This workplace satire starring Sam Pang has Tasmania's first ever AFL team firmly in its sights.
Footy-loving Sam Pang says he never dared dream of a career in comedy when he was growing up. He's been a regular on radio for years, has hosted his own talk show and appears on numerous TV panels like The Front Bar and Have You Been Paying Attention?
He's even co-hosted eight Eurovision song contests for SBS — an experience that was "mind blowing" — as well as numerous Logie Awards. , a comedy about the introduction of Tasmania's brand new — and some say, long overdue — AFL team, will be his first time at the helm of a scripted series. But refer to the six-part comedy as his and he bristles in that distinctly Sam Pang way he's known for — gently and respectfully.
"Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler, who did Upper Middle Bogan and The Librarians and Very Small Business, it's their series. I'm in it.
"Pang plays AFL administrator Hugh Shen, who has been sent to Tasmania to win over a public unhappy with the decision to build a football stadium for the new team. Sam Pang plays Hugh Shen, an AFL bureaucrat tasked with creating a team for Tasmania. Pang describes it as a workplace comedy and says even though it's set in the world of the AFL, you "don't need to know the language or the history of the AFL to enjoy it".
"It's about bureaucracy and it's about relationships … And quite wonderfully the show and the subject matter is happening in real time with the Tasmanian Devils," he says. "I'm going to say both those things. Yeah, excited and nervous.
" "I had a really good time when I was doing it … I was happy to do something new and work with these wonderful people and try this new discipline. "Now that it's done and it's released, I'm all those things: I'm nervous and excited and I hope people like it and hope people see it. "Pang says being a comedian was never his dream, so how did he end up here?
"Some people know what they want to do by the time they are seven but that definitely wasn't me," he says. Growing up he watched Benny Hill, The Two Ronnies and Fawlty Towers, but says whenever he watched these shows, he never imagined that's what he'd like to do. But a much older Pang eventually found himself looking for "something".
Sam Pang might have once been serious about playing football but he says he was "far away" from being any good.
"The first thing I did was community radio. I didn't have any grand plans or ambitions. I just thought it might be fun to work in a radio station," he says.
"So, I started in community radio, which was much more exciting than working in a pub. Community radio in general is wonderful.
" He went on to establish himself as a regular on radio and our screens, but does he have a preference when it comes to stand-up, talk shows and scripted TV? "Panel shows with an audience — like Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Front Bar — are very different to stand-up and very different to Ground Up. "Stand-up is a bit harder. I haven't done as much of that, but I'd like to do more.
Absolutely. I think I will.
"Ground Up is a nod to Utopia, the workplace satire that lampooned the public service. Comedy shows like Ground Up poke fun at the absurd, in this case hanging out with your work colleagues all day long.
"And in this case, the world of a new club getting started, bureaucracy, the workplace and relationships," he says. That Pang once played for Collingwood's Under-19s team is a nice coincidence but, in true Pang fashion, he plays down his football talent.
" I played it at a much lower level … The Front Bar is a wonderful reminder of how far away I was from being any good. When he watches an AFL football game now, is he the type of fan who screams at the TV or does he quietly stew?
"I barrack for Carlton, so there hasn't been a lot to cheer about and there's been a lot to quietly stew about," he says
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