Thank God You're Here

I didn't see the first episode of Thank God You're Here. My father did, and he told me he enjoyed it, and found it amusing. My father finds many things amusing, but I decided to watch it on the station it began on.

I fell in love.

Thank God You're Here brings out some of the best of Australian comedy. It brings out some of our greatest comedians and let's them take a scene and run wild with it. It is full of great improvisation, and it's definitely material for a thoroughly entertaining evening.

The concept of the show is marvelously simple: a contest gets dressed up in a costume, then walks through a door, completely unaware of what scene lay beyond. They then do their best to improvise the scene before them, frequently answering questions provided by the actual crew of the show. The costumes are great, sometimes a little bit iffy, but it just adds to the hilarity of the show.

One of the flaws of the show is it's Judge, Tom Gleisner. I can quite happily say his role is completely unnecessary, and, in choosing the winner, and criticising the contestants, he is always saying positive things - never a negative thing spills from his mouth. Rather than a judge, Gleisner appears to be what I'd call a "feel-good" instructor - because that's all he seems to actually do.

Regardless, watch the show, and just mute it whenever Gleisner speaks. You'll be much happy that way.

I don't know whether this is just a problem with the latest season but most of the people in the scene (except of course the select comic) are literally reading from a script, meaning they decline most offers that the improviser makes, so there's very little actual room for improvisation and it ends up unfunny. For example, in the episode with Marty Sheargold, his character is asked for his name and he says he's Tommy. The other performers then shoot that down and say he's being silly and his name's Nathan. Like why??? It doesn't make sense. Cannot even be compared to Whose Line, which is actually great.

Living here in Australia, settling down in front of the television each night is a somewhat tedious task, knowing you have to chose to watch either a repeat of CSI or another damned reality show! To turn on the TV one Wednesday night I was shocked to see that a new show had appeared - all the cast had Australian accents and the show was actually funny! It's basically an hours worth of improv acting - 4 guest stars (who have also dabbed in comedy) have around 4 minutes to turn sheer terror into comedy. They walk through a blue door, and are greeted by an ensemble cast member (usually unknown) and greeted by the tag line "Thank God You're Here". There are all different scenarios which the actors are greeted with - medieval times, cruise ships, Cleopatra, circus etc. Its just an awesome show to sit back and really watch the actors struggle or have a great time. And the actors are actually funny which is a real change from those sometimes boring American sitcoms. Some of the regular cast members are Angus Sampson, Peter Rosethorn, Akmal Saleh, Shaun Macalif and Frank Woodley. Ten out of ten, an awesome show! Bring on Season Two!

The problem with Australian's television industry is that too much American crap fills up the channels. With the arrival and well deserved success of "Thank God You're Here", it may not have overcome OZ TV crisis, but it did help and in a time where Australian TV comedy was at an all time low. Another new comedy show has premiered, "The Wedge"- It's Australian, but it really sucks, so watch Thank God... instead. The best "bullsh*ters" as such would have to be Akmal Saleh, Peter Rowsthorn, Angus Sampson, Frank Woodley and Josh Lawson (the equivalent of what John Wood had been for 9 or 10 years, great but never winning any prizes).

Which brings me to my next point, the incompetent judge Tom Gleisner. He always says to the guests that it was a "fabulous performance" despite some guests not being really funny-mediocre at best. And with the exception of the first one or two episodes, the winner Tommy has selected was not the right decision, leaving the performers ACTUALLY WORTHY OF THE PRIZE going home empty-handed.

Therefore, I leave you with this. "Thank God You're Here" is a really funny show (most of the time), but has its really dud and good but not great performers, and if you feel like spitting the dummy at Mr Gleisner, then I can't blame you!

This is Australian comedy at it's best.

Now currently in it's third season, Thank God You're Here (TGYH) gives four guests a costume, a set, a few props and only one thing is missing... a script! Put into a costume, they must improvise their way through the scene.

After the individual performance, they gather together for one final showdown: the All-In Group Challenge, in which they must improvise together in a scene.

This is why I love Aussie comedy. It's fresh, original, and absolutely brilliant. While the US version didn't go as well as the Australian version, it's still a great show to enjoy!