Hamish Blake’s career started out as one half of beloved radio duo Hamish & Andy. He and Andy Lee went on to do the hilarious Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year, travelling around the world making poor decisions while giving viewers cramp-worthy belly laughs.
Since those days, the now 43-year-old Hamish has worked as a writer, actor, host and podcaster, and begun his own family, but reminiscing on the beginning of his illustrious media career is something he isn’t just looking back to more frequently as of late, but more fondly.
“I love those days because we felt like we were the luckiest kids on earth,” Hamish tells TV WEEK. “We were absolute dirtbags in our twenties wearing the same clothes for three weeks. We survived on overconfidence and blind faith, and somehow made it through. We had a ball.”
It’s an interesting evolution for a man who is now nominated for a Gold Logie for his role as host of LEGO Masters Australia, a family-friendly series that sees pairs build wildly impressive LEGO structures to a designated theme while competing for a trophy – but for him it’s all in the same realm.
“If I had to pick a word that is shared among all the different things I’ve done over the course of my career, I would say it’s fun – and LEGO is fun,” Hamish explains. “The rules are different than they were on Gap Year, but at its heart it’s for fun.”
While it’s a journey of fun, it’s also a tale of friendship, as Hamish declares none of this would have been possible without his bestie, Andy Lee, 44, who he now hosts the Hamish & Andy podcast with.
“I don’t think I would have done 10 per cent of the stuff that Andy and I did if it wasn’t for him,” Hamish reveals. “We just wouldn’t have been bothered to do it [on our own] because it was way more exciting doing it together.”
It’s those gigs that built up his career, earning him the title of two-time Gold Logie winner – Hamish took home the top award in 2012 for Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year and in 2022 for LEGO Masters.
However, that doesn’t mean he wants to win now, being nominated for a third time – up against Julia Morris, Lisa Millar, Lynne McGranger, Poh Ling Yeow, Ally Langdon and Sonia Kruger.
“I’m going to come out and say it – I don’t think I should win,” Hamish declares. “We’ve got so many amazing women nominated that I don’t think it would be a great look for me. These ladies don’t need a guy who’s won it twice up there.”
Lately, the father of two – to Sonny, 11, and Rudy, who turns eight this week – and husband to author, media and beauty expert, and skincare entrepreneur Zoë Foster Blake, 44, has been keen to focus his attention inwards, to his family.
“We care about creating a household that’s full of love and support,” he says. “We care about going on adventures as a family. There’s a lot of noise and fluff that might be on the outside in our professional career, but with all due respect to the noise and fluff, it’s just noise and fluff. At the end of the day, we’re pretty happy being on the couch, being a family.”
Despite being known nationwide as the “funny guy”, Hamish says his wife of 12 years, Zoë, gets the most laughs at home.
“She’s easily the funniest in the house,” Hamish says with a grin. “I massively enjoy seeing Zoë do all the wonderful things she does in her life – I’m obviously her biggest fan.”
For their kids who are growing up in a household with hugely successful parents, Hamish says it doesn’t change how their children view them.
“We’re just Mum and Dad to the kids,” he says. “That’s what makes family great – they’re all different. I will say we are a family that highly values comedy. We’ll stop pretty much anything to celebrate and extrapolate a good joke. Laughter is a pretty big commodity in our household.”
Hamish has another podcast, How Other Dads Dad With Hamish Blake, where he interviews fathers like Scott Cam, Adam Hills and Michael “Wippa” Wipfli to learn about their approach to fatherhood. As for his own favourite part about being a dad?
“Something that no-one tells you is how welcomed the feeling is that it’s not about you anymore,” he says. “As your kids come along, the centre of gravity shifts immediately, and I really enjoyed it not being about me anymore. I really revelled in that.”
Now he has ticked a huge number of goals off his career bucket list, the future is looking a little quieter for the once-wild Aussie larrikin.
“My main goal in life is to be unbusy,” he says. “I’m not the person that’s constantly trying to leverage and network and manoeuvre for the next thing. I dream of days that are just made up of driving the kids to school, seeing friends and being around the house.”
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