A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a live taping of a show called ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout your Generation”. Now this has been a long time favourite show of mine and so you can imagine that I was beyond excited when I was able to get tickets to be in the audience. First I’ll give a little background about this amazing show.

Talkin’ ‘Bout your Generation originally aired in 2009 and continued to run until 2012 when Channel 10 decided to shelf it. It stared Shaun Micallef as the host of the show and 3 different generations each with their own team leaders. There was the Baby Boomers led by Amanda Keller, Generation X led by Charlie Pickering and Generation Y led by Josh Thomas. Each episode the generations were joined by a famous guest who was apart of their respective generation. The hour long game show was centred around each generation answering pop culture questions and winning points in-order to determine the best generation of all time. It included short games that involved buzzing in and a ‘end game’ that challenged each generation at various tasks such as building a go kart or erecting a statue. This ‘end game’ holds a varying number of points each week so that any generation can win. The winner of the ‘end game’ is the winner of the episode and wins a stupid prize such as old trophy’s that have been viewer submitted.

Recently in 2018 Channel 9 decided to pick the show back up with new generations, a new studio design but still have Shaun as the host. This reboot decided to exclude the baby boomers and focus on Generations X,Y & Z. The hosts of the generations was also new, now having Robyn Butler for Gen X, Andy Lee for Gen Y and Laurence Boxhill for Gen Z.

The brilliance of the show comes from the improv and sporadic nature of the show. Yes points are awarded based on correct answers, but can be taken away as Shauns digression. The show welcomes the actors to be creative, funny and add their own stories or experiment into the mix, creating a dynamic that is unparalleled in any of the game shows on air today. Shaun is a fantastic host and adds to much of the magic that they show has. His natural charm and charisma work well in this gameshow setting and I truly believe that the show would not have been successful without him. Maybe I’m just a massive fangirl and that’s why I feel like that. Either way it was amazing to see him do his thing up close and personal rather than through the TV screen

The show is shot at Docklands Studio Melbourne. I decided to take my friend Victoria to the taping as she is also a massive fan of the show. When we arrived there were some signs showing up to go a line up outside of a building. Although we were around 30 minuets early, the line was still pretty long. After waiting for around 20 minutes, the line started to move as we filled inside.

After our tickets were scanned we found ourselves inside a large room with chair that had a crowd of around 100 people.

There were around 3 TV attached to various walls playing old episodes of the show and in the corner was a photo station that had a giant Gold Logie replica. Whilst we were waiting, Victoria and I decided to take a photo with the Logie for fun.

After around 10 minutes of waiting, a man called Michael led us in an explanation of what was about to happen. He talked about some safety and that we were NOT allowed to film or take pictures whilst we were in there. This made sense as they don’t want spoilers about the episode to get out. Then he led us through the hallway and into the main filming area. This was really cool too see, we were able to see the full set and also all the cameras and lights that they had. The light technician said that they had 114 total lights! I can’t imagine how bright it would be.

Once we were seated Michael went over the basic premise of the show and did a couple of audience warm ups. He was super fun and it was interesting to see how he hyped up the crowd. For example he asked us if anybody had travelled far to see the show and one woman said Chicago. Throughout the night he would constantly go back to this girl and make jokes (all of a light hearted nature). It made us as the audience super comfortable and also made the transitions between games interesting rather than boring. He even did some magic tricks to entertain us whilst the ‘end game’ was being set up

Michael then explained to us that we had to be the soundtrack of the show. At certain points we would have to cheer or clap or count down depending on what happened. Sometimes he would prompt us like when the guests were being announced or after a team won a point, but most importantly he wanted us to have fun. By letting us laugh and react organically it gives more authenticity to the show. I can definitely say I laughed out loud multiple times.

Before the taping began, Shaun and Andy came up to the audience and answered fan questions. This was an awesome opportunity to get up close and personal with TV personalities that I have watched and admired over the years

Once the taping did begin it was fun to watch and laugh along. When they film, they have over 3 hours worth footage for a 1 hour show, so us as the audience got an extended addition of the show.

Although it did take 3 + hours until we were done and was a bit boring at times, it was such an amazing experience. Not only did I get to see a live taping of a show and see all the intricacies of the camera, light and prop work, it showed to me all the unseen work that goes into producing a show. So I highly recommend going to a live taping, usually they are free and it is such a fantastic experience that I cannot recommend enough.

Sorry for the long post but I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experiences! I will leave you with a Shaun Micallef quote and until next time…..

Remember, a dog is not just for Christmas. It can also be for a birthday. In fact, you can eat them all year round.

Shaun Micallef