A quick word...with Jeremy Corbett

Jeremy Corbett, host of 7 Days, guarantees a laugh, or two, from the show. Photo / Supplied

Comedian Jeremy Corbett is the host of TV3's new comedy show 7 Days, which pits two teams of local comedians against each other as they take a satirical look at the week's pressing news stories. Anchoring the teams will be cheeky monkey Dai Henwood and laughing-singing radio guy Paul Ego, who are joined each week by a revolving cast of comedic characters

Can you guarantee this show is going to be funny?
Funnily enough, that's exactly what I've been saying to people, "I guarantee you will laugh, or your money back". It's a bit of a dream show for me. It's one I've been dreaming of making for a long time. It's essentially comedians talking shit, but about the news so it's topical, and it's not always hard news - there are silly stories and stuff. I always thought it would work but I guess I can guarantee it because we've done a couple of dry runs at the Classic, and done four or five different versions, and each time I've really laughed and so have the comedians that were there too, and they're a pretty hard audience.

How would you describe the show?
It's a kind of a panel show. Um, is it a panel show? No. It's two teams and I'm the host and I just give them topics from the week's news and they talk about them. That sounds really boring and dry when you describe it like that but I actually like that because the less rules and regulations you put in place when you've got people talking, the better. But it's sharp and we've got different games that we play. But bottomline, it's making funny out of the news.

Tell us about some of the games.
There will be some video from the news that they have to tell us about; photos from the week that they have to caption; and there's a really good one called My Kid Could Draw That, where we go out into local primary schools and film the kids drawing a scene from the last seven days and the teams have to tell us what the drawings are about.

Why do you think comedians make good political and social commentators?
Some are better than others. But with comedy I guess you can go a little bit further than a serious commentator because it's comedy and you can say, "Ha ha, just kidding". Humour is a good way of attacking some subjects that are sensitive and a bit dry.

Many of you are on radio and in other media during the week. So are there any rules about not making the same joke from earlier in the week?
We haven't set a rule down. But I guess my argument would be if it's a real cracker then I'd give it another run on the show. But to be honest, we'd like it to be all new stuff.

No disrespect to Dai, but he's more about fart jokes than political commentary isn't he?
That's the beauty of the line-up because, say, someone like Jeremy Elwood is more of the serious political commentary side, and it's nice to have a balance between someone like him and Dai who comes in from left field.

An example of a story that tickled your fancy in the last seven days?
That there are about $800 million worth of outstanding fines that haven't been paid. There's nothing funny about that but when you read that you go, 'Well, why should I bother paying mine?'.

The panel show format is tough to pull off, with shows like Sugar Shack not being that successful in the past. What makes 7 Days different?
By accident or design we've ended up with the right people on the teams and everyone is fully invested. Sometimes on these shows they draw people from different walks of life and put them there and say, "Go do it", but with this one the people all want to be there and they know the people around them. The chemistry and X-factor is right.

7 Days is on Fridays, 10pm, TV3.