How do you spell ‘nonsense'? Ask Guy Montgomery and Aaron Chen.
There is a line that stretches out the door at the ABC studios in Sydney's Ultimo. Young and old, they are here to see a recording of last year's surprise hit Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee. One man has flown over from Perth for the day to catch the recording, while two young women have made T-shirts bearing the show's logo. A couple of primary school kids are here with their parents, while many others are repeat visitors who have travelled hours to see the show.
A show about spelling, – that's S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G – it was a surprise hit for the ABC last year, with its mix of pedantry and absolute nonsense earning it a five-star review, solid ratings and a nomination for best entertainment program at the AACTA awards.
It also helped that it was hosted and created by the nicest Kiwi on TV, comedian Guy Montgomery, who made the show as a lark with friends over Zoom during COVID and then developed it into a live show and then a TV series in New Zealand.
The Australian version is essentially the same – albeit with a slightly fancier set, less confusing accents – with Aaron Chen, whose offbeat humour and star turn in Kitty Flanagan's sitcom Fisk have earned him a cult following, stepping into the role of sidekick.
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'You hope people like it, but you've got no idea,' says Montgomery, sitting in his dressing room with Chen. 'Once you put something out in the world, it's not really yours to have opinions on any more. It's up to everyone else. And then the first time, actually, I came back to Australia after it had come out, I was doing a show in Adelaide, and the border security guard was like, 'Oh my gosh, I love your show, it's so funny.' And I was like, 'This is the best welcome to Australia I've ever had, it's so nice.' I mean, it hasn't happened since…'
For Chen, the appeal lies in the simple joy of gameplay. 'Guy is extremely funny and I love the format,' says Chen. 'I've competed in the live version of this and the Zoom version, and it was both very fun and also really funny, but really simple. I appreciate honest gameplay, games that actually work as games.'
Chen also wanted to join the show – 'I had compromising photos,' jokes Montgomery – because it gave stand-up comedians an opportunity on TV in something that's not another news-of-the-week panel show.
'For a long time, Australian television hasn't put on TV shows that are made by comedians,' he says. 'Especially stand-up comedians that are already funny and fully formed, and just like, let them do their own thing. And this felt like a beautiful opportunity.'
The pair is dressed for that evening's recording: Montgomery in his green blazer and wide brown '70s tie and Chen in his trademark mint green suit and ruffled shirt. They are filming two episodes a day, over two weeks, with a rotating line-up of contestants, including carry-over champ Tom Walker, newbies Hannah Gadsby, Rove McManus and Julia Zemiro, as well as one contestant who sets the record for the longest winning streak.
On paper, the show's format is remarkably simple – a spelling bee, where contestants are asked to spell words of varying degrees of difficulty. For example, for the first round, words are chosen out of three containers – The Coward's Cup (easy, one point), the Person's Purse (medium, two points) and the Bucket of Bravery (difficult, three points) – and the joy comes in seeing contestants who are either completely stumped or supremely confident in their spelling abilities.
It's a dream come true for word nerds. For everyone else, it's a waking nightmare. Of the two shows I see being filmed, a couple of contestants are like rabbits in the headlights, unable to comprehend the question or what they are being asked to spell. At one point, someone in the audience feels so sorry for them that they yell out the answer.
'Spelling is nonsense,' says Montgomery. 'It's a universal access point. We can all relate to it. We all understand it and do it. But it's not a marker of actual intelligence or brightness, or what you contribute to the world. Ultimately, it's something we can all measure ourselves on, but the outcome has no relevance to the world or your life. But people who are good spellers, it's probably a harder show for them to do because then they feel as though they do have something to lose.'
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He name-checks Kiwi comedian Abby Howells, who will appear on season two, as someone who embodied the life-or-death drama of the series.
'She came on the New Zealand version and she's like, 'Oh, I'm a brilliant speller. I love this. I've got a PhD,'' he recalls. 'And then she just had an absolutely appalling episode. It's amazing self-contained storytelling. A whole episode of someone coming out and being like, 'I'm gonna do this' and then just slowly, everything falling away from them. I love that.'
So what makes a good contestant?
'It's just anyone who will just play the game as it comes to them,' says Montgomery. 'You want people to interrogate the internal logic and be openly annoyed towards me. Anyone who just feels the confidence to come out and play it exactly as they see it.'
What about Chen – whose role as game assistant involves him acting out games for the contestants, such as cooking a dish that the contestants must spell – what does he think makes a good contestant?
'I think the love of spelling makes a beautiful contestant,' he deadpans. 'If they can spell nice, that's one of my favourite types of contestants.'
Adds Montgomery: 'Aaron is a good speller. Joseph Moore, who I do the bulk of the writing on the show with, he and I were running words because people always pillage the Bucket of Bravery. It's the one that everyone goes for, as much as you try to guide them away from it, people want to have a go. And we were having to source and write material for more words, and we were running them on Aaron, and Aaron's a gun speller. He was getting a lot of them right.'
Chen then chimes in with a challenge for me: 'Spell inchoate.'
'I-N-C-H [insert nervous pause here] O-A-T-E.'
Asks Montgomery: 'How did that feel? You can obviously choose if you put this in the story.'
I got it right, so of course I have put it in! But it did feel weird. Spelling out loud is not something anyone does often outside primary school, and one of the fun things about the show is seeing how contestants approach it: some write out the word with their fingers in the air, others whisper.
'You can ask for a definition and stuff like that,' says Chen. 'Do you want the definition for inchoate?'
Go on…
'It means, 'Not fully formed, like Guy's opinions on immigration …''
I think that's spelt B-O-O-M T-I-S-H.
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