders. Angus, Shaun and Frank were the show's sports, weather and traffic reporters, respectively. A lot happened in this scene, from Kate having to explain about her upcoming guest and why that interview was so special (she did a great job of being vague yet impassioned about it), Akmal having to explain the news headlines from footage we were seeing onscreen (the biggest problem with this scene was that he didn't have very much to do here at all; in fact, two news stories was his entire involvement), Angus was beamed in direct from the USA at the goild tournament (his explanation of why the underage female Aussie golfer wasn't on the course due to being busted drinking the night before was excellent), Shaun was suitably befuddled giving the weather report on a map of Australia containing many confusing weather symbols, and finally Frank -- by now up in the air over Melbourne at night -- was back in good form explaining that we were experiencing a solar eclipse ... and that "down there, there are either about 200 cars, or about 400 motorbikes".

It was a suitably overwhelming way to close the season finale, and when Angus was presented with the flowers for winning, he said he'd like to hand them on to the wonderful ensemble cast -- a lovely tribute (such as it was) to their remarkable efforts all series long. I believe he plans to keep the trophy, though. :)

Before each of the male victims contestants went on for their solo scene, we were treated to a recap of some of their funniest moments on the show throughout the previous nine episodes, which was highly entertaining. Instead of being able to do this for newcomer Kate's solo scene, we were treated to the only new pre-recorded bit of the evening.

Judge Tommy G's opening gag about Kate Langbroek's prior Dancing With The Stars appearance (and his repeated use of the scorecard for this season) was so unfunny that I fast forwarded through everything else he had to say.

The only let-down was that there was no appearance all season of possibly my favourite Australian female comedian of all time, Judith Lucy. Hopefully she'll feature in the second season.

All up, this was a majorly-entertaining show, and I'mvery much looking forward to the second season. Hopefully we don't have to wait a full year for it to return to our screens. This is the sort of show that could make two appearances a year (ten weeks isn't a long season, after all), and we wouldn't get tired of it because it changes so much with the new scenes and new contestants. They just have to keep it fresh by including different contestants and improving the scenes they write for the female performers (and by ending far fewer of the scenes with a dance!).

Here's hoping season two will arrive soon. This has been another fantastic show from the Working Dog team.

For all those of you who may have missed it, you can download the entire final episode here (apparently; I haven't got the software, ability or intelligence to check it out for myself). That goes for all of you (even our international friends -- check it out, why don't you?) except for Noshie & Adie, because (as per your request) I've made a tape for you guys that contains three or four TGYH episodes that you can watch when you get back -- and the finale is amongst them. (I'm a pretty good guy, really.)


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