I had the pleasure Wednesday night of going with 3 mates, Andrew, Dan and Chris, to be studio audience members for the 6th episode of Top Gear Australia (TGA). Whilst it was fun, I would say that the experience is one I'm not keen to repeat. As in the taping of any pre-recorded TV show there is lots of time spent waiting for crew to move things around and cast members to get their lines right - and unlike most shows you are standing up the whole time.
The TGA hosts, Charlie, Warren and Steve, usually got their lines right the first or second time. But one segment just didn't seem to work and we saw several attempts at it - fortunately this was made more bearable by Warren hopping up on their center stage and giving us an impromptu trivia lesson about TGA and its British parent.
Top Gear Australia hosts Warren Brown, Charlie Cox and Steve Pizzati
The hosts were all charismatic, funny and friendly, with Charlie perhaps being the most standoffish. Actually Charlie looks like he could stand to gain a few kilos as he is a bit too skinny. Warren was great and very approachable - Steve was a little invisible (perhaps because he's too short).
The different segments were spread around the cavernous hanger which allowed different parts of the audience take their turns in getting close to the action. Canned segments were displayed at the appropriate time on monitors so we understood the hosts' references to those elements of the show. If I was going again, I would try to stand right at the edge of the center stage (the one they use for celebrity interviews) as people there were able to get up on the edge of the stage and see what was happening further away more easily than those of us on ground level.
The actual studio is very basic on the outside, but inside is full of relics of the hosts' car stunts (the shark-cage car, a sailing Audi and this week's demolition derby cars were all on display - sometimes levered up high, but mostly accessible to bored audience members. I would show some photos but you are banned from taking cameras in the studio, and asked to turn mobile phones off as they interfere with the recording equipment (really?). Being at a working airport (Bankstown Aerodrome) the taping had to halt a couple of times as helicopters took off or landed nearby.
The celebrity guest for our episode was James Morrison, a famous Australian jazz musician, and avid petrolhead. He had a cracker of an interview with Charlie and having had 96 cars (!) he was obviously at home discussing them. He has also had some experience in celebrity races and rally car driving. Watching his lap footage it looked like he was simply taking it easy, when in fact he was hurtling around the track faster than anyone else so far (including Steve Bisley).
(Sidenote: I just saw a Prius with Police stickers driving around Frenchs Forest - weird!)
After 2 hours we were all feeling footsore and a little bit bored, so we took off early for a bite to eat, Andrew reckoned he knew where to find Sydney's best wood-fired pizza nearby ... except he got us lost and we ended up at Yagoona. The pizza was respectably delicious, although the ambience of the area leaves a lot to be desired. That is one suburb that has sure gone downhill in recent years and if you are not familiar with the area I recommend you take the M5 to nearby Beverly Hills instead. The main strip near Beverly Hills train station is now famous for its high quality and affordable restaurants -if we'd been bothered (and paid a little more) we could have had a much more pleasant meal there. Although we would have missed seeing Andrew trot out his rusty Italian and get (loudly!) ear-bashed by the proprietor of the pizza joint! :D
