If you Google Andy Lee, you’re just as likely to land on a former WBO middleweight boxing champ or a rather… gifted… OnlyFans creator.
And according to the real Andy Lee, the one with the best friend called Hamish and a flair for storytelling, he’s been mistaken for both. (Yes, even the one with the very large, ahem, feet.)
But in this week’s episode of Mediaweek’s Newsmakers, Lee isn’t here to talk about knockouts or NSFW DMs. He’s here because he’s accidentally become a bestselling children’s author, and now, that accidental book is a TV show.
Plus, we lean into the latest from the Hamish & Andy universe, and what a long-term podcast contract really means when you’re best mates, still having fun, and half-joking about one day recording from your nursing home recliners.
Mediaweek: You’re a man of many talents: You’re also a former Irish professional boxer who held the WBO middleweight title, according to my brief online research.
Andy Lee: (laughs) Yes, there’s an Irish Andy Lee that whenever he used to win a fight, I’d get a lot of direct messages on Twitter and also contacts on Twitter saying, well done, thinking that I was the actual Irish boxer fighter. The other, more recent, famous Andy Lee, who is a bit more obscure, is an OnlyFans guy called Andy Lee, who’s famous for having the largest area down there.
MW: We’re talking feet, of course?
AL: Yes, of course. He’s also reached out to me, saying, Would we do a collaboration?
MW: I love that; what a segue into your career as a children’s book author…
AL: I’ve got my ABC publicity person rolling her eyes here, going, ‘Jeepers, we haven’t had to work with this fellow before.’
MW: Did you ever think that years ago, a children’s book author would eventually be on your resume?
AL: No, not at all. I was an accidental author, anyway, having written one book that was only meant to be printed as a birthday gift for my nephew.
But my best mate from high school is a book publisher, and when I asked him to make up the test book, he said, ‘Oh, can we publish this?’ And I said, ‘no’, for three months. We argued about it for a long time, and then, eventually, I said yes. I’m glad I did because it’s all over the world.
MW: Do you reckon that freedom, in knowing you weren’t being pushed to publish and knowing it was just going to be seen by your nephew, let you be a bit more open and go for it?
AL: I certainly didn’t put as much thought into it.
That’s the worry, and that’s what happened when the next books came around. The first book was 40 minutes on a plane ride from Sydney to Melbourne because I thought, ‘Oh, this would be cute; his mum can read it to him; it’ll be special.’
My sister is also a children’s author, but for young adults, so her books have a lot more words than mine.
Anyway, there was a nice little synergy there. And then when the second book came around, I was like, Well, I’m not going to spend weeks on this. The first one only took this long, so I’ve got to lean into that. And it seems to be treating me okay.
MW: What about the process of actually bringing the book to the screen?
AL: That is much, much more challenging. My books are short on words at times, but the illustrations are so amazing. In fact, they’re so amazing that I tell the illustrator, ‘People come for the words, not the pictures’, just to make sure he knows the hierarchy (laughs).
Evolving the space in the world was a challenge, especially when it comes to things like knowing what Wiz might want to do or how he moves and who he interacts with.
We knew that we were going to do 11-minute episodes, so the stories and characters needed to be much more fully formed, and that was a challenge but also a lot of fun because you’re sitting down and thinking, ‘ Okay, where will this go? ‘
We also need a solid foundation because audiences were familiar with the character from the books, and because you can build upon that, the show went in a variety of different directions.
Andy Lee
MW: How did you divide your time? Obviously, you do the show with Hamish, but how do you divide your time between being a children’s book writer now, being a screenwriter, and being Andy Lee?
AL: What I love about my career so far is the idea of just trying all different things. I love the variety, and I didn’t realise how slow animation would be. It’s a frame-by-frame type of stuff. It’s nice to have the outlet of the podcast with Hamish, where you roll in and it’s just a couple of microphones; it’s done, and it’s on air the next day.
I get energised by the different aspects. If this were my only project, I would have been bogged down. However, the fact that I can bounce between this and The Hundred on Channel Nine, as well as the podcast, has been a blessing.
MW: It would be remiss of me not to ask about the long-term deal with Hamish and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA). How long-term is long-term? Because in my mind, you guys are going to be wheeled out in the nursing chairs, with a couple of microphones sitting there.
AL: Yeah, we’ll both be mad and senile, and it won’t broadcast to anyone.
Hamish and I have often joked we’ll finish the day having talked to absolutely no one with microphones that aren’t plugged in, and some nurse will come and wipe out our chins and say, ‘Well done, guys, another good one!’.
MW: Isn’t that what content directors do anyway?
AL: I think so (laughs). I’m just really excited to keep doing the show.
Hamish and I obviously have a very unique relationship in that we’re best friends. We never talk about opting out of a show. We always talked about opting in, and we never really discussed the future too far with our shows.
There’s always one or two-year contracts because we wanted to make sure we’re both absolutely loving it. And if, at any point in time, Hamish turned to me and said, ‘I think I’ve had enough’, I wouldn’t be angry or try and convince him otherwise. I’d shake hands and go, ‘Wow. Well, it’s been an amazing ride, thanks so much’.
So, we reach a point when these contracts come around, and we gather around each other. We make a point of not talking about them in the interim because we want to concentrate on the fun; it can bog you down at times. Then we get back together, and kind of go, you want to still keep going out? The podcast is where I have the most fun, and I know Hamish does as well; that’s when we thought we’d add another year to it. Usually, just do two-year contracts, but, yeah, another three years after this year, we’ll be doing the podcast, which is exciting.
Hear the full conversation with Andy Lee on Mediaweek’s Newsmaker’s.