Celia Pacquola remembers sitting in the studio audience watching her friend Felicity Ward walk through the famous blue door in 2009.
Pacquola was new to the stand-up circuit and couldn't have imagined ever having the courage to take part in the mayhem of a show like Thank God You're Here. “And now I host it,” she tells The Binge Guide with a laugh.
As for Ward? She is the first woman to take on the cringe-worthy boss in an upcoming Australian version of The Office for Prime Video.
“A lot has changed since I started doing comedy, where I also met Hannah Gadsby – and look at what they do,” Pacquola says of the Tasmanian comedian.
“A lot of the people we've come up with are doing amazing things.”
Listen to Celia Pacquola on Stellar's Something To Talk About podcast below:
Therein lies the beauty, says Pacquola, of hosting Thank God You're Here. Each week she gets a new slate of comics to bluff and joke in an impromptu secret sketch that's only revealed when they open the blue door.
One scenario may see the unsuspecting guest at the helm of a spaceship; in another one might find a cult leader or a ridiculous soap opera star. “As a comedy nerd, it's great,” enthuses Pacquola.
“We've got a range of up-and-coming comedians that I've heard of but I'm not very friendly with because they don't get out on stage as much anymore.
“And we have close friends like Luke McGregor and people I really admire like Kitty Flanagan or Ross Noble who were the generation before me.”
When the show's producers told her they were bringing it out of retirement in 2023, after a 15-year absence, she feared they wanted her as a contestant.
To her relief, the team at Working Dog Productions – who also make the Network 10 comedy quiz Have you been paying attention? and the ABC satirical comedy Utopia, both of which star Pacquola, the latter of which sees her and Flanagan up for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy at this year's Logie Awards — have said they want her as the lead , taking over from host Shane Bourne. .
“I've been asked to host things in the past and I can see why – people think I'm conversational,” she says.
“But I don't like being in charge and being responsible for other people having fun.
“When they asked me how I do it, I said, 'Oh yeah, I could do that.' It's essentially traffic control, and it's a warm comfort to people who are basically freaking out.”
For more from Celia, listen to her on Stellar's Something To Talk About podcast below:
However, not all shows are successfully rebooted. Nostalgia can only carry a show
So far, Pacquola's biggest worry about the revamped line-up was that she didn't want to “break it up — because I loved the show so much back in the day, and I was worried that when it came back it would be destroyed”.
Thankfully, the humor in Thank God You're Here still lands.
And Pacquola thinks that's because the combination of stupidity and fear never goes out of style.
“Everyone can relate to that feeling of tension and not knowing what's going to happen,” she says. “It's fun to see someone put on the spot, especially people who are used to being in control.
“To see these people, who we already know and love, put themselves in extremely vulnerable positions and then, when they're backed into a corner, watch what comes up in their minds is just fun. “
Series 6 of Thank God You're Here premieres at 7.30pm on 14 August on Network 10 and 10 Play. Celia Pacquola is invited to a new episode of the Stellar podcast this weekend.
To listen, find something to talk about wherever you find your podcasts.
Originally published as 'Complete Disaster': Celia Pacquola's brutal stand-up comedy flops and her career comes full circle.
