Hamish and Andy's Gap Year
Encyclopedia
Hamish and Andy's Gap Year is a 2011 comedy series following Hamish Blake
and Andy Lee
, a pair of Australia
n comedians, on their trip to New York
.
hired comedians Hamish Blake and Andy Lee for at least 15 hours of television in two years. It is believed that the Gap Year is not the only project the pair are going to produce. According to many interviews, they came across the idea when they realised they never took a gap year after high school, so they would film their many adventures overseas as it was 'ironic' that they had just received a contract for TV.
Channel 9 produced many ads for the Gap Year's debut episode. One featured Hamish singing Frank Sinatra's
'New York, New York' from the Australian International Airport until he was in a cab in New York. The ads mostly involved Hamish annoying Andy.
, Neil Patrick Harris
, James Franco
, Sarah Jessica Parker
, Susan Sarandon
, Samantha Stosur
, and Chris Martin
and Guy Berryman
from the British band, Coldplay
.
Hamish Blake
Hamish Donald Blake is an Australian comedian, actor, author and bodybuilder from Melbourne, Australia. Since 2003, he has worked with Andy Lee as part of the comedy duo Hamish and Andy. The pair have performed live and on television and radio, most notably with their drive-time radio program...
and Andy Lee
Andy Lee (comedian)
Andrew Thomas "Andy" Lee is an Australian comedian. He usually works alongside Hamish Blake as part of the comedy duo Hamish & Andy.-Personal background:...
, a pair of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n comedians, on their trip to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
History
The concept for the show was created when the Nine NetworkNine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
hired comedians Hamish Blake and Andy Lee for at least 15 hours of television in two years. It is believed that the Gap Year is not the only project the pair are going to produce. According to many interviews, they came across the idea when they realised they never took a gap year after high school, so they would film their many adventures overseas as it was 'ironic' that they had just received a contract for TV.
Channel 9 produced many ads for the Gap Year's debut episode. One featured Hamish singing Frank Sinatra's
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
'New York, New York' from the Australian International Airport until he was in a cab in New York. The ads mostly involved Hamish annoying Andy.
Reception
The show was received well based on the first episode, receiving high ratings and good reviews.Safari
Every week, Hamish and Andy visit various interesting locations ariund the United States. For these adventures, the boys dress in purpose-built safari costumes. Their adventures have included:- Episode 1: Hamish and Andy fly to Oklahoma to take part in a statewide catfish noodling competition. After several unsuccessful attempts (using Andy's ass as the bait), the boys manage to score what they think is a giant catfish, which they name Fish'ell. Unfortunately, it turns out that Fish'ell is in fact the smallest in the competition. A policeman learns that Hamish & Andy do not in fact have fishing licences to take part in the competition, so he fines Hamish heavily.
- Episode 2: The boys decide to head to Phoenix, Arizona, to take part in a roller derby, an aggressive, female-dominated sport that involves roller skating around a rink repeatedly. Placed on different teams, Hamish and Andy make a bet that whoever's team loses will do a "BatLap", a lap of the rink wearing nothing but a pair of speedos with Batman designs on them. Unfortunately for Hamish, despite the fact that he ended up brutally smashing half of Andy's team, his team loses, and Hamish (somewhat proudly) completes the BatLap.
- Episode 3: Hamish and Andy travel to a forest in Washington State, where they take part in LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing. After failing several times to win battles, a frustrated Hamish conspires to kill "the sacred bird", the LARPing mascot and cherished character. The locals do not take kindly to this, resulting in Hamish wrestling with another LARPer.
- Episode 4: Hamish books Andy into a five-star dog hotel in Florida, where he is treated to all sorts of pampering - and an attempt at an anal cleanse. One of the women at the hotel takes a shine to Andy the dog, and opts to scratch his belly and becomes flushed after doing so. In the end, Hamish gives away Andy the dog to the woman, who is very pleased.
- Episode 5: Hamish and Andy fly to El Paso, Texas, to join a lowriders' club, a club made up of men who have beefed up their cars with the ultimate suspension systems, so they can bounce and jump and ride like no other car can. An enthusiastic Hamish gets a test ride of a clubman's $100,000 ride, despite Andy's frantic warnings of Hamish's poor driving skills, though he manages to drive quite successfully. The boys also get a go in a "bouncer", a car which literally bounces tens of metres up into the air. With no seatbelts, they get quite severely injured from this. Eager to join the club, Hamish and Andy decide to pimp their own ride (a Toyota Camry) with $32 worth of arts and crafts stickers. They are then inducted, and drive away as lowriders.
- Episode 6: The boys head to California to take part in a wild-west re-enactment performance for French tourists. However, the owner of the company who operates the re-enactments is not enthusiastic about having two amateurs acting in his perfectly scaled and timed performance, so pretty much ignores them all day. Determined to take part, Hamish's desperation to act culminates in him taking any role available - which turns out to be the role of a busty, scantily-clad young woman. The re-enactment begins, and the boys stand off to the side, slowly realising they are not part of the performance, until the owner surprisingly allows them one scene at the end, where the boys improvise a wild-west altercation between the busty Hamish and the cowboy Andy. Using the gun with one bullet that he was allowed, Andy shoots Hamish, leaving him sprawled inappropriately on the ground. The tourists leave soon after, as do the boys, satisfied with their performance.
- Episode 7: The boys decide to amp up their weekly safaris by heading to Washington State for a demolition derby - but not just any demolition derby. This one involves combine harvesters ramming into each other at high speeds. When Hamish and Andy arrive, they realise that the harvester that they have been given has no brakes and no fire extinguishers, but that does not stop them from making it their own, giving it a nice new paint job and naming it "Peter Harvey-ster, Canberra". With no brakes, neither of the boys are too eager to be the driver, however Andy is forced into doing it by Hamish. Sensing new blood, Andy's competitors target him, and after a short period of time, the harvester's wheel axes have been completely severed, and Peter is gone forever.
Interviews
Throughout the series, Hamish and Andy interview various celebrities, either in the studio or in hotel rooms. Celebrities featured on the show include Taylor SwiftTaylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
, Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
, James Franco
James Franco
James Edward Franco is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and instructor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s...
, Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
, Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
, and Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
and Guy Berryman
Guy Berryman
Guy Rupert Berryman is a Scottish musician known as the bassist for the groups Coldplay and Apparatjik. Berryman is left-handed but chooses to play the bass right-handed.-Coldplay:...
from the British band, Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
.
R2-To-Do
This robot featured on the show provides a list of goals for Hamish and Andy to achieve on their journey. These include:- Tattoo timeslot on arm (Hamish):completed in episode 1
- Get three-wheeled NYPD 'Tough Mobile': completed in episode 3, where Hamish jumped the vehicle over his bobble-head figurine
- Remind Hillary Clinton of BBQ offer: completed in episode nine, when Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd is enlisted to remind Hillary, after Hamish and Andy attempted on numerous occasions
- Enrol Hamish in Mr. New York State body building contest: comlpleted in episode 5, with Hamish (unexpectedly) taking first place in his weight class
- Hamish to gain magician membership in 'Magician's Castle' in LA: completed in episode 10.
Hamish versus Andy
Introduced in episode 5, this segment includes various competitions between Hamish and Andy. The final score was 3-2 to Hamish.- The first invention is a game called Bin Racing, where the boys hide in separate wheelie bins in Central Park and must wheel 60m to the finish line without being seen as moving by the public. Unfortunately, one thing the boys did not anticipate was that people would actually throw their discards and waste onto them, leaving Andy especially disgusted. In the end, Hamish beats Andy by around 30m, giving him a 1-0 lead after one event.
- In the boys' second round of Hamish vs Andy, they try the new sport of Mates Racing. Basically, each of them are given five invitations to a lunch date at a grill at 1pm. Starting at 11.30 and ending an hour later, the boys must give as many of their invitations as possible to random strangers after a quick conservation, and whoever has the most guests who arrive wins. Both Hamish and Andy manage to give away four invitations in the hour, but in the moment of truth, all four of Hamish's guests arrive, whereas only two arrive for Andy. Hamish now holds a commanding lead of 2-0 in the series.
- For Hamish vs Andy Round 3, called stranger racing, this new sport involves the boys clipping a helium balloon to a pedestrian, and once the walk signal is given, it is a race between the two balloon nominees as to who can get to the other side of the crossing first. Hamish claims the first round, Andy snares the second, and the third is declared a dead heat. In the tiebreaker round, the boys substitute pedestrians for taxis, and small balloons for larger balloons in a race for two blocks. Unfortunately, Hamish's taxi is hailed, leaving Andy to take out the match, leaving the overall scores at 2-1.