To be clear, that’s not my view, it’s his own.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
“I’m well into my forties and after essentially just talking for a living, I’ve got to this point in my life and realised I don’t really have any other skills,” he says in the intro to his new series, Unskilled Adult.
asserted
he → ’m → series
“I look around everywhere and see people who can do actual useful stuff, and I guess I’m a bit jealous.
asserted
I → look → stuff
So I wondered, could that be me.”
uncertain
that → wonder → ?
The reality series is essentially Blake’s effort to learn by doing.
asserted
series → learn → ?
He sets up a business – UA (for unskilled adult) Enterprises – ropes in a couple of similarly useless mates, typically from the world of comedy, and sets about completing actual tasks for actual people for actual money.
asserted
He → set → money
If they think he’s done a good job, they pay him in full.
asserted
they → think → him
If not, they pay him what they think it’s worth.
asserted
it → pay → him
At the end of it all, they get the job done, and he gets to be, well, a little less useless.
asserted
he → get → it
Well, that’s the theory anyway.
asserted
that → ’ → ?
Let’s start with the basics, Hamish.
asserted
’s → start → basics
Do you really think you’re an unskilled adult?
asserted
you → think → ?
“I think it is a fair description of me, and people who feel like me, usually from the entertainment industry,” he says.
asserted
he → think → industry
“If you don’t get taught those skills [building, sewing, cooking] as a kid or in your teenage years, I guess you can just grow up without them.
asserted
you → teach → them
So this was my attempt to force myself to learn things.
asserted
this → force → things
Given enough time and resources, most people could probably learn to do most of the things Blake and co set about undertaking in the series – in the first four episodes, that includes basic carpentry, welding, panel beating and catering.
uncertain
that → give → carpentry
But UA Enterprises appears to have a predisposition for the tight turnaround – jobs typically land on a Wednesday and need to be finished by close of business on Friday – though the budget for tools, gear and lunch is seemingly unlimited.
asserted
budget → appear → tools
Making the task that little bit harder is that Blake and his guest workers tend to spend most of the first day gasbagging, eating and shopping; day two is typically long, and day three is where the poop really hits the oscillating wind-blowing machine.
asserted
poop → make → machine
“It does a strange thing to your head when you know you have to do it, you know it’s on you,” he says, attempting to explain the procrastination.
asserted
he → do → procrastination
“When you don’t know how to do something, it’s just human nature that your first port of call is to do a lot of things that aren’t the thing, to make you feel like you’re getting somewhere.
asserted
you → know → things
So a lot of planning, a lot of wild ideas – you’re on with really funny people, so everyone’s having lots of ideas – but then it does slowly dawn on you that the people who have to do all these ideas are still us.
asserted
who → ’re → ideas
The customers know what they’re signing up for, of course – on the off-chance they don’t recognise Blake or any of his guests (including long-time collaborator and mate Andy Lee, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, Spelling Bee host Guy Montgomery, comedian Becky Lucas and the ubiquitous Sophie Monk), the camera crew is a dead giveaway.
asserted
crew → know → Conchords
But Blake insists that the job at hand is real, there’s no safety blanket – stuff up that car repair and there isn’t a new car waiting for you – and the exchange of cash is genuinely based on how they assess the work.
asserted
they → insist → work
“It was important for us to keep it real because it is central to the idea of biting off more than you can chew, and genuinely having to figure your way out of it, and not being allowed to give up.
asserted
you → keep → it
And I think if you combine those elements that creates a great adventure.”
asserted
that → think → adventure
Blake describes himself as someone who talks for a living.
asserted
who → describe → living
In reality, he’s parlayed being a regular bloke – good-looking, affable, a bit of a doofus, always willing to poke fun at himself – into a very significant media career (radio, podcasts, TV, the occasional movie role) and a considerable fortune.
asserted
he → parlay → career
“I’ve talked to good effect,” he concedes.
asserted
he → talk → effect
“But I haven’t really done anything that you would hang your hat on as a skill.”
asserted
you → do → skill
Has doing this show changed that at all – have you actually acquired any real skills?
asserted
you → do → skills
“Shamefully not as much as I was hoping,” he says.
asserted
he → hop → ?
He tells me that before they set out on this adventure, he and his co-creator and director Tim Bartley wondered if there was any risk that he might become too capable, and thus kill the gag.
uncertain
he → tell → gag
“I was like, ‘I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’,” Blake says.
asserted
Blake → guess → it
“And we have not come to that bridge.”
asserted
we → come → bridge
He did, however, become passably good at “some wood stuff”, he boasts.
asserted
he → become → stuff
I think they call it carpentry, I note.
asserted
I → think → it
I think if I had to go and be an apprentice in any field, I’d be a chippy.
asserted
I → think → field
If they’d take [me].”
asserted
they → take → me
So since doing this, have you done anything in your own actual life, like maybe put up a shelf at home?
asserted
you → do → home
“I did something the other day, and the family was cheering,” he says.
asserted
he → do → something
…and 50 more, not listed.
The Aporia
