Ben Pobjie is the author of the Reality Recap of Australian History Error Australis and Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. He is the resident satirist for Medium and TV writer for the Saturday Age, he co-hosts the comedy podcast Gather Around Me, and is a regular voice on ABC radio,Triple R and 3CR as well as writing occasionally for TV.
He reviewed the first episode of Sam Pang Tonight for Mediaweek.
“There is a subtle difference, discernible to any long-time experienced television watcher, between a studio audience in fits of hilarity at the show they’re watching, and a studio audience forcing itself to laugh according to instructions they’ve been given.
The audience present at the first episode of Sam Pang Tonight had a powerful whiff of the latter: while the titular host certainly got laughs with every gag, there was a sort of aggressive desperation to it; you could sense the warm-up guy by the side of the stage frantically waving his arms to generate the response. Somebody has to whip up some energy, after all, and it’s energy that, for long stretches of the show, was sorely lacking.
Sam Pang, it should be made clear, is a very talented performer. He didn’t get his new chat show by accident: over years of radio, podcasting and television performances on shows like Santo, Sam and Ed’s Total Football, The Front Bar and Have You Been Paying Attention?, he’s proven himself a polished and original comedic presence. But having your own tonight show is a very different beast to bantering on panels.
A chat show is a distinctly showbizzy affair, and Pang is a distinctly un-showbizzy guy. This is a major part of his appeal, of course, but achieving a synthesis of format and persona takes a major effort, and judged on the first episode, Sam Pang Tonight is still very much a work in progress.
Pang’s understated style comes off as awkward, particularly during the opening monologue – the tonight show staple – when a series of fairly weak one-liners are reeled off with uninspired delivery. Pang seems not to really believe in the task he’s undertaking: his first monologue was that of a man distinctly uncomfortable with the form.
You sense that what he truly yearns to do is subvert the entire exercise, but instead has to trudge through the motions. It would help, mind you, if his writing team worked a bit harder to come with better topical gags. Or if the set were a bit more imposing: the show feels a little small, a little cheap, like the network lacks the faith to go all-out on the concept.
Things pick up a little when it comes to the interview stage, although the first encounter, with screen legend Jack Thompson, suffers from the same malaise as the show in general: a lack of energy.
Thompson has a wealth of tales to tell, but at an advanced age is no whippy conversationalist – he’s better suited to an hour-long profile than a five-minute chat. And Pang, though clearly interested in his subject, doesn’t have the interviewing chops to bring the talk alive. His second interview, with Doctor Emma West, was better, with a more idiosyncratic approach playing far better to Pang’s strengths.
And the show in general got better from that point on, with a couple of playful pieces – one on weird old TV clips and one sending up the traditional Wheel segment. By the end it seemed like Pang, and his audience, were more relaxed and having more fun.
Shame it happened so late. If more of that spirit can be infused, and greater energy summoned across the show, Pang may still revive the old format.”