Latest news with #GuyMontSpellingBee
ABC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Guy Montgomery's here to befuddle, bamboozle and bedazzle in Guy Mont's Spelling Bee
Will we be laughing at you, or with you, as you put your spelling skills to the ultimate test? Guy Montgomery and Aaron Chen are here to befuddle, bamboozle and bedazzle. Will you (and the left hemisphere of your brain) rise to the occasion? Over to our quizmaster. Now, let's get spelling! Stream the new series of Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee free on ABC iview or catch it tonight at 8:35pm on ABC TV.
NZ Herald
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Guy Montgomery's spelling bee show interrupted by audience heckler
She eventually locked in 'Austria' as her answer, before a heckler in the audience quickly corrected her and yelled out, 'Poland!' The contestants could not believe it. '[That's] absolutely illegal,' host Montgomery said to the audience member, much to the amusement of others in the crowd. Speaking to about the hilarious incident, Montgomery said, 'it was just a moment of, not madness, but something got away from them [the audience member] where they had to pitch in'. He continued: 'The show does draw an audience of word nerds or people who believe in themselves as spellers and there is a sense of excitement and frustration that can occur when they're watching a contestant who's approaching a word or so close to being able to spell it'. When asked if he had any words of advice for future audience members, Montgomery joked: 'Keep your mouth shut! Pull your frickin' head in!' Roll with the punches Whereas most taped TV quiz shows would have edited the moment out, Montgomery was adamant he wanted to leave it in the final episode. 'I like that in the world of the show, we can just sort of roll with that,' he told 'It's like, 'well that is incredibly unusual and kind of funny and I guess builds on the lunacy and the madness of the universe that we're trying to have inside the spelling bee.'' Other contestants As mentioned, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee has featured some of Australia's favourite personalities as contestants. Tim Minchin, Wil Anderson, Urzila Carlson, and Tony Armstrong are just some of the big names who competed in the show's first season. When asked which contestant he was most excited about in the upcoming second season, Montgomery named Hamish Blake. 'I grew up a fan [of his] … he's such an influential Australian television comedy figure.' Others who'll feature in season two include Julia Morris, Rove McManus, Denise Scott, Becky Lucas, Josh Thomas and Dave Hughes. Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee returns for season two tonight on ABC TV, with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview. –
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The ‘nonsense' that became a cult game show even border security guards love
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. Loading '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.' Loading 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.
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
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. Loading '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.' Loading 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.
The Age
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
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. Loading '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.' Loading 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.
