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Clip description
Andrew Hansen introduces his new segment, 'The Surprise Spruiker’, in which a bargain store-style spruiker arrives at different businesses and organisations and tries to sell their wares to the general public.
Curator’s notes
This is the Surprise Spruiker’s first outing: he became a regular segment on the show. As well as showcasing Hansen’s finely-tuned comic performance skills, the Spruiker is an example of one of The Chaser’s transferable pranks. Repeated segments such as ‘The Surprise Spruiker’, ‘Mr Ten Questions’, ‘Pursuit Trivia’ and Morrow’s ‘Citizens Infringement Officer’ took a core comic prank and applied it to a range of situations.
Here we see the Spruiker apply his skills to Giorgio Armani – executing the basic comedy idea – and then take it a step further into topical satire by spruiking the Department of Workplace Relations. This was a response to controversial new industrial relations legislative amendments that were then in the news. The Chaser have used the Surprise Spruiker to respond to a range of news items.
