>Bean and Janet, tell us about them...

The classic Australian comedy of the 90s was The Late Show. Basically it was a live sketch show, with a mix of pre-recorded sketches, live sketches and stand-up. It was fab stuff and I gave the videos of it to a British friend of mine who really enjoyed it, despite the Aussie references.

After that the team (of 8 people) split up into groups or went back to solo work.

Some of the team went on to make Frontline which was a sitcom made in the style of a documentry and without a laugh track. It was a satire on current affairs TV shows. It wasn't so much laugh out loud, more "yes that is a good point, isn't it".

Then they did a show called The Panel. Basically it's a chat show with five comedians/amusing people sitting around a desk talking about current affairs in an amusing way. They have celebrities and other guests on and it's generally a good show.

This team have also made two excellent films called The Castle and The Dish. The Dish was on at the London Film Festival last week and is well worth seeing.

Another group from The Late Show, Tony Martin and Mick Molloy, went on to do a drive-time comedy show called Martin/Molloy. It was a mix of sketches, banter about current events and celebrity guests in between the latest hits. It was a great show, but went downhill after a couple of years. It was massively popular and three CDs of highlights were released.

Mick and Tone then went on to do the Mick Molloy Show which only lasted for about 5 weeks. It was a live Saturday night show, with sketches and amusing banter with Mick, Tone and various other comedians. The reason it was axed was because Mick did a sketch where he urinated on a carpet. It wasn't great comedy by any means, but the show did have some very funny sketches and should have been given a bit more a chance. The other problem was that Mick was a terrible host. It should have been the Tony Martin show as he's the funnier of the pair. But as Mick's the rude, rebel one and Tony's the geeky one, Mick got the show and roped Tony in to help. Actually, Tony was the only funny thing in it, along with Judith Lucy, a stand-up comedian who'd also been in The Late Show.

More later...

Continuing, Bean Is A Carrot's quick retrospective of Australian comedy:

The best Aussie comedy of the past few years was The Games. It was a satirical sitcom about the Sydney Olympics Organising Committee. It had no laugh track and was shot in the style of a documentary.

It was written by John Clark, a New Zealand born comedy writer/performer who used do end-of-the-week satirical spots with comedy-partner Brian Dawe on a current affairs show. Brian Dawe was also in The Games, as was Gina Reilly from Fast Forward.

It was a fabulous piece of satire, not just about the Olympics, but about corporations and business practises.

It's a shame that you people in Britain never get to see the best in Aussie comedy, things like The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel and The Games. Although I believe Frontline was on some satellitte channel at one point.

We did get The Paul Hogan Show, years ago. Does he still live in Australia?

>We did get The Paul Hogan Show, years ago. Does he still live in Australia?

After he did Crocodile Dundee and married Linda Koswalski he moved to Hollywood, where he has been making rubbish films and having bad plastic surgery ever since.

God help you if you think Australian comedy consists entirely of Paul Hogan!

Neighbours is funny, albeit not intentionally.

>Neighbours is funny, albeit not intentionally.

As was Prisoner (Cell Block H).

Re: Title of this thread: surely an oxymoron?

A bit blinkered, RHC.

What about Trios Ringbarkus? They won the Perrier years and years ago then nothing.

Oz comedy always seems strained to me. Sorry.
But you guys hate Boothby so leave it alone, k?

Frontline owed a lot to Drop the Dead Donkey as I remember but was none the worse for that. Jimeoin's sketch shows were also pretty amusing. Was his film any good?

I lived in Australia when I was a little bitty lad, in 1989. Most of the comedy I remember was repeats of things like Yes Prime Minister, but there was a show called 'Fast Forward' which I remember being funny. Was it? It's one of the only three shows I remember, the others being some sort of Bush Cookery show called 'Come and get it', which I only remember because of the incredibly catchy theme tune, which basically consisted of 'Come and get it, come and get it, with Peter Russell Clarke' (or some name like that) repeated over and over again. The other one was called, I think, 'Hinch', and was a large bearded man called, I think, Hinch, saying some things that came into his head about the week's news, in an irritated right wing sort of a way. As far as I know, it wasn't a comedy. In fact, I now remember Fast Forward doing a parody of him, called Hunch. Yes.

You may wonder why I've subjected you to this random spray of half-remembered ten year old memories. I'm wondering myself. The only thing I hope to get out of it is that Australians will reply saying 'You drongo, his name was Peter Riddell Finch!', at which point I will say: '...oh yes. So it was.' That's something to look forward to, then.

Frontline was half Drop The Dead Donkey (set in a newsroom) and half Larry Sanders (mix of film/video to differentiate between behind-the-scenes/broadcast material) and was ace. Paramount showed it over here, though I think there's a whole series they missed (the last one) for some reason. Like they did with Duckman. Damn them.

>I lived in Australia when I was a little bitty lad, in 1989. Most of the comedy I remember was repeats of things like Yes Prime Minister, but there was a show called 'Fast Forward' which I remember being funny. Was it?

Yes it was funny, especially for the first couple of series. For those not familiar with it, it was a sketch show that used to do a lot of parodies of TV shows.

>It's one of the only three shows I remember, the others being some sort of Bush Cookery show called 'Come and get it', which I only remember because of the incredibly catchy theme tune, which basically consisted of 'Come and get it, come and get it, with Peter Russell Clarke' (or some name like that) repeated over and over again. The other one was called, I think, 'Hinch', and was a large bearded man called, I think, Hinch, saying some things that came into his head about the week's news, in an irritated right wing sort of a way. As far as I know, it wasn't a comedy. In fact, I now remember Fast Forward doing a parody of him, called Hunch. Yes.

That's right, Steve Vizard played Darren Hunch, a send-up of Derryn Hinch, a current affairs presenter at the time. Now Hinch is a "popular" radio talkback show host on some station that middle aged men with vaguely right-wing tendancies listen to.

>You may wonder why I've subjected you to this random spray of half-remembered ten year old memories. I'm wondering myself. The only thing I hope to get out of it is that Australians will reply saying 'You drongo, his name was Peter Riddell Finch!', at which point I will say: '...oh yes. So it was.' That's something to look forward to, then.

Actually you were right, he was called Peter Russell Clarke, he was a cooking show host with a beard and his theme tune did go "come and get it, come and get" etc etc.

Well done Bean on your informative appraisal.
Early 80s saw 'Australia, You're Standing In It' which introduced enduring political commentator Rod Quontock to the nation. Also, groovy/arty/wanky characters Tim and Debbie - first distinctly modern comedy characters I can remember seeing (predating Young Ones), and dubious advertisers the Dodgy Brothers, also seen on Fast Forward.

Late 80s/early 90s saw the Big Gig - unleashing acts such as Rachel Berger, the Empty Pockets, Greg Fleet, Found Objects (foreunners to Lano and Woodley) and the Doug Anthony Allstars.

Some excellent comedy shows at present are The Micallef Programme (slightly off-tap sketch show) with the glorious Shaun Micallef, and Backberner (political satire sketch/news show) with Peter Berner. And of COURSE the utterly brilliant John Clarke and Brian Dawe political comment pieces after the 7.30 Report on the ABC.

A definite gem only on in Melbourne on Channel 31 (community television station) is Brian Munich and Friends. In a similar ballpark to Boosh, only with more structure and emphasis on punchlines (please note, this isn't intended to dis Boosh).

Australia's best comedy tends to be political, and on the ABC.
RHC, the stuff you're seeing isn't our best, trust me! The way you guys talk about the 11 O'Clock show...that's how we were talking about Full Frontal before it finally died.

>Early 80s saw 'Australia, You're Standing In It' which introduced enduring political commentator Rod Quontock to the nation.

And he was good once. Quantock's problem lately is that he's run out of jokes now that Jeff Kennett's no longer in power.

>Some excellent comedy shows at present are The Micallef Programme (slightly off-tap sketch show) with the glorious Shaun Micallef,

Don't you agree Janet that it was trying to be a Chris Morris style show, but about general things, not current affairs? I hope you know who Chris Morris is and what he did BTW.

Actually do you remember that awful thing last year on Channel 7 with the people from Race Around The World and Richard Stubbs that lasted for about 2 weeks, which was a live topical current affairs thing. Now THAT was a Chris Morris rip off. And it was SHIT.

>and Backberner (political satire sketch/news show) with Peter Berner.

I'm not entirely keen on this. The acting is very bad in the sketches, but there are some good bits.

>And of COURSE the utterly brilliant John Clarke and Brian Dawe political comment pieces after the 7.30 Report on the ABC.

Devine!

>A definite gem only on in Melbourne on Channel 31 (community television station) is Brian Munich and Friends. In a similar ballpark to Boosh, only with more structure and emphasis on punchlines (please note, this isn't intended to dis Boosh).

Is Matthew Sharp still involved in 31 comedies? He did a show called The Comic Box which I believe wasn't the greatest thing ever.

>Australia's best comedy tends to be political, and on the ABC.

I agree.

>RHC, the stuff you're seeing isn't our best, trust me! The way you guys talk about the 11 O'Clock show...that's how we were talking about Full Frontal before it finally died.

ABSOLUTELY!

>And he was good once. Quantock's problem lately is that he's run out of jokes now that Jeff Kennett's no longer in power.

No chance! Not with such a lame state Labour party and the World Economic Forum to get his teeth into. Last time I saw him he was absolutely amazing.
Re: Micallef.
Not a bad point about Chris Morris with more general topics. (It's okay - I'm familiar with Mr Morris). Offbeat, skewed and delightful.

>Actually do you remember that awful thing last year on Channel 7 with the people from Race Around The World and Richard Stubbs that lasted for about 2 weeks, which was a live topical current affairs thing. Now THAT was a Chris Morris rip off. And it was SHIT.

Don't remind me! Tony from RATW was fine, but the rest of it was attrocious.

>Is Matthew Sharp still involved in 31 comedies? He did a show called The Comic Box which I believe wasn't the greatest thing ever.

He is, and it wasn't.
I was on Comic Box once where they made me lie on a bed of nails. Quite fun.

>>And he was good once. Quantock's problem lately is that he's run out of jokes now that Jeff Kennett's no longer in power.
>
>No chance! Not with such a lame state Labour party and the World Economic Forum to get his teeth into. Last time I saw him he was absolutely amazing.

That was the case 6 or 7 months ago when I saw him at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. The world economic forum happened since then and I'm glad he now has something to get stuck into.

>>Actually do you remember that awful thing last year on Channel 7 with the people from Race Around The World and Richard Stubbs that lasted for about 2 weeks, which was a live topical current affairs thing. Now THAT was a Chris Morris rip off. And it was SHIT.
>
>Don't remind me! Tony from RATW was fine, but the rest of it was attrocious.

I think John Safran was better, the Shane Warne thing was quite funny for example. But I remember Tony doing a story about personalised number plates that was WOEFUL. Very like The 11 O'Clock show Janet. I wonder if it was in fact a rip off of the 11 O'Clock show?

>>Is Matthew Sharp still involved in 31 comedies? He did a show called The Comic Box which I believe wasn't the greatest thing ever.
>
>He is, and it wasn't.
>I was on Comic Box once where they made me lie on a bed of nails. Quite fun.

A friend told me that Matthew Sharp once stripped down to his boxer shorts to thank someone for giving the show a $100 donation. Perhaps if they'd given $200 he wouldn't have stripped off?

>What about Trios Ringbarkus? They won the Perrier years and years ago then nothing.

They split up. They were called Neill and Steve (Steve Kearney, I think). He was at the '98 Edinburgh festival with his wife as
'Miss Lou Lou's Tap Dancing Extravaganza With Mr Steve'. Did anyone see this? I thought Trios Ringbarkus were horrible.

>
>>What about Trios Ringbarkus? They won the Perrier years and years ago then nothing.
>
>They split up. They were called Neill and Steve (Steve Kearney, I think). He was at the '98 Edinburgh festival with his wife as
>'Miss Lou Lou's Tap Dancing Extravaganza With Mr Steve'. Did anyone see this? I thought Trios Ringbarkus were horrible.

I've not seen them. But Neill Gladwin went on to be Artistic Director or something like that at the State Theatre Company of South Australia (for some unknown reason).

Neill also went on to do that embarassing 'comedy' bit at the start of the Olympics closing ceremony.
Steve Kearney lives near me 'cos I keep seeing him wandering the streets pushing a pram. He was a vaguely mostly adequate Oberon in Midsummer's Night Dream in the gardens last summer.

Los Trios didn't translate well to the screen. Apparently a great live act in their day. (Thus the Perrier).

Hey Bean, have you heard that Good News Week is ending? Last one next week.

Oh, and look at www.rove.com.au
Good site.

>Neill also went on to do that embarassing 'comedy' bit at the start of the Olympics closing ceremony.

Oh yes, THAT! I agree it wasn't funny.

A lot, an AWFUL lot of people laughed at that. At least that's what the TV people who choose which people in the audience to do close-ups of would have us believe. I guess they wanted to make the comic element visual to appeal to an international audience.

I did an interview back in 1998 with Parsons and Naylor (who were a fab up and coming British comedy duo back then, what went wrong and why did they split?) and they were talking about how they'd been asked to write a humourous script for the Euro MTV Awards which were to filmed by Americans in front of a German audience.

They wrote a very visual script for the Germans but the American producers said "no, this is for the US audience" and so they were made to put in lots of verbal jokes, which failed to work at all with the German audience. You see, sometimes writers are worth listening to...

>Hey Bean, have you heard that Good News Week is ending? Last one next week.

About bloody time! That died years ago, well after Channel 10 bought it anyway. The fact that Channel 10 made them do it several times a week AND do it for longer AND do loads of silly specials didn't help. They got worn out, poor little poppets. Channel 10 should learn about overkill.

>Oh, and look at www.rove.com.au
>Good site.

So Channel 10 have snapped that up too? Is there any comedy show they won't buy after it's used by date? Full Frontal for example. Actually Rove was OK on Channel 9, though not brilliant. Good luck to Channel 10 reviving it.