Tasmania has finally been given the green light to field a team in the AFL \u2014 but there’s a catch. The locals have to build a new stadium, and not everyone thinks the 1.13 billion dollar taxpayer spend is the greatest idea.<\/p>\n
He’s even co-hosted eight Eurovision song contests for SBS \u2014 an experience that was “mind-blowing” \u2014 as well as numerous Logie Awards.<\/p>\n
ABC iview’s Ground Up<\/a>, a comedy about the introduction of Tasmania’s brand new \u2014 and some say, long overdue \u2014 AFL team, will be his first time at the helm of a scripted series.<\/p>\n But refer to the six-part comedy as his and he bristles in that distinctly Sam Pang way he’s known for \u2014 gently and respectfully.<\/p>\n “I didn’t write it. I didn’t direct it or anything like that,” he says.<\/p>\n “Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler, who did Upper Middle Bogan and The Librarians and Very Small Business, it’s their series. I’m in it.”<\/p>\n A series happening in ‘real time’<\/p>\n Pang plays AFL administrator Hugh Shen, who has been sent to Tasmania to win over a public unhappy with the decision to build a football stadium for the new team.<\/p>\n His foil is Destiny Pitt, the club’s no-nonsense chief financial officer, played by Emma Harvie.<\/p>\n Sam Pang plays Hugh Shen, an AFL bureaucrat tasked with creating a team for Tasmania. (ABC iview: Ground Up)<\/p>\n Pang describes it as a workplace comedy and says even though it’s set in the world of the AFL, you “don’t need to know the language or the history of the AFL to enjoy it”.<\/p>\n “It’s about bureaucracy and it’s about relationships \u2026 And quite wonderfully the show and the subject matter is happening in real time with the Tasmanian Devils,” he says.<\/p>\n So, is he feeling excited or nervous about his (err sorry, the) new series?<\/p>\n “I’m going to say both those things. Yeah, excited and nervous.”<\/p>\n “I had a really good time when I was doing it \u2026 I was happy to do something new and work with these wonderful people and try this new discipline.<\/p>\n “Now that it’s done and it’s released, I’m all those things: I’m nervous and excited and I hope people like it and hope people see it.”<\/p>\n Pang says being a comedian was never his dream, so how did he end up here?<\/p>\n “Some people know what they want to do by the time they are seven but that definitely wasn’t me,” he says.<\/p>\n Growing up he watched Benny Hill, The Two Ronnies and Fawlty Towers, but says whenever he watched these shows, he never imagined that’s what he’d like to do.<\/p>\n “I didn’t think it was possible,” he says.<\/p>\n But a much older Pang eventually found himself looking for “something”.<\/p>\n Sam Pang might have once been serious about playing football but he says he was “far away” from being any good.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n “The first thing I did was community radio. I didn’t have any grand plans or ambitions. I just thought it might be fun to work in a radio station,” he says.<\/p>\n “So, I started in community radio, which was much more exciting than working in a pub. Community radio in general is wonderful.”<\/p>\n He went on to establish himself as a regular on radio and our screens, but does he have a preference when it comes to stand-up, talk shows and scripted TV?<\/p>\n “I couldn’t even separate them. I’m very lucky. I feel very lucky to do any of them,” he says.<\/p>\n “Panel shows with an audience \u2014 like Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Front Bar \u2014 are very different to stand-up and very different to Ground Up.<\/p>\n “I’ve done mostly studio-based stuff. That’s been enjoyable and so much fun.<\/p>\n “Stand-up is a bit harder. I haven’t done as much of that, but I’d like to do more. Absolutely. I think I will.”Pang a ‘rational’ football fan<\/p>\n Ground Up follows in the tradition of Utopia, the workplace satire that lampooned the public service.<\/p>\n Pang says satire exposes the absurdity of whatever world it’s looking at.<\/p>\n Comedy shows like Ground Up poke fun at the absurd, in this case hanging out with your work colleagues all day long. (ABC iview: Ground Up)<\/p>\n “And in this case, the world of a new club getting started, bureaucracy, the workplace and relationships,” he says.<\/p>\n That Pang once played for Collingwood’s Under-19s team is a nice coincidence but, in true Pang fashion, he plays down his football talent.<\/p>\n Get your fix of workplace comedies:Utopia<\/a>Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Stan, Netflix, Binge) \u00a0Parks and Recreation (Stan, Binge, Disney+, Prime Video)Frontline<\/a>Fisk<\/a><\/p>\n “I grew up watching football and then you start playing it. I liked playing it,” he says.<\/p>\n “[But] I played it at a much lower level \u2026 The Front Bar is a wonderful reminder of how far away I was from being any good.<\/p>\n “Those guests we have on that show, they are legends.”<\/p>\n When he watches an AFL football game now, is he the type of fan who screams at the TV or does he quietly stew?<\/p>\n “I barrack for Carlton, so there hasn’t been a lot to cheer about and there’s been a lot to quietly stew about,” he says<\/p>\n “But I’m not a yeller. I’m very rational when I watch football, and I don’t lose my mind.”<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/706f786b55ea4fb91144ea1670fbc4ec.jpeg\")
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<\/a>A gig ‘more exciting than working in a pub’<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/41c59fa10d3bdb21bfdb627b6180ef19.jpeg\")
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