Guy Montgomery is a big deal in Australia

Well known to New Zealand audiences through his hit shows, Have You Been Paying Attention, and Thank God You're Here, Guy Montgomery has found success across the Tasman with the Australian version of his spelling bee show he developed here during the pandemic.

The show was picked up for a second season by the ABC and he's been nominated for a Logie for Most Popular New Talent at the prestigious Australian Television awards.

The show was “stress tested” online during the pandemic lockdowns and then as a live show, he tells RNZ’s Afternoons.

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“I started doing the Spelling Bee just as a throwaway online thing during lockdown. And then when it got developed into a New Zealand television show, before it officially got green-lit to be made here, I was performing it as a live show, a Friday night late show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.”

When he approached the ABC the show was a “fleshed out” concept, he says.

“We made the New Zealand season and then by the time I was in the room at ABC to try and pitch the show, we'd banked two seasons of the New Zealand show.

“So, you know, it's very rare, I think, to have such a fleshed out, fully formed proof of concept.”

Montgomery has now been nominated for the prestigious Graham Kennedy Logie.

The Logies, running since 1959, are Australia’s annual celebration of the best shows and stars on television.

He’s itching to win the award, not least because his partner already has one in the trophy cabinet.

“Chelsie Preston Crayford, my partner, actually won this award in 2011 for Underbelly.

“So, we've got one of these trophies in the house already and she loves lording it over me. As soon as I got nominated, I told her, I found out in the morning and she started referring to herself as an alumni of the Logies, which I don't think is terminology anyone uses.

“And I'm itching to, you know, obviously to win, it would be great. But all that stuff that's outside of your control that you always just put to the side and think that'd be nice. But in this instance, I do have a personal investment in winning because I cannot take any more.”

Spelling, Montgomery says, has universal appeal and works across generations.

“It's cheeky, but you can watch it with your children and it's not going to put them out of shape. You're not going to have too many, or any, uncomfortable conversations on the back end of it.”

Montgomery is back in New Zealand at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Auckland with his stand up show I've Noticed So Many Things, and he says with creative industries being hollowed out by tech, stand up is like “a bastion of hope”.

“It is so primal in its actual function and service that it's one of the last ones that will go.”