Santo Cilauro

Santo Cilauro (born 25 November 1961) is an Australian television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author, comedian and cameraman, a co-founder of The D-Generation. Known as the weatherman in Frontline, he is also an author and former radio presenter on the Triple M Network, and achieved worldwide fame with the viral video Elektronik Supersonik.^[1]

Early life

Cilauro was born in 1961 in Melbourne, Australia and was a law student at Melbourne University in the early 1980s. His parents are of Italian descent, and his father a Sicilian from Licodia Eubea. He is named after his grandfather 'Santo', also a Licodiano.

Acting and production work

Cilauro started collaborating with Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner in comedy theatre productions and tours. One of the co-founders of The D-Generation,^[2] Cilauro wrote for, and performed in, the troupe's show during its 1986–1987 run on ABC TV (which also led to the album The Satanic Sketches). Cilauro continued as a member of the D-Gen when the team hosted their Breakfast Show on Triple M radio (1986–1992), appearing as the simple-minded "Wayne from St. Albans" and "Gino Tagliatoni" amongst other roles. Cilauro was a writer/performer on the D-Generation's 1992–1993 sketch comedy The Late Show, appearing on such segments as Graham & the Colonel, The Oz Brothers and Jeff & Terry Bailey (with Rob Sitch), as well as performing in countless other sketches and filming the popular segment Shitscared.

After the second and last season of The Late Show, Cilauro starred as Stix in the 1994 ABC cop show satire Funky Squad, which he also co-created and served as one of the writer/producer/directors. He went on to help set up the Working Dog production company and was one of the writer/producer/directors of Frontline (1994–97), in which he also had a recurring onscreen role as weatherman Geoffrey Salter. Since then, Cilauro co-wrote Working Dog's films popular film The Castle (1997) and The Dish (2000) and appeared as a regular member (and occasional host) of the 1998–2003 Network Ten programme The Panel (he also did occasional sports correspondence for Ten during the 1998 soccer World Cup). Cilauro has been an executive producer of several Working Dog productions, including The Panel, A River Somewhere (1997–98), and All Aussie Adventures (2001–02). He played the Head of Market Research, Theo Tsolakis, on The Hollowmen (2008), a series which Cilauro co-wrote and co-produced. Cilauro also played IT technician Griffin on the Shaun Micallef sitcom Welcher & Welcher (2003) and K2 on the 1996 Working Dog radio sketch Johnny Swank.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he hosted a nightly comedy/variety show called Santo, Sam and Ed's Cup Fever! live from Melbourne alongside Ed Kavalee and Sam Pang.

In 2014 Cilauro joined his Working Dog colleagues, Sitch and Glesiner to stage the group's first play, The Speechmaker.^[3]

Filmography

Films

Television

Zladko Vladcik

Cilauro was, with Rob Sitch and Tom Gleisner, co-author of the Jetlag Travel Guides to Molvanîa, Phaic Tăn and San Sombrèro. He also created the popular Internet phenomenon character Zladko "ZLAD!" Vladcik, a Molvanîan pop idol style musician.

Elektronik Supersonik

"Elektronik Supersonik" is a kitschy, over-the-top combination of Italo disco and Synthpop, described as "a melodic fusion combining hot disco rhythms with cold war rhetoric". Zlad! is featured in a mullet, bushy mustache, and silver spacesuit and is supported by a female keytarist and background vocalist with pink hair. His lyrics are often in spoken word or badly sung, not to mention full of grammatical errors, reversed semantic units, and a thick Slavic accent. For example the song opens with: "Hey baby, wake up from your asleep. We have arrived onto the future and the whole world is become elektronik, supersonik."

"Elektronik Supersonik" was featured in an ad campaign for Mountain Dew MDX and also Virgin Mobile.

I Am the Anti-Pope

"I am the Anti-Pope" is another one of Zlad's songs. Although it is much less nonsensical it is also still meant to be zany and comedic in nature, featuring lines such as "But here comes White Horseman, defender of God! Exposing to everyone his powerful rod!"

Charity work

Cilauro is a noted supporter and active participant of charities. Red Dust Role Models, run by John Van Groningen, displays his involvement with other Australian sports people and celebrities to travel to remote outback communities as a way of promoting education and healthy lifestyles to Australia's indigenous youth.^[4]

Personal life

As a passionate Collingwood supporter, he often name-dropped the club in his sketches; he recently wrote a chapter of the Collingwood supporter's book, "The Barrackers Are Shouting".

References

External links

• Santo Cilauro at the Internet Movie Database
• molvania.com - Cilauro's parody site on the fictional country Molvanîa