Once it was all about Hamish and Andy. But for the past seven years, it’s been the team of Hamish and Brickman delivering the Nine Network a family-friendly hit in the form of LEGO Masters.
TV WEEK visited the set of the new season, Grandmasters Of The Galaxy – featuring four Australian teams and six from overseas – to interview host Hamish Blake, 43, and judge Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, 52, and was just starting the chat with Brickman when Hamish walked in, carrying rice cakes topped with banana.
Hamish: Sorry, I’m eating.
Brickman: Mmm, that looks good. Cinnamon in there, mate?
Hamish: Cinnamon, maple… Yeah, I agree with what Brickman says wholeheartedly. I couldn’t fault his comments.
Brickman: I said they overpaid you, mate.
Hamish: I agree with that.
Did you watch other countries’ versions of LEGO Masters to get to know all of this season’s contestants?
Hamish: We didn’t do it for research. Our philosophy is we like to meet them at the same time as the audience meets them. But it is always interesting seeing the overseas versions.
What are the overseas versions of you two like?
Brickman: I’m much skinnier (laughs).
Hamish: Cheap imitations, I’d say. The contestants have never said that specifically, but you get the impression that they feel that their home country’s hosts were very much the Temu version of Hamish and Brickman. Actually, in America it’s Will Arnett, so you can’t beat Will.
Have you had any issues with the contestants from non-English-speaking countries not being able to understand you?
Hamish: Yeah. I realise that 95 per cent of what I say is colloquialisms and slang and I feel especially for our Chinese team.
Brickman: And I’m all about anecdotes. I’m using these anecdotes that mean absolutely nothing to them whatsoever.
Hamish: Yeah, Ryan even tried a cricket analogy to our Chinese team. That’s never going to work. The Chinese team are lovely and they’re trying really hard but I think if I gave them the option of a button that just made me go away, they would use the button a fair bit.
Brickman: Let’s do that!
Kaitlyn and Miller [who met during season one of LEGO Masters] got married last year – that must have been a great moment for you?
Hamish: I was a little bit offended I wasn’t asked to be the celebrant.
You’re a qualified celebrant?
Hamish: I am not, so that might be why they didn’t ask.
Brickman: I made the cake topper!
Have you tried to set up romances in other seasons?
Hamish: Look, this season is young still. Maybe our Swedish boys are desperate to stay in Australia and their visas are running out. I mean, I’d have to check with Zo [wife Zoë Foster Blake], but I could conceivably marry one of them, should they win the prize. I mean, $100,000 is $100,000. It’s a good headline: “Blake to offer hand in marriage to potential winners.”
Brickman: I love your commitment, mate.
Is Jordy [Miller’s teammate from season one] going to come back?
Hamish: Well, we can give a hot exclusive to TV WEEK. This season the brick that keeps people safe is the “magic brick”, and it actually appears to float magically through the air. But we can tell you guys, because you’re in the industry, that the brick is actually being held by a man in a green morph suit that you can then magically make disappear in post-production, and that man is Jordy. We’ve been doing this for seven years now, so pretty much the rule when we think of an idea is, the network hasn’t stopped us yet, so let’s just do some of the zanier things. That’s what keeps us amused making the show.
You’re both into fitness. Do you do anything together?
Hamish: We did a marathon. We do ride our bikes together a fair bit. Brickman and I will go and ride around and talk about the show after a day in the studio. It helps clear the fake smoke out of the lungs, I think. They tell you that that TV smoke is fine to inhale, but I don’t know.
Brickman: We’re into pretty much all the same things. We talk about sport a fair bit.
Hamish: Mate, it’s sport and bloody looking at Garmin data together. That is the thrilling life behind the scenes here at LEGO Masters. To get really into it, the reason I like riding in [to work] and out is it gives you a bit of fresh air throughout the day, because we’re inside a lot. But also, there’s a notable difference to your brain if you ride in the morning.
Brickman: You feel fresh.
Hamish: And also we’re riding on Sydney roads, so you’re nearly dying five or six times a morning. To come in, you’ve cheated death several times, you’re pumped full of adrenaline, it gets you in the mood for TV.
Are either of your kids [Brickman has twins Riley and Alexander, 17, and Hamish has Sonny, 11, and Rudy, seven] into LEGO at the moment?
Hamish: Fortunately at the moment we’re in a great LEGO Star Wars phase. This for me has been the dream for many years. I’ve tried to force it a few times. That didn’t work. That’s a great lesson in parenting.
Brickman: I’m building some Star Wars stuff as well, and on the weekend I sent Hame some pictures of some LEGO models and got Hamish and Sonny to identify said figures. Like, “Name the Ewoks.” And lo and behold…
Hamish: Sonny was on it. I was very proud. It’s a quite important thing for a young boy growing up to know your Ewoks.
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