Paul Verhoeven (Australia)

This article is about the Australian radio and television personality. For the German filmmaker and actor, see Paul Verhoeven (Germany). For the Dutch filmmaker, see Paul Verhoeven.
Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven at the 2014 Penny Arcade Expo in Melbourne.
Born 15 January 1983
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation Television personality, Host/Presenter, comedian and writer.
Website
CPM

Paul Francis Verhoeven (born c. 1983) is an Australian broadcaster, writer, blogger and comedian, and the host of Steam Punks on ABC3. He grew up on Sydney's northern beaches, and moved to Melbourne after completing a Bachelor of Film Studies at the University of New South Wales.[1]

Radio

Paul is best known for his extensive work with Triple J, as the host of the "Nerdy By Nature" segment on The Breakfast Show with Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson (formerly known as "Nerds of a Feather" and "Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind"). He also hosted The Mid-Dawn show for four years, and was producer of The Graveyard Shift with Dave Callan. Verhoeven has also hosted the "The Breakfast Show", "Weekend Arvos" and the Triple J Weekend Breakfast Show.

Television

Paul is the host and co-writer of Steam Punks, a narrative game show on ABC 3, produced by Beyond Entertainment. Steam Punks airs every Sunday at 5.25pm, and Paul was described by The Australian as "a revelation as host... a mix of Basil Fawlty, Oliver Reed and Johnny Depp".[2]

He is a regular guest on Channel 10's The Project, Studio 3 on ABC 3, and has appeared on Good Game. He also makes regular appeances on the Melbourne community TV station Channel 31. He was also a presenter on two seasons of Save Point, a gaming show on ONE HD, which began its second season in 2012.[3]

Verhoeven co-hosted and wrote for the Planet Nerd, a geek comedy RMITV program broadcast on Channel 31 Melbourne, which was nominated for Best Comedy Program in the 2008 Antenna Awards. Reviewer Marieke Hardy referred to him as "the hot one".[4] He wrote and presented an online television series entitled Curiageous, a comedic mythbusting series, for the Australian online news site, The Vine. Among other things, he drank his own urine and had his arse waxed.[5]

He also narrated Stop Rewind, a 13-part documentary series on ABC 2, which he described as "truly awful".[6]

Comedy

Along with longtime friends Dan Debuf, Luke Ryan and Matt Saraceni, Verhoeven runs a fortnightly sketch comedy podcast called Lords of Luxury. They have also performed sketches live as a comedy show in the 2011 and 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Reviewing their 2011 Melbourne season, Rabbit Hole Urban Music called them "endlessly entertaining";[7] however The Enthusiast argued "the fact that sketch comedy is often performed by undergraduates doesn’t make it a place for undergraduate humour, and I’m afraid the Lords of Luxury fall into that trap."[8]

The West Australian wrote of their 2014 show, "The perfect amount of chaos... consistently clever",[9] giving them four and a half stars.

In Melbourne, the Herald Sun opined: " sure to make you laugh again, again and again... utterly hilarious and so much fun."[10]

The Age wrote, "A claque of helpless Lords cultists kept up a delirious response from the front tables throughout, pausing only to throw panties at the end. It was that kind of night."[11]

Online and other work

Paul Verhoeven is a long-running senior contributor to The Vine. He is also writer and artist of Lessons for Children, a weekly syndicated web comic.[12] He has been a regular contributor for Yen Magazine, a pop culture critic for Junkee, is a game critic for MMGN, and has written for Filmink magazine, Triple J Magazine and Horse and Hound.

Verhoeven is an active and popular Twitter user; as of April 2012 he is the 77th most popular Australian journalist using the social media platform.[13] In December 2011 he called Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard a "whore". His conduct was condemned by his employer the ABC, and he was made to delete the tweet,[14] but defended himself by claiming it had satirically quoted the film Mean Girls.[15]

Paul runs a YouTube channel with a focus on the BBC sci-fi drama Doctor Who, giving opinions, reviews and speculation, as well as branching out into discussion on other topics such as equality in video games and dog impressions. His TEDx talk, entitled 'Sexism in Gaming',[16] garnered a great deal of attention in early 2014.

He has interviewed Elmo and Abby Cadabby. On stage, he has interviewed Viggo Mortensen, Philippe Petit, Gillians Anderson, Dylan Moran and Ryan Johnson.

Personal life

Verhoeven was one of Cleo's Top 50 Bachelors of the Year for 2011, and was named as the second runner up. He thanked Albus Dumbledore in his acceptance speech. He then said 'Go Knicks'.[17]

He is an avid golfer. He cries every time he watches the film Notting Hill.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Claxton Speakers International profile: Paul Verhoeven".
  2. ↑ Cuthbertson, Ian. "Review: Steam Punks". The Australian.
  3. ↑ "Save Point: Presenters".
  4. ↑ Hardy, Marieke. "31 reasons for hope". The Age.
  5. ↑ "Lords of Luxury: About Us".
  6. ↑ "Lords of Luxury: About Us".
  7. ↑ McCormack, Anthony. "RHUM Loves Lords of Luxury @ MICF 2011". Rabbit Hole Urban Music.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Mel. "Review: Lords of Luxury". The Enthusiast.
  9. ↑ Cox, Samuel. "Mint of a comedy show". The West Australian.
  10. ↑ Bell, Stewart. "Review: Lords of Luxury". Herald Sum.
  11. ↑ Linden, Richard. "Lords of Luxury – For One Night Only". The Age.
  12. ↑ Verhoeven, Paul. "Lessons for Children: partial archive". The Vine.
  13. ↑ Papworth, Laurel. "Australian Journalists and Social Media Influence". Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  14. ↑ Byrnes, Holly. "Twitter 'whore' jibe against Julia Gillard and Tim Mathieson a sacking offence?". Daily Telegraph.
  15. ↑ "Paul Verhoeven on his Gillard 'whore' tweet". ABC News.
  16. ↑ "Sexism in Gaming". YouTube.
  17. ↑ "Video: Paul Verhoeven's Cleo Bachelor speech".
  18. ↑ "Cleo Bachelor profile: Paul Verhoeven". Cleo.

External links