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Speaker 1: This is gam Nation with Jonesy.

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Speaker 2: Hard to believe it's thirty years since the Late Show

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Speaker 2: debuted on ABC TV. This was the show that was

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Speaker 2: instrumental in how Australians of our generation saw comedy. So

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Speaker 2: many famous people who were still working in this field,

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Speaker 2: Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Lucy Tony, Martin McCloy and Rob Sitch.

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Speaker 2: Great segments like Bajas, Charlie the Wonder Dog, Pissweek World.

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Speaker 2: So much to discuss, and Rob Sitch joins us now

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Speaker 2: here he is, Hello.

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Speaker 1: Rob, speaking with you. You Amana thirty years.

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Speaker 2: When you set out, did you have any idea that

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Speaker 2: you'd all still be working by and large together but

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Speaker 2: what a force should be?

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Speaker 1: No, we didn't. And here's the advantage we had back

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Speaker 1: then is that teenagers on a Saturday night were trapped

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Speaker 1: at home, so we had an audience, a fugitive sort

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Speaker 1: of hostages really and it was before social media, so

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Speaker 1: we really didn't know who was watching. And it seemed

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Speaker 1: to be seventy year old ABC viewers that wanted the

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Speaker 1: BBC drama back on, or it was a fourteen fifty

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Speaker 1: sixteen year old And eventually you know that the feedback

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Speaker 1: came back from them, and that was the delight.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and because you would have been on after Hey,

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Speaker 3: hey it's Saturday, so hey, Saturday would have been on

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Speaker 3: a nine and then you guys would have come on,

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Speaker 3: it would have been a nice.

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Speaker 1: Book end, yeah, Jones. I think by then, hey hey,

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Speaker 1: it realized that late on a Saturday night was even

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Speaker 1: too tough for them, so they moved to seven point

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Speaker 1: thirty and we used to come on at ten o'clock live.

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Speaker 1: Can you believe it? It was just madness, that's we're.

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Speaker 2: So doing it live? What kind of things went wrong?

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Speaker 2: I remember watching the show and seeing Tony Martin say,

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Speaker 2: I just left out an entire verse.

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Speaker 4: To that song.

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Speaker 1: Well, back then we had I mean, you guys have

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Speaker 1: all done televisions. Now you've got Auto Q. You look

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Speaker 1: straight at the camera and the words come up on

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Speaker 1: the screen for you. Back then, it was paper. It

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Speaker 1: was literally a physical paper that was rolled through. And

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Speaker 1: we used to do these two sporting characters called Graham

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Speaker 1: with the Colonel, and we'd write it the night before,

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Speaker 1: at midnight, and we're going and then we'd lose our

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Speaker 1: place and the AUTOQ sheet we go up down back

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Speaker 1: and Eventually the auto Q lady put her head into

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Speaker 1: the camera and looked at us and shook her head

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Speaker 1: and said, I have no idea what I'm doing.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, I've got a confession to make.

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Speaker 3: Back in the nineties, I was one of the first

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Speaker 3: radio awards and I was just a gog. I was

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Speaker 3: working at my first radio stage, six k Karratha. I'd

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Speaker 3: be nominated for this award for being something Alive Alive.

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Speaker 4: And I came along to the big Smoke and you know.

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Speaker 3: Brian Bury was there and stands the Martika baby John Burgess.

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Speaker 3: I go into the toilet and there I see Tom

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Speaker 3: Gleisner and Rob Sitch, you know my heroes from the

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Speaker 3: d generation. And you guys were at the urinal and

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Speaker 3: you turn around, walk towards me, and they said, get

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Speaker 3: a young fellow. Where are you from. I went, oh,

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Speaker 3: Caratha and you you said, God bless you. You probably got

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Speaker 3: a tape in your top pocket, and I did, but

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Speaker 3: I went, oh, no, no, as if I would as

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Speaker 3: an audition tape like because the boss said, when you

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Speaker 3: go there, take along a tape in case you see

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Speaker 3: some big wigs and your hand them a tape.

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Speaker 1: And oh my God Jesus, if you had handed it

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Speaker 1: to us at that point, Jonesy, you'd be an accountant

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Speaker 1: right now.

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Speaker 4: I was worried, you're going to pat me down? Have

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Speaker 4: you got a tape? Got a wife?

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Speaker 1: I remember that, I remember that night. I think they

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Speaker 1: were sponsored. The awards were sponsored by Telstra, Yes, and

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Speaker 1: everyone had to be presented the award by the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Telstra, who had clearly never met a single you know,

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Speaker 1: heard a single.

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Speaker 4: Brilliant.

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Speaker 2: Is it true that the show wrapped up because of

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Speaker 2: the golf War, that all the funding went to the newsroom?

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Speaker 1: No? No, actually golf. No, we were ninety two to

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Speaker 1: ninety three. We were after that, and so we The

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Speaker 1: reason it wrapped up was really so simple. I mean

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Speaker 1: we only did two years forty hours. I mean one

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Speaker 1: season of Masters, Yes, that still have Siste and Cooks remaining.

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Speaker 1: We I think Nick Nick wanted to do a stand

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Speaker 1: up to the following year, and we went ok, and

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Speaker 1: then Tony goes off, it's not going to do it.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it fair enough. And then

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Speaker 1: we all see each other and go, well, that's it.

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Speaker 1: So it wasn't. It wasn't really the breakup of the Beatles.

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Speaker 3: And was theres Was there overtures from the commercial network's

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Speaker 3: I'm surprise that never ended up on Channel nine or seven.

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Speaker 1: There was that. I mean, it was just we looked

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Speaker 1: at each other and where, there's no way this band's

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Speaker 1: getting back together now, So they're going to go for

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Speaker 1: three years and everyone we went and did a show

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Speaker 1: called Frontline, and everyone went in their own way.

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Speaker 3: And I love that because you look at the length

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Speaker 3: of breadth the shows that you guys do up until

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Speaker 3: like have you been paying attention? And are Utopia? It

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Speaker 3: just it just never stops. What's your what's your next?

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Speaker 3: Is there something in the pipeline that you can tell

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Speaker 3: us about?

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Speaker 1: Well, it's funny enough. An idea that we had twenty

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Speaker 1: five years ago. We called it news How expect Then

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Speaker 1: Tom and I looked and then after twenty five years,

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Speaker 1: Tom and I looked at each other. I said, we're

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Speaker 1: about two generations too old for that idea. And so

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Speaker 1: then we approached a guy called Tim McDonald and that's

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Speaker 1: called The Cheap Seats, which is on Oh yes, love that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's an idea we had way way back, and then

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Speaker 1: realized realized, if you're getting your fourth, Boosy, you're probably

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Speaker 1: not young enough to be up that late, that late.

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Speaker 1: That's right.

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Speaker 3: Well, Robert, congratulations to you that thirty years and what

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Speaker 3: a legacy and you're still killing it. It would be

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Speaker 3: terrible if were sitting and go, oh, Rob, you should

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Speaker 3: do more of that, but you're prolific. Oh.

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Speaker 1: I'm just so glad we never got that tape because

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Speaker 1: I think that you would have ruined your career.

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Speaker 2: It's been fantastic following you guys on social media this

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Speaker 2: week and all the clips you've been putting up from

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Speaker 2: the show, it's just been great.

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Speaker 3: My favorite one is Jane on on Sale of the Century.

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Speaker 4: I thought that was one.

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Speaker 1: Of them that was a long which she was invited

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Speaker 1: on the celebrity sales of the Center. I think Andrew

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Speaker 1: Dent will on that year. And that's how long some

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Speaker 1: of these sketches took to plan. We said, we'll go

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Speaker 1: will wait for it to go to wear and then

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Speaker 1: we'll get Tony Barbara and a van outside and pretend

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Speaker 1: she's getting live answer. So it was actually fully enough

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Speaker 1: surprised me how much was planned. Looking back at it.

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Speaker 2: It was just brilliance and so many great memories.

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Speaker 3: Champagne, comedy rock Champagne.

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Speaker 1: That was That was meant as a sarcastic comment at

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Speaker 1: the time, but people have taken that to be sincere

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Speaker 1: these days.

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Speaker 4: That's what's happened man. Well, the tapes in the mail

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Speaker 4: and thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Rob, always grade to catch up.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, Zah