Tony Martin (comedian)

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Tony Martin

Tony Martin (born 10 June 1964) is a comedian and writer from Te Kuiti, New Zealand who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.

Martin is the host of the Triple M radio show Get This with Ed Kavalee, which broadcasts from 9am–10am AEST weekdays (5pm-6pm in Adelaide).

[edit] Career

Martin was involved with The D-Generation in the 1980's. He co-hosted the top-rating national radio program Martin/Molloy with Mick Molloy from 1995 until 1998.

Martin/Molloy produced three ARIA award winning compilation albums: The Brown Album (1995), Poop Chute (1996) and Eat Your Peas (1998).

Martin's major TV work was on the ABC comedy The Late Show (1992–1993). He also made several appearances on The Panel, the The Mick Molloy Show, and in Kath & Kim (as Magda Szubanski's fiddle-playing boyfriend).

Martin wrote, produced and directed the 2003 comedy movie Bad Eggs. He has also played minor roles in several films (mostly those of former Late Show colleagues), including The Castle (1997), Tackle Happy (2000), Crackerjack (2002) and BoyTown (2006).

Martin's first book Lolly Scramble, a humourous collection of autobiographical essays, was released in 2005.

On 3 April 2006, Martin returned to the Austereo network to produce a nationally-syndicated show with Ed Kavalee on Triple M named Get This, which broadcasts from 9am–10am AEST weekdays (5pm-6pm in Adelaide).

On 29 November 2006, Martin mentioned on air he and Kavalee were negotiating to return for a second season of Get This in 2007 - one of the conditions being the show run an hour longer.

[edit] Personal life

• Tony Martin grew up in the small New Zealand towns of Te Kuiti and Thames.^[1]

• For two years as a child, he lived on a boat for five months of the year as his father was a part-time amateur marlin fisherman. Since there was no TV, he would listen to radio programs like The Goon Show and try to copy the voices.^[1] Tony is famous for his range of comic impressions.

• Tony Martin's first job, straight out of high school, was as a forklift driver at an army surplus store. He usually worked wearing items from the store, including amongst other things a WWII Japanese Admiral's uniform.^{[citation needed]} On the Get This show of 15 September, 2006, he highlighted the serious issue of workplace bullying by revealing that at this job he was often tied up and left hanging from the ceiling in a burlap sack. Martin confirmed this on the 25 September episode of the show.

• At the age of 18, Tony moved to Hamilton where he landed a job with a radio copy writer, which eventually secured his first passage to Australia when a visiting executive from the station's sister outfit in Brisbane needed a new writer. It's here that he claimed he came up with the advertising catch phrase, "There's never been a better time to......".^[1]

• A self-proclaimed "film nerd" who watches as many as 300 movies a year, Martin often refers to his encylopaedic knowledge of film and television trivia. His knowledge of film was entirely self-taught, often from listening to director's commentaries of films. He claims he learned a year's worth of film school from Robert Altman's commentary on The Player and Martin Scorsese's on Taxi Driver.^[1]

• Tony is also the voice behind Bargearse, dubbed episodes of Bluey featured on The Late Show.

• Martin married Annie Maver on 2 January 1997 in Las Vegas.^{[citation needed]} She is a floor manager on The Panel and RocKwiz, and has worked as an assistant director in Australian movies and television productions. Tony met her when she was a floor manager on The D-Generation.^[1]

• Martin suffers from haemochromatosis^[2] and gastroesophageal reflux disease^{[citation needed]} and often jokes about his health. He has made references to his "many odd medical problems relating to his health" on Get This.

• Martin enjoys video games and has a love for the Nintendo 64 game 'Goldeneye', as discussed in his book, Lolly Scramble. He and his co-hosts discussed this on the 17 November 2006 episode of Get This and spent five minutes talking about the game.

[edit] Television

• The Gillies Republic (1986) - (writer only)
• Rubbery Figures (1986) - (voices, also writer)
• The D-Generation (1987) - Various - (also writer)
• The D-Generation Goes Commercial (1988) - Various - (also writer)
• The Late Show (1992-93) - Himself/Various - (also writer)
• The Mick Molloy Show (1999) - Himself/Various - (also writer)
• Kath & Kim (2002-03) - Mark - (4 episodes)
• The Shambles (2006) - Himself (2 episodes) [1]
• Thank God You're Here (2006) - Himself (3 episodes)

[edit] Movies

• The Castle (1997) - Adam Hammill
• Tackle Happy (2000) - Himself
• Crackerjack (2002) - Les Nestor
• Bad Eggs (2003) - Gavin Clack - (also writer/director/producer)
• BoyTown (2006) - Kenny Larkin
• BoyTown Confidential (2007) - Kenny Larkin

[edit] Radio

• The D-Generation Breakfast Show (Triple M Melbourne 1987-91)
• Bulltwang (Triple M Melbourne 1990)
• Martin/Molloy (Austereo network 1995-98)
• Get This (Triple M network 2006-)

[edit] Albums

• The D-Generation: The Satanic Sketches (1989)
• The D-Generation: The Breakfast Tapes (1990)
• Martin/Molloy: The Brown Album (1995) 2CD
• Martin/Molloy: Poop Chute (1996) 2CD
• Martin/Molloy: Eat Your Peas (1998) 2CD
• Get This: Illegal Download (2006) Limited Edition

[edit] Books

• Lolly Scramble (Pan Macmillan 2005)

[edit] External links

• Official Get This page on Triple-M's Melbourne web site
• Tony Martin at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Martin at Pan Macmillan
• The Late Show Fan Site and Reference and Episode Guide.
• Champagne Comedy: The Late Show fan site and forum.
• Interview with shaunmicallef.com

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Zion, Lawrie. "Copping a Bad Egg", Features, The Age, 2003-07-19. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
2. ^ Tranter, Nikki. "Book review of Lolly Scramble", PopMatters, 2005-10-27. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.