The closest Celia Pacquola has come to walking through the big blue door of infinite comic possibility on the set of Thank God You’re Here was when her sister surprised her in costume at her own front door.

“That was super cute,” says Pacquola, who returns to host the second season of Working Dog’s reboot of its popular theatresports show. “Last season, they were coming over to my place for dinner. And they did a Thank God You’re Here on me! I opened the door to them and the scenario was [that] it was an awards night, and I was on the red carpet, and I was getting an award. My niece Evelyn, who was 10, had written a full script, and my sister was in a feather boa and had picked up the fish and chips dressed like that.”

Strictly a “writer-comedian”, Pacquola prefers her performances scripted, edited and polished, including her stand-up routines. Her 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, I’m As Surprised As You Are, marked her return to the live circuit after a five-year break of lockdowns and caring for her 2-year-old daughter, Eleanor, with Irish photographer Dara Munnis.

The thought of lurching into an improvised sketch – or worse, a full show, as Wil Anderson did with his successful 2022 touring experiment Whatchu Talkin’ ’Bout Wil? – fills Pacquola with dread. So she is relieved to be pushing her comedian friends once again into the Thank God You’re Here tableaux, to test their wit and imagination.

“I have no improvisational background,” she says, laughing. “I find it absolutely terrifying.”

She was, however, once in the live audience, when Shane Bourne hosted Seven’s revival of Ten’s format in 2009. A fledgling comic at the time, Pacquola had come along to watch her flatmate and fellow comic Felicity Ward. “Maybe if they’d done one more season, it would have been my time.”

Hamish Blake, Anne Edmonds, Frankie McNair and Sam Pang appear in the first episode of the new season. The identities of the guest judges remains a closely guarded secret. With some episodes still left to film, Pacquola promises “an exciting mix – big names, fan favourites who have done the series early on, comedians who are at the top of their games right now, and exciting up-and-comers. That’s part of why everyone loved the show back in the day – it was a place where people could announce themselves, as well as having people who are super famous who are prepared for us to see them out of their element.”

Her personal highlights from last season include Virginia Gay riding a bicycle prop across the stage, Marty Sheargold’s response to being cast against type, and the unpredictability of Ross Noble.