Tony Martin (comedian)

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Tony Martin
Born June 10, 1964 (1964-06-10) (age 44)
Te Kuiti, New Zealand
Nationality New Zealand (Longtime Australian Resident)

Tony Francis 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.

Contents

[edit] Career

In the 1980s, Martin was a writer and performer with The D-Generation on TV and radio. The group later moved on to the ABC comedy The Late Show (1992-1993).

Martin co-hosted the top-rating national radio program Martin/Molloy with Mick Molloy (1995-1998). Martin/Molloy produced three ARIA award winning compilation albums: The Brown Album (1995), Poop Chute (1996) and Eat Your Peas (1998).

He also made several appearances on Thank God You're Here, The Panel, The Mick Molloy Show, and in Kath & Kim (as Magda Szubanski's fiddle-playing boyfriend).

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. On 16 October 2007, the Triple M Network announced his show, "Get This", a ratings success for the network, be axed so the network can focus company attention and resources on new breakfast shows debuting across the country in the next six months such as The Shebang in Sydney and a new, multi-million dollar Melbourne-based show presented by Peter Helliar and Myf Warhurst. An article in the Herald Sun Guide Jan 2nd 2008 perpetuated the rumour that Get This was "Axed to make way for Helliar's alleged $1 million plus salary". The last episode was aired on November 23, 2007[1].

[edit] Movies

Martin wrote, produced and directed the 2003 comedy movie Bad Eggs, and wrote and directed the unreleased 2007 mockumentary BoyTown Confidential. 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).

[edit] Books

Martin's first book Lolly Scramble, a collection of humorous autobiographical essays, was published in 2005. Martin is currently working on a new book for release during 2008.[2]

[edit] Television

[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 (also writer/director)

[edit] Radio

[edit] Albums

[edit] Books

[edit] Personal life

 To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose.
You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (March 2008)
  • Tony Martin grew up in the small New Zealand towns of Te Kuiti and Thames.[3]
  • 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.[3] Tony is famous for his range of comic impressions.[4]
  • 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.
  • A self-proclaimed "film nerd" who watches as many as 375 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.[3]
  • Tony is also the voice behind Bargearse, dubbed episodes of Bluey and Gov. Frontbottom & Judge Muttonchops in The Olden Days - both featured on The Late Show.
  • Martin is married to Annie Maver. 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.[3]
  • Martin suffers from haemochromatosis[5] and often jokes about his health. He has made references to his "many odd medical problems relating to his health" on Get This.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Get This: top-rating radio show gets the axe - The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 2007
  2. ^ Vega sparkles as combos settle - The Age, 31 January 2008
  3. ^ a b c d Zion, Lawrie. "Copping a Bad Egg", Features, The Age, 2003-07-19. Retrieved on 2006-11-22. 
  4. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/radio-active/2007/03/04/1172943265525.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
  5. ^ Tranter, Nikki. "Book review of Lolly Scramble", PopMatters, 2005-10-27. Retrieved on 2006-11-22. 

[edit] External links