Line? Line?
Press release time!
Media Release: Monday October 17, 2016
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia
Premieres November 27 only on The Comedy Channel
Foxtel’s local version of the much-loved comedy series, Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia will launch exclusively on The Comedy Channel Sundays from November 27 at 7.30pm.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia is a fresh and fun take on the popular original series’ from the UK and the US with a fantastic mix of experienced and new improv performers. Expect the unexpected when the quick-witted cast tackle the various improv challenges thrown at them each week.
Host Tommy Little is joined by seven exciting and talented ensemble cast members – comedy superstar Rhys Darby, stand-up festival favourites Cal Wilson, Tegan Higginbotham and Susie Youssef, along with world-class improviser Steen Raskopoulos, and newcomers Bridie Connell and Tom Walker.
In each of the ten episodes four of the cast will perform improv sketches together thrown at them by host Tommy Little and suggestions from the audience with no-one knowing where they will end up. The performers get themselves into insane situations with improv challenges often demanding singing and dancing – but most importantly they must deliver the jokes. The host then awards various amounts of points – that don’t even matter – to the best players and funniest sketches.
Ten-part series Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia was filmed in front of a live audience in Melbourne with house band led by Kit Warhurst. Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia is Executively Produced by Kevin Whyte, Guesswork Television, and Craig Campbell, +61 TV exclusively for Foxtel. The Australian series premieres Sundays from November 27 at 7.30pm only on The Comedy Channel.
thecomedychannel.com.au
Eh, it’s kinda hard to get all that excited about this – despite what the press release says, “fun and fresh” does not seem to be the words to use about this revival of a “much-loved” format – but in a way that’s kind of the point. The Australian television comedy ecosystem is so threadbare that it’s constantly having to re-introduce the most basic elements required for survival, and in this case that means a cheap and cheerful improv show where just maybe someone will catch fire and grab the public’s imagination. Or perhaps just literally catch fire, we don’t know what kind of improv games they have planned.
Just because there’s almost nothing to get excited about here doesn’t mean reviving Whose Line is it Anyway? is a bad thing; far from it. This is exactly the kind of basic comedy program Australia needs to be making three or four times a year if we’re ever going to find people who can work their way up the television ladder and eventually create something that isn’t part of the current ABC line-up.
It’s just not something that, the presence of a house band aside, we’re currently champing at the bit to watch.