Hessie's Shed

Paul Hester, of Crowded House fame, meets up with, and chats casually with semi-famous aussie celebs. Mostly his mates. the show had a pretty laid-back attitude, and basically involved hester sitting back and letting his guest talk at thier own pace, about what they wanted, with his occasional input (a laugh, or a 'yep'). Then they'd head of the famous espy in st kilda to show off in front of an enthusiastic crowd. thats the way i remember it anyway. paul hester's interested, relaxed attitude made the show easy to watch and enjoy, unlike alot of todays interviewers (rove etc) who make you squirm when you hear them try to maintain a conversation. hester's just another aussie bloke (who is actually from new zealand...but that never stopped us from claiming before), and his show reflected his casual nature. not a bad show, but i'm suprised i remember it.

I was involved with two of these shows as a performer. The first was an untelevised (yet as I recall it was taped?) version shot during the Melbourne Comedy Festival at the legendary Esplanade Hotel, Gershwin Room stage (ie: the "Espy" run by Trev) and Hessie participated in some improvised 'comic' stuff with myself and Rusty F (together, we were 'Fusion') which went down very well the first time round. When they got the green light to tape for ABCTV (during the next Comedy Festival?), Paul and Trev invited us back to do another and had as much fun, except for one piece that Paul did with us which, in his attempt to re-live past glories (?), died. The other stuff we did worked fine with Paul and the fab band (Largest Living Things)kicking in for a lovely (and much treasured memory of mine) to do a totally improvised, on-the-spot ode to a girl-from-the-audience, Kelly, who'd happened to have split up with her boyfriend, Dick (!)...who worked at the zoo! The audience loved the spontaneity and Hessie can be seen in the background laughing in support along with the band and the wonderful Raymond J. Great fun. Oh, by the way, Hessie was born in Australia-he just played with a bunch of Kiwis. His energy was remarkable.