He makes it look easy. Sam Pang might be delivering delightfully deadpan quips on Ten’s comic quiz show, Have You Been Paying Attention? Or ribbing his co-hosts and a bouncy parade of AFL greats on Seven’s sports panel show, The Front Bar . Or donning a tux – for the first time in his life – to host the Logies.
Until his triumph last year, that was a gig widely regarded as a poisoned chalice given its damaging impact on some previous MCs. But to whatever he does, Pang brings an affable, relaxed quality, as if he’s cruising, not taking any of it too seriously. But none of it is actually easy.
It takes work: spot-on timing and astute judgment of tone; the ability to be cheeky and droll without getting nasty. A mastery of the pause-for-effect after delivering a gag. Quick wit and the capacity to land a killer ad-lib.
Dressed up for the Logies, Sam Pang brings spot-on timing and an astute judgement of tone. Credit: Simon Schluter Part of the trick is making it appear easy, even if the generally publicity-averse performer makes it sound as if it’s no big deal. In Pang’s genuinely humble and reflexively self-deprecating estimation, he’s just lucky to be able to have fun with his friends and to build a career in an industry that he loves.
The Logies role, which he’s set to take on again, means that he has to talk about himself and his work more than he’d like. For this high-profile assignment, he’s in the spotlight on his own, initially for the crucial monologu.