It's almost impossible to talk about Andy Lee without talking about Hamish Blake.
The same can be said vice versa. They're an iconic duo, perhaps the Australian iconic duo.
"I love it, and for a long time I never had a surname I was just known as 'Hamish and Andy'. Maybe there's moments where you'd like to have your own identity, but I love what we do. I love sharing the excitement and the failure with Haim," Lee tells Mamamia's No Filter this week.
But aside from being part of an iconic duo, there's another way in which Lee is sometimes seen.
"The guy who laughs at the funny guy."
Watch: a look back on when Andy Lee tap danced with Hugh Jackman. Post continues below.
Blake is very strong when it comes to overt comedy. And Lee is more than happy to admit that. Just don't discount his part of the dynamic.
"I think people naturally feel that with any comic duo. There has to be a straight guy and a funny guy. But Hamish and I never felt that. I think Hamish is funnier if you wanted to try and do the maths on it, but that's never been our goal. I try to make him laugh. And he tries to make me laugh," Lee explains.
"Yes, there would have been times where I've been like, 'Oh I want to be the funny guy.' But that's probably left a long, long time ago."
Lee previously spoke about this topic on A Life of Greatness podcast, saying it's odd that people have felt the need to say one is funnier than the other.
"I think he's funny as well. I also think he's funnier than me. The difference is saying: Is Hamish the funnier one? I would agree. But is he the only funny one? No," he said.
"A laugh for the team, whether it's a laugh for Hamish or a laugh for me, is a laugh for the team. It's all bundled into one for me. It doesn't worry me at all."
Lee tells No Filter the best part about their friendship is the fact neither one of them live to stroke their own egos. If they had, things would be very different to what they are now.
It's a partnership through and through.
"Hamish would have brilliant ideas but I'd know how to package them. That's what made the partnership so exciting, because the parts that don't come naturally to him, I can play in that area, and vice versa.
"There's something that comedian Karl Pilkington said that stuck with me. It was about romantic relationships, but he said the best relationship is when you're walking exactly your path, and they happen to be walking down the exact same path too. You're still side by side," says Lee.
As Hamish Blake said to 60 Minutes: "We've done this weird thing accidentally where our friendship became our job, which is an odd thing to do. We have to be friends first, the whole point of this is fun. If this stops being fun, or becomes clinical or a facade, then nothing is worth it."
When speaking on No Filter, Lee listened to a message Blake had sent the Mamamia team about his best friend. It made Lee tear up.
Blake had written: "Andy introduced me to the term back yourself. I think through his friendship, he unlocked courage in me. It really was in meeting Andy that I found a partner who brought out a desire to take risks together and leap into the unknown. And that was a massive gift to me."
He continued: "We've been through adventures and highs and lows that no one but us will understand or possibly care about. And it feels 500 times more fun to have experienced it with him than alone. So I love Andy for the many things he is and the decades of belly laughs."
Lee said in response that they're not afraid to tell each other how they're feeling - whether in good times or bad.
"I don't think too many mates get the opportunity to do that, say lovely things about each other, and also to each other. And so I'm really grateful for that."
You can listen to the full episode of Andy Lee on No Filter now.
Feature Image: Instagram @andytomlee.
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