The Chaser Report - WAR STORIES: Andrew makes everything a musical

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

This Summer The Chaser Report presents... WAR STORIES!The Chaser's resident musical comedy legend Andrew Hansen joins our Summer Stunt Series to talk about some of his favourite musical Chaser moments. Andrew talks about the times he forced Craig to sing, and also promotes his new ABC show "Stories From Oz", and new tour "Everyone Else Is Wrong". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Welcome to another summer stunt series episode of The Chaser Report. Charles Firth is here. I'm Domney and Andrew Hanson steps up to the mic today. Hello, Andrew. Yes, indeed. Hello there, Dommy and Charles. It's very, very nice to be back.

We've hardly seen you all year, Andrew. What have you been up to? It's been an absolute ass of a year, really. Look, I've been working on, you know, I've had to work on these other things. and especially working on putting together a live tour. Look, I haven't written any jokes for it yet, but it is coming. I'm going to be taking a live show around Australia next year. And it's going to have funny songs and sketches in it.

But I've spent all year trying to think of one. I haven't come up with one yet. And this is, of course, being sent out in January, which means by next year you actually meant this year. Oh, sorry. Oh, yes, yes, yes. We are actually in January. Yeah, yeah, you know how for the first few days of January.

You can't remember that it's this year and not next year. year. I don't know what year it is. I don't know what bloody year it is. All I want you to do is come to see my live show. But also, given the history of your live shows, Andrew, it probably will be next year. Well, maybe, because everything goes wrong, doesn't it? Well, I've got a, premise for the show. I've got a premise. It's called everyone else is wrong. Because that's what everyone thinks, right? You know, we all, we all just think that we're the only person who's right at the moment. That's the way the world has gone. But I'm the only one who is right. So I'm going and we spend a whole live show explaining to you in song and sketch why you're wrong and

I'm right. You sound like my wife. Well, there you go. She'll love this show. Or every single member of the Chaser at any writer's meeting. They will all love, yes, they'll all love this. They'll all agree with me. But, Andrew, you also, you very modestly have omitted that I saw in the ABC Upfronts.

You've got, you're starring in your own ABC TV show this year. Oh, yes. Yes. Well, I wouldn't tour if I didn't have a TV show to cash in on. Oh, yeah, of course. I wouldn't sell any tickets. So, yeah, yeah, there's a TV show coming called Stories from Oz, which is where we retell true stories as musicals.

And I've heard people who have seen it just say it's the most amazing thing in the world that's going to be the show of the year. Well, they do. This is what they say. But I don't know when it's coming. It could be coming any time. Who knows? I don't know.

But it is the most amazing show ever. The trailer. The trailer looked amazing. I mean, there were these incredible kind of triple threat, young dancers and singers and actors. And then two old guys who seemed awkwardly be jammed into things as well. But the young sort of stage performers seemed incredible. I can't wait to see them in action. They're talented.

Chris Taylor and I, who run the show, yeah, admittedly, we just bumble and stumble through the dance routines, wheezing and puffing and tripping over. I think I saw Chris Taylor singing in a clip. Yeah, this is the hilarious thing about stories from all. which is the name of this show is that it's all comedy songs and documentary stuff mixed together right so it's kind of like a history doco where all the reenactments are musicals

and it comes from a it's a format it's a Norwegian show originally called stories from Norway that Chris and I loved and we arranged to sort of get hold of this format but yeah Chris he only sings one song out of the whole series because there are 36 songs in the series more actually

he only sings one because he's not a singer It's terrible singer But that's the song in the trailer For some reason That was the ideal It was the most trailer-friendly song And so all these brilliant triple-threat

Musical stars You know, they're not singing in the trailer And Chris Taylor is One of the absolute highlights Of the Chaser TV shows Were the songs that you and Chris wrote together Performed exclusively by you I think every time anyone from The Chaser

Was ever seen singing It was just Andrew multi-draking Not exclusively, Donnie. Not exclusive. Not if life were a musical. Oh no, they often were you most track, weren't they? Yeah, I mean, well, look, I did write a song for If Life were a musical where Craig Roocastle was cast as the lead singer. Oh, no.

That doesn't sound like a thorough, creative process, Hanson, I don't remember. Were there open auditions for that? There were no auditions. No, no, I had this idea that the biggest irony in the world, because Craig is, incredibly musically untalented. He's even worse singer than actor, and that's saying something. And, like, he's shockingly bad. And so I thought it would be funny if we burst into an actual talent agency

and Craig performed an audition for them, you know, just in their office. Oh, I see, yes. And so that's why, you know, because the premise of this piece was that we perform musicals in real places. How did the ABC, because surely you had to do risk assessments. all the sketches. Not back then. This was a long time ago, Charles. There was no risk assessments back then.

I remember what that was. The risk assessment always said, Trespus, if asked to leave, you leave. Generally, about 10 minutes of utter bewilderment before people realized they could ask the chase to leave, so we got a piece. But surely the risk assessment on that would have been people will hear Craig singing.

Yes, it was risky. It was, well, we should have a trigger warning right now. We should have a trigger warning for this show right now Because I think we're going to assault your ears pretty soon with Craig singing, aren't we? What is the opposite of a triple threat? Is it a zero threat or is there some sort of negative number? It's a Roocastle zero threat. He's a zero threat.

Should we brace ourselves and have a listen to Craig Roocastle diving into this talent? You did do trigger warnings on our radio show, actually. A trigger warning. Can you just come up with a trigger warning perhaps for this? Yes, trigger warning. If you are offended by complete lack of music. musicality and talent, then block your ears in preparation for Craig Rucasel, who is going to take lead vocal in this very upsetting piece.

Hi, how are you going? This is a talent agency, isn't it? Because I just want to show you something. Can you sign me up? Is that a right? There's two things where we can sort them out, I promise you. I promise you. All that I want is to be a pop star Shooting up the charts with hit after heat I'm leaving a mansion and drive a false car But the problem I've got is I can't sing for shit Yes the problem I've got is I can sing for shit

Don't sing for shit You're the chase of guys to sing like birds But when I open my mouth I sound like a tweet I'm out of tune I can't remember the words But he can't sing for sheep When he sings in an ensemble, he gets in our tears I don't even know what a harmony is

Ah So put me on your books teach me how to sing me how to sing so the viewers at home can stop vomiting He's so glad We just have to do Steve

Well done Andrew Ah That was tough to teach him Even to that level To try and teach him That song was really Really tough But was he trying to sound shit

Like was that actually No No he was trying to He was trying to do his bed I didn't tell him the idea I said look you'll go in And he's Craig He's very

He's very confident He thought he was going to be cast Yeah, he thought it was going to be cast in the lead of the boy from Oz or something. There was, yeah, I mean, the great thing about that was he quite often hit the note, but it was really random as to whether he did or not. So clearly he wasn't trying to sound terrible. Mind you, I think he's almost as good a singer as Hugh Jackman. So maybe he does have a long career in musical.

What are you saying here? What are you saying? Hugh Jackman's a terrible singer. I remember once for a stage show, there was an argument over whether he or I should appear in a duet with that. Andrew Hanson, which was mercifully cut because it was appalling. But his argument was that you didn't actually need to sing in pitch. What you needed was Hutzpah on the stage, confidence. I argued that you needed to hit the note.

But, you know, we never resolved that one. Well, we should have put it to the test and put him on stage, really, because the audience would have decided, you know, I would have liked to see them all walk out on him. And he would have finally, he would have still blamed someone else. If you do a series two of stories and rollers, you should definitely have a Craig Roocastle singing in carryout. I think that would be a great way to end the series, possibly forever.

Yeah, yeah, I'd prefer the show to rate, actually, Dommy. I really would. The Chaser Report, news you know you can't trust. I used to hate to it. I mean, those musical things were very stressful because you had to carry in, not only did you have to burst into the place and sing, but we had to have a very loud and large speaker that you would wheel in.

to the office or whatever so that we could hear the music because you had to sing along to it. So most of the difficulty was lugging this enormous speaker around and, you know, so it's not fast. You can't burst in somewhere really fast

with a huge speaker. So it was really awkward and embarrassing because you'd sort of slowly trundle this giant speaker into somewhere and the people in there'd be going, what the fuck you're doing? What is this big speaker that you? Do you need a hand with that?

Can we help you carry this in? I love the ones. In Martin Place and, you know, outdoor ones where people were kind of like, what's going on? And now, people, passers by are actually caught up in it. And then a lot of them ended up actually joining the fray during the course of the thing and dancing along, particularly when they knew who you were. It just became, it became almost like a performance art thing. It was great.

Well, yeah, if people were drunk enough, they'd come and, they'd come and dance along. Did you ever not succeed? Like, did it ever go wrong? Because I imagine having the large speaker means that you sort of, of can't be made to leave quickly anyway so you can get the whole thing out. No, you couldn't. That was the, oh yeah, that was extremely awkward.

Like, you know, when they got angry at us, which was sometimes. Oh, really? Then you have to slowly leave with this enormous speaker. That was horrible. When did they get angry? There was a medical centre. There's another reply for a musical, which is about a waiting room. And it was another one I wrote, I think, that Chris and I sat in a doctor's waiting room

and sang, waiting. I'm just waiting. Like this And it was a funny idea And actually Most of the medical rooms We did it in Were fine about it

But there was one They got very very pissed off indeed And yeah Just just leaving with that big speaker Well you probably shouldn't have done it in like a hearing problems clinic Yeah We should have taken Craig to that They wouldn't have understood the gag

I kind of love the extent that we played with Just the practicalities of these things Like whenever there was a big prop, even kicking you out took so long that we got a piece from it many times. And he's kind of kept going. It's kind of hard to evict people without it, you know, taking a few minutes and getting some more lines in. That's true. And it kind of gives you an ending to the piece. It was disappointing if you didn't get kicked out really because then you sort of didn't necessarily have much of an ending to the piece.

I think that's another reason we started doing musical numbers though because the song ends. So even if you don't get kicked out There's a sense that it's finished Because the music ends With a big grand finale And then you can cut Yeah yeah And I think other people

I mean I think doing musicals in real life places I noticed Shortly after we did it on TV People on YouTube started to do it Oh really? Yeah Yeah It's very TikToky now

I think it's quite common now I remember a few years later Yeah, like there was that comedy group called the Janoskians. I remember they started doing it a few years after we did it. So I presume you collect royalties on there. I'm so rich from all the Janoskians performing music numbers in food courts. So, Andrew, I've actually seen a few of the episodes of the Norwegian format that you're... Yeah, stories from Norway.

It's brilliant. It's a great show. There is one thing that I really didn't like about the show. So I'm just wondering whether... What's what you would be for this? Which is that it was in Norwegian. Well, look, we've slavishly adhered to that. I'm very respectful of the original format.

So my new TV show is entirely in Norwegian. And so I advise you to brush up now if you want to enjoy it. And most Australians won't have much trouble following a Norwegian show, will they? I mean, we're all pretty fluent. Yeah. Because you're telling stories like, you know, the Michelle Corby, you know, getting caught. Chappelle.

Chappelle, got the Chappelle, though, Chappelle Corby. Well, that story's best told in Norwegian. In Norwegian, yes. I can imagine it's sort of... And then there's no subtitles, I assume. No, no, no. In the version I saw, there was no subtitles.

That would cheapen it. They were cheapen it. No, no. And the story of, you know, Princess Mary from Tasmania. Oh, yes. It needs to be in Norwegian, that story. Mm.

As does the story. We're also doing the story of Stephen Bradbury, who, you know, won an Olympic gold medal when all the other skaters fell over. And I think that very much lends itself to a Norwegian saga sort of telling. Was there a temptation to choose really morbid stories that were very depressing? Oh, Lord, yeah, yeah. Well, funnily enough, I always wanted to choose fun, lighthearted stories. But there was a weird push, actually, from some of the executives to go and tell these really dark. Grim stories. And actually,

one of the stories is dark. You know, the last episode is about the Tampa affair. Oh. When this... Which is actually partly to do with Norway because the ship that rescued all those... Oh, yes, of course.

Asylum seekers was a Norwegian ship. Well, I presume you have all the Norwegian speaking English. Well, we had to try... It took a year. This is why the show takes so long to come out. This is why I can't tell you when it's going to air. We're still teaching them out to speak English so they can... Now all the musical comedy stars.

Norwegian. They're not triple therets. They're quadruple threats. They've become very talented. And they'll be, yeah, and they're going to be, they're going to rake it in financially because they'll be able to, you know, do all these stage shows in Norway, which would be very lucrative for them. I've just realized, Andrew, the fact that it's Norwegian, that must be Elvis, is it? I love Elvis. Yeah, yeah. The original show is by these brilliant guys, the Elvis brothers. Yeah, what does the Fox say? That's right. Yeah, yeah, that's one of their big hits. And, yeah, Chris and I, you know, watch their show and thought, bloody hell, this is so good.

We're dying to, we should abandon all our own concepts and just, and we actually just rang up, SBS, who had the show and asked if we could make an Australian version of it. And they said, oh, well, they sort of let us do some development for it. Although it ended up being on IBC in the end, because SBS had no money. That feels awkward. Well, it was actually okay.

It was surprisingly friendly. We were really amazed because we thought, oh, this is dead in the water now because, you know. Yeah, yeah. SBS said, oh, well, you know, here, we've done the development. We love what you've done. We like the songs you've written, but we don't have enough money to make the show we've realized. So goodbye. That's everyone's experience of SBS.

They do a really nice development. Oh, by the way, we don't have any money to make it. Great show. Yeah. Well, that's right. It sounds like it would be really good if you had any money. money. Yeah, we had the classic SBS experience. Luckily, ABC took it. It was very slowly. I mean, it still took years. It really did, didn't it? It was four years ago we started on this.

Because with all the stories, actually contemporary stories and now they're historical stories. Yes, it was a fresh show. It was a start of a topical show about the Tampa Affair. It was this brand new. Well, I do hope it's going to wear in Norway. Well, I hope so too. I mean, I don't know how interested they'll be, but, you know, we'll find out, I guess. So that's Stories from Oz coming to the ABC at some point this year. So along with looking back on some of the stuff from the Chaser TV shows, we've all given you a sneak preview of the next one from members of the team. I hope you enjoyed that sneaky preview.

Let's have a little bit of the audio from Stories from Oz to go out on to give it a full preview. It was completely surreal. The world's view was just complete disbelieve. About this Ferris wheel, a very large, heavy balk just fell and nearly hit one of our painters. Oh. I told you I was down to worse I've got us. We was a TV event. Only in Australia, could you go to a pub on a Saturday night, in Sydney, and pick up a prince.

My name is Mary Donaldson. That night was perhaps the worst night of my life. She really did do the role of the innocent drug mule really well. This is what we trade to do. We're Aussie soldiers yesterday. We always follow orders. It was a bit of a circus. Just a brain fart.

It's such an unlikely story. Everything that came up. Everything that came after that world, it all just went nuts. It's the biggest story in Australia and I went, the world. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. It was bloody great. Our gears from red microphones, we're part of the Acast, Creator Network,

and we'll have another summer stunt series episode for you tomorrow. you then. See ya.