Hamish Blake really needs to lay down the law with his kids.
When TV WEEK visits the set of LEGO Masters: Grand Masters, Hamish explains that eight-year-old Sonny and five-year-old Rudy have reached the point where they’re now ”custom requesting” from the Brick Pit.
”My daughter’s like, ‘Get me this dog, steal some of the animals,”’ the TV host explains.
”And we’re having to make a few different things for my son, so we’re having conversations at home about where it stops being cheeky and it just starts being theft. [Laughs]
”I was going to say I don’t know where they got it from… but I know exactly where they got it from – me. They see me come home stealing LEGO all the time and they’re like, ‘Cut us in on the deal.”’
Hamish and Ryan really clicked on the show.
(IMAGE: Channel Nine)At 41, two-time TV WEEK Gold Logie Award winner Hamish is still a big kid, and he’s the first to admit it.
”That’s my job,” he says happily.
Hamish’s kid-like sense of fun is one of the things that has made LEGO Masters – now in its fifth season – such a big hit. Last week, viewers saw Hamish dressed as a merman, complete with fishy tail, introducing a waterfall-based challenge.
”It’s been a dream ever since I saw Sophie Monk dressed as a mermaid on the Love Island promo to get that back out of the Channel Nine props cupboard and I was so glad I did,” he reveals.
”Sophie and I are the only people who have worn that tail on television. She wore it better, but I’m still top two.”
Making a splash as a merman!
(IMAGE: Channel Nine)The merman episode was followed by one where Hamish dressed as a 1940s detective. He’s taken on acting roles before, including in The Wrong Girl, the 2016 comedy drama based on the 2014 book written by his wife, Zoë Foster Blake.
But he gives a very quick ”no” when he’s asked if he’d like to do more acting.
”I just like being silly,” he explains.
”This is my perfect balance. I don’t have to be a serious actor, I just get to pretend to be one for, like, 10 minutes.”
Hamish may joke about hosting LEGO Masters: Great-Grand Masters in 40 years’ time – ”that’s part of the grand plan that’s written on my bedroom wall” – but the truth is, he doesn’t have a grand plan, or any sort of long-term plan.
”The longest I will have is a few months, a six to 12-month plan,” he says.
”The philosophy is, if something seems like fun, then do it.”
”I just like being silly” says Hamish.
(IMAGE: Channel Nine)One of the things that’s kept Hamish with LEGO Masters for so many seasons is his friendship with the show’s judge, Ryan “Brickman” McNaught.
”Getting to become mates with Ryan has been one of the real treats,” he says.
”He means what he says, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and doing TV with someone like that is great fun.”
In addition to his two Gold Logies – one on display at his mum’s house, one at his own – Hamish has a LEGO Logie that Brickman made for him in the first year the show went to air, ”which I still treasure.”
As for his chances of winning a third Gold Logie this year, Hamish finds that hard to get his head around.
”It always seems a bit surreal to be involved anyway, let alone winning,” he says.
”To some degree, I still feel like we’re a competition winner to even be going along.”
With wife Zoe and their children Sonny and Ruddy.
(IMAGE: Instagram)Hamish’s priority is to ensure his life is set up so he can be “available and present” to Sonny and Rudy when they need him.
”I’m lucky enough to be able to do that,” he says.
”Before you have kids, your priority is yourself. Then after you have kids, it’s them.”
For Hamish, getting to do what he does is ”always a privilege, not a given.”
”TV’s a game where nothing is guaranteed, so it wouldn’t destroy me if I didn’t get to perform again,” he says.
