Paul McDermott (comedian)

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For the Australian techno musician, see Paul Mac.

Paul McDermott (born May 13, 1962) is an Australian musical comedian and television host. Born in Adelaide, he grew up in Canberra, where he studied art after finishing high school.

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008)

1 Early career
2 Breaking Out
3 Musical Escapades
4 Stand Up Career
5 Strictly Dancing
6 The Sideshow
7 Good News Week
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early career

He began performing as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars, along with Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler, starting out as buskers and performing live in clubs. After success at the 1986 Adelaide Fringe Festival, they travelled to Britain for the Edinburgh Fringe festival. While working there they were picked up to perform on the ABC show The Big Gig, where they quickly gained a following, and, in time, their own show DAAS Kapital. They had frequent appearances on Australian television and toured extensively, performing independently, and in the three major festivals, Edinburgh Fringe, Montreal's Just for Laughs and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

[edit] Breaking Out

After the Doug Anthony All Stars disbanded, Paul wrote, directed and performed in a stageshow entitled MOSH! with a group of young Australian performers. Following that, he was recruited by director Ted Robinson, who previously worked with him on The Big Gig, to host Good News Week, which was shown on the ABC from 1996 to 1998, and on Network Ten from 1999 to 2000 and then returned in 2008 for a new series. In 1996 and 1997 he was also co-hosting breakfast radio on Triple J with Mikey Robins, Steve Abbott and later Jen Oldershaw.

[edit] Musical Escapades

While starring on GNW, Paul wrote a number of songs. Two of these appeared on a single. "Shut Up/Kiss Me" was the title track. It was a duet with Fiona Horne and was co-written with Paul Mac. The single also featured Paul's song, "Happiness". Some of his other songs also appeared on Good News Week Tapes Vol 2, such as "The Drugs", "Everything and More" and "Nothing". Paul sang most weeks on Good News Weekend and Good News Week Nite Lite and many fans used to record these songs to create bootleg CDs. The CD Good News Week tapes Volume 1 featured several of Paul's monologues from the start of the show.

As mentioned on The Sideshow September 8th 2007, and on Good News Week Episode Ten 2008 Series (28th April 2008), Paul has a twin sister, Sharon. During the GNW episode, he said it was like his 12th birthday again, and explained his twin sister got a cake whilst he did not. Mikey Robbins stated that, "that was the funniest thing [he'd] ever heard".

[edit] Stand Up Career

Paul reappeared in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 2002 with Cameron Bruce and Mick Moriarty in a music based comedy trio called GUD^[1]. Their 2003 show, Gud Ugh, won The Age Critic's Choice Award for best show of the festival^[2]. In 2002 he also had a solo stand-up show entitled Comedyoscopy^[3].

[edit] Strictly Dancing

Paul also hosted the ABC show Strictly Dancing in 2004 and 2005^[4], has released several books with the Doug Anthony All Stars (Book, DAAS Kapital, Trip) and several on his own (The Forgetting of Wisdom, The Scree, The Girl Who Swallowed Bees). One of his books, The Scree, has been developed into a short film also featuring Paul Livingston (better known to some as Flacco), with whom Paul worked on The Big Gig and DAAS Kapital, and Steve Abbott, with whom he worked on Triple J, with a voice over by Ruth Cracknell. The Scree won Best Film at the 2005 Flickerfest International Film Festival^[5], and was invited to be screened at the 54th Berlin Film Festival.

[edit] The Sideshow

Paul recently finished working with Ted Robinson on a comedy television show called The Sideshow. The show has been described as a successor to The Big Gig, and follows the same variety show format. It premiered on 21st of April 2007. ^[6]^[7] After 26 episodes, The Sideshow concluded after being cancelled by the ABC on 1st December 2007.

[edit] Good News Week

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008)

Paul headlines the newly revived Good News Week on Network 10, which began its run on the 11th February 2008. It is a mock game show, with two teams of three, often comedians.

Based on the long-running BBC news satire series Have I Got News For You, Good News Week originally aired on the ABC and Network Ten between 1996 and 2000.

The show returned after McDermott's previous project, The Sideshow was axed by the ABC. Each week the two teams, captained by Mikey Robbins (from the original Good News Week series) and Claire Hooper (also seen with Paul on The Sideshow), answer questions based on recent news events, with points awarded by McDermott, often arbitrarily.

Many games have returned from the original series along with new games such as 'Dirty Sexy Fast Money.'