Hello and welcome back.

The Story So Far… 

Mark’s already done one marathon audition (three to four hours) for the hosting role on Pointless. The producers have been impressed, and they’ve called him back for a second audition, on the show’s actual set, where they’ll test how he works with two different co-hosts. The first of these two potential co-hosts is a comedian who Mark was paired with in the earlier audition. Now read on…

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MH: I just had to be finished in time to get to the ABC by 8:00. So I did the audition with this comedian, and then they brought in Dr Andrew Rochford, whom I had never met. Because of my time constraints, we only could get through two rounds of the game in the audition; we didn’t even get to do a full episode. So we did the two rounds and I had to race out the door and I’m thinking ‘I’m never going to see any of these people again’… I’m making a fairly hasty exit, and as I’m walking down the corridor I hear a sad little voice call out “… Bye!” And it was Andrew, who I somehow hadn’t said goodbye to! “Oh I’m sorry!” I said. “Good luck, thank you, all the best for the future…”  And that was that. So Andrew and I had very little time together during the Chemistry Tests. But I guess they saw something there, even from just those two rounds. Because he has a very different energy to me; he’s obviously very intelligent, and has lots of information that he can provide but I think he’s a good contrast to me, in that I’m generally quite light… and Andrew’s a lot blokier than I am. I’m kind of dancing around the set, and he’s sitting there in his three-piece suit, channelling Dwayne Johnson in Ballers. 

SH: (LAUGHING) Oh, okay! And they obviously must have liked all of that… because they gave you both the gig! Do you remember where you were and how you felt when you got the news?

MH: Yes! I was on a train and I was absolutely stunned, I was amazed! I couldn’t believe it, and I assumed that I was being offered the sitting down role, because I’d done most of my auditions in that role, and that’s who I imagined I’d be on the show. But they said “No, no, no – we want you to be the standing up host!” And I was quite taken aback by that, quite startled. But not in a bad way, just because that was not the way I’d imagined it would go. And of course I said “Sure! Okay! Whatever you want!” and then they told me that the other role – the other person – was Andrew Rochford. And again, that’s not a reflection on Andrew, it’s just that we had so little time together. 

SH: Yes, and you’d had to leave the audition early, to get to work!

MH: And then I called my wife, and my parents, and my best friend – there were a few fun phone calls – but generally I kept it to myself. And then of course I had to tell my boss at SBS. Even though I’d already quit. It was a bizarre coincidence; I was coming up to my last week at SBS when all of this happened. And I needed to ask him to make Monday my last day because this whole thing was so rushed; they told me on Friday that I’d got the gig… and then they said “And we require you in at Channel 10 on Tuesday”!

SH: Wow, really? 

MH: Yeah! And my boss was very understanding and accommodating, which doesn’t always happen… so I’m grateful to him for that. He made Monday my last day in at SBS. 

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Whoa, what a rapid turnaround! Tune in next week, to find out all about Mark’s first week on the job, where he really hit the ground running, and what happened when the show premiered, so very soon after that…

Until next Tuesday… stay safe, my friends, stay healthy and STAY AT HOME. Be kind to others and please be kind to yourself.

Cheers,

Stephen