Recap: Mad As Hell, February 20th 2013

In a special investigative report, Shaun goes undercover as a member of the outlaw motorcycle gang The Bandidos. But his cover is blown when he uses the word “allegorical”.

Shaun began the first episode of the second season by introducing us, the viewing audience, to the changes since last year – the move to Wednesday, which means the news is now half digested, not fully; the studio audience, who won’t be seen, despite the chance of canned laughter, and the doomsday clock now counting to the election. And of course, the vagrant sleeping on the set, who was obliged to shout: “I’m as mad as hell, I’m going to take it for about half an hour.”

The first story wasn’t making Shaun mad, more in sorrow than in anger. But it was too late to rename the show “Shaun Micallef’s Mellencholic as Hamlet”; as the cost of changing the titles was prohibitively expensive – the cost had been amortised over the 2 seasons.

The subject was Sports People and/or State or Federal Politicians, who are both heroes, both being accused of taking something they shouldn’t, facing corruption allegations, and both making up most of the TV news content. Two religious figures, who weren’t involved weren’t asked. But without religion to guide our morals, are we driven by self interest across a sea of shifting sands – send your entries into the competition. You could win a set of Juanita Phillips Head screwdrivers.

Are these shifting sands heading for the fiscal cliff? In the Mad As Finance segment, Jennifred Stoles, pushed the ‘tortured analagy’ further, describing the driving of the Fiscal SUV towards the Cliff, with Obama along with Wayne and Julia as the Fiscal Thelma-and-Louise. But if Obama gets his budget through, they’ll go over in a Fiscal Hang-glider, but be still stuck in the Fiscal Chasm. Shaun just had one debt-related question – why are the US using a clock to count their debt – shouldn’t it be a calculator?

In Australia, we have the burden of Freedom of Choice, unlike in Russia where you get up, walk through the snow, queue in line for hours, vote for Putin, go home and almost get hit by a meteor. We have a choice come election time, but no choice to have it. You can choose on policies, or purely on how you feel. So Mad As Hell is going to provide the shallow comparison as anything else would be boring.

Vomitoria Catchment compared the image of Tony Abbott to Barack Obama, but his impersonation wasn’t thorough enough – where’s the commitment. And in suggesting that a child was ignoring him due to the dropping of the school kids bonus, Shaun was worried they were getting too much into substance. Vomitoria pointed out you just had to watch him speak to see how riveting he is.
Julia Gillard has decided to wear glasses now, a concious decision to look more like Kevin Rudd. Casper Jonquil believes the stats are in her favour, as the last 15 PMs wore glasses, except for most of them.

This years’ election is important, so Shaun crossed to Ross Dropsheet at BetEverySecond.com to see how it was being gambled on. Craig Emerson has the shortest odds for being the politician to lose the election for the Labor party, whereas Cory Bernardi has extremely short odds for the Liberals. Everyone in the Australia Party is equally likely to lose it. Just remember to always gamble… (responsibly).

Maggie Bathysphere and the ABC Sports team returned, reporting from Russia ahead of the Winter
Olympics… in 12 months. Maggie told Shaun she was stunned and amazed by the recent findings by the Australian Crime Commission into the drugs in sport investigation. Tennis can be ruled out, because our players never win anything, so how can they be taking anything. Shaun hates the grunting in women’s tennis, but Maggie has no problems with it. Even Organised Crime is distancing itself from Sport, to try to avoid tainting their reputation.

It turns out news does occur in places other than Australia, so a new segment: News From Countries Other Than Australia. Royal Watcher Gay March reported on the abdication of the Queen of Netherlands in favour of her son, and how Prince Charles is dropping hints to his mother. And King Richard was found under a carpark, but having exceeded his 2 hour limit, the owner has sent a bill to the palace. But they won’t pay it – he was a Plantagenet!

The Pope is Pooped, and Shaun crossed to Ginny Boem to discuss how a new pontif will be elected: a pageant, with rounds in national dress, glass confessional and bathing costume. We were treated to an advanced look at the candidates and their odds during one of their recent photo ops.

A new political party, Rise Up Australia, which is against multiculturalism, has recently formed. Shaun spoke with (or at) Ars Millionbeard now and earlier, asking if the Rise Up motto would appeal to zombies more than anyone. The Liberal Party’s response was that resurrections would always be higher under a coalition government.

As a final word, Shaun was quite bemused by the little smirk given by Julie Bishop when talking about “sharing thoughts” with Kevin Rudd. She might be interested in giving him an “ambassadorship”. If they were to get together, it might bring together the warring sides, like Romeo and Juliet. Or in a more modern context, like Avatar.

Initial thoughts on Mr and Mrs Murder

I really should be sleeping, but I need to express what a sweet, enjoyable and clever show Mr and Mrs Murder is. Shaun and Kat do a brilliant job as the central characters in this crime solving drama, and it’s really the relationships between the characters, which all felt genuine, that really make this show. The sleuthing is really there as a motivation, and a background interest. The dialogue never felt contrived – I could almost imagine many couples trading lines the same way. Bring on more of Charlie and Nicola!

If you missed the first episode, hopefully Channel Ten will put it online soon.

And Mad As Hell, that was brilliant as always – recap coming soon.

Post your comments!

Interview with Stephen Hall

Stephen Hall is one of the writers on Mad As Hell, not to mention a number of Shaun’s other shows, an actor, and really nice guy. Last year, he gave me some of his time in the hallways of the ABC for a chat.

Before we began, Stephen indulged me in a “nerd-off” on the topic of James Bond – he being one half of the team behind Bond-A-Rama. We came to agreement that “The Man with the Golden Gun” had one of the worst theme songs. When that was done, the questions began!


Me: I was going to ask if the writers ever get to say any lines, as previously you’ve appeared twice [in Mad As Hell], but tonight’s episode (Episode 9) that was proved wrong!

Stephen: That character is called Lionel.

He was carrying a lot of toilet paper around.

You noticed that did you?

It got more and more (in the shot pieces) – was that me?

No, I think that was Lionel.

The people in Glenhuntly Road (where the vox pops are shot) must think there’s some strange characters around.

We got looks, and people stood around. I’d be more worried if there weren’t looks – it’s not New York, it’s Elsternwick ladies and gentlement. I didn’t know what voice to do, because I didn’t think he was ever going speak. Shaun said make it counter to what we think it’s going to be. So I made it after Noel Coward or Lionel Barrymore. Named after Lionel Barrymore actually.

So they named him before the voice?

He was always called Lionel. He always had a caftan. Always had a WW1 flying helmet. That was Shaun writing that for me to do – as a mark of respect.

How does the writing process work? There’s five of you…?

Yes, there’s Shaun, Gary Mcaffrie, Michael Ward, Tony Moclair and me. Gary and Michael are on five days a week, Tony and I are on three days a week. Tony, Gary, Michael and I share an office, and we sit at our computers and write. We read the news everyday, and watch the news everyday and try to think of funny stuff that’s happening, in the various formats of sketches for the show. We email them to Shaun, print it out and put it in the script box at the same time, and he has the final say on them.

You were involved in [the writing of] TAYG as well, and Newstopia too?

Yes. Gary and Michael have written with Shaun a lot longer than I have; Gary and Shaun have known each other since they were teenagers.

[Gary] was the foot in the door [to the industry] for Shaun I believe.

I first met Shaun in 1996 on Full Frontal, where Wardy and I both started in Melbourne professional comedy writing. Wardy had been in Canberra before that, doing breakfast radio. Canberra’s 92.3 Kook and the Bambino in the Morning – I just made that up.

It sounds like something it would be. How is writing for TAYG different to Mad As Hell? Were you involved in the questions, or monologues?

It’s a different beast. There was [writing for] intros and outros, and bits where we had other people coming in and fanciful conversations with Hello Kitty. And the end game envelope delivery, ideas for those. We alternated – Wardy would write the script one week, and I the next and send it through to Shaun. As on this, he was the final arbitor. The content of the games was largely dictated by the producers of the show, and if we had ideas we could slot them in, but everyones ideas were listened to. It was a group beast. Our brief was to write the gags for Shaun, within the structure of the show. Trying to say the same thing different ways, hundreds of times.

Do you find the process of writing for TAYG different to Mad As Hell?

It’s the same people, which is really nice, and a lot of the production team are the same. It’s very different content, it’s much more challenging as it changes every day, and there are days when we look through the newpaper and say “for goodness sake, can’t something usable happen in the world.” And, it’s difficult to make jokes about death and destruction, so we shy away from those things. [If they’re] absurd, pompous and basic wankery – there’s always a good time. Tony Abbott’s hair net tour is a case in point.

Other people would be familiar with you in your acting, such as in The King or on stage as well, and you do a lot of writing. Do you have a preference?

I’ve had a lot more work writing than acting, acting is tougher, and as I have a certain look which people don’t always think of me [for roles]. With writing, it doesn’t matter as much. Things lead to other things, as much of you do something and do an OK job, and people think for you for the next thing and they contact you.

But acting not so much, in my experience there’s no such thing as a big break. You think “this will lead to other things”, but it hasn’t happened so much. For me, and my particular “journey”, I’ve had a lot more work writing than acting. But having said that, acting’s much more fun. Ideally it’s great to do stuff you’ve written, which is why Bond-o-rama is fantastic, because Wardy and I wrote it together, we gave me the really plum roles. How else am I going to get cast as Sean Connery?

Thanks for your time Stephen – we look forward to seeing your appearances during Season 2.

Back-to-back Shaun on a Wednesday

Starting Wednesday 20th, you will be able to watch 1 and a half hours of continuous Shaun (excluding ad breaks and the moments when he’s off camera).

Mr and Mrs Murder begins on that night at 8:30pm on Channel Ten, following Mad As Hell, which airs at 8pm THE SAME NIGHT! (but different bat channel, the ABC to be exact).

If you’ve been living under a rock, Mr and Mrs Murder is a new comedy/drama starring Shaun and Kat Stewart, who are professional crime scene cleaners and amateur crime solvers. Read more here.

So just 2 more weeks till you get more Shaun than you could ever hope for.

Mad As Hell is back!

Mad As Hell is back for its second season- and this time Shaun promises he knows what he’s doing.

This year it has moved to Wednesday nights (from the original Friday night time), probably to line up with the ABC’s traditional comedy night.

It returns 20 February 2013, Wednesdays 8pm on ABC1.

(Now I need to calm down from all this excitement.)

More Interview-ness with Shaun

Last year, I had the enviable task of interviewing Shaun about his latest works. Unfortunately we ran out of time, so he kindly answered the rest via email… and through the busyness of last year – I forgot to post it!

So, as originally promised, part 2 of the 2012 interview: (some facts may have changed since first answered)


Me: You’ve traditionally been very private about your family and home life, what made you decide to participate in Who Do You Think You Are?

Shaun: I would never want to take part in a documentary about myself. I don’t even like doing an interview unless I’m plugging something and I can do some shtick. Sometimes if it’s someone I know well, I’ll do it (like Tony Martin) but otherwise I just assume people really wouldn’t be that fascinated by me blathering on about myself. It’s okay on a website like this because people come looking for it – but on TV it’s a bit different and has a slightly higher obligation to be a bit entertaining (sorry Stuart). WDYTYA was a bit different though: part history lesson and part travelogue. I thought it would be interesting and was surprised that I opened up emotionally (for me).

Your appearance on the show got such a response from people who felt connected to your story. Did you imagine that would happen?

I must admit I hadn’t thought about that. I was amazed at the number of people who watched it, who actually knew my father. Quite a few people lived in the same street and remembered the bombing. My cousin contacted me (I have not seen her for many years) to tell me the two little girls who were killed (and who shared our surname) were, in fact, related to us. Very sad obviously. But the whole point of the series is to connect with people – and it did that.

Has what you found out in WDYTYA changed things for you and your relationships? (If it’s not too personal)

Well, it did for a while – I was all charged up with embracing my family and looking up relatives I haven’t spoken to in decades – but I have since reverted to my usual aloof self.

How long have you been planning Mr and Mrs Murder? Is there anything you can give away about it?

Mr & Mrs Murder was an idea Jason Stephens and I had a couple of years ago. We had been trying to hatch a project for myself and Kat for a while ) We’d both come up with Newstopia back in 2008 – along with Gary and Michael). There was a sketch show the ABC were interested in which turned out to be too expensive (the doctor-wants-your-husband’s-bed sketch from MAH was written for the Pilot). Mr & Mrs is the one that TEN liked. Can’t give away too much as TEN like thinking they are in charge and will get cross if I reveal anything…like that my character is a Martian and Kat’s character is actually a robot. Oops.

Are you looking forward to concentrating more on the acting?

I’m always acting – even when I’m not on screen. But I am looking forward to just acting and not having to produce or write the show.

You worked with Kat in Newstopia, and obviously developed a bond. Was it a preference to work with her in a more dramatic role rather than having her join Mad As Hell?

Well, I loved working with everyone in Newstopia but we wanted to make Mad as Hell a new show – or as new as possible, given the type of show it was – and that is why we didn’t use the same cast. I’d work with Kat in anything – the same goes for Nicholas Bell, Julie Eckersly, Ben Anderson and Peter Houghton. All brilliant.

Jenn asks: After a busy year with TAYG, MAH and Mr and Mrs Murder, will you be taking a break or are you keen to jump straight into the next project (or the next season of MAH?)

MAH returns early next year. Not sure what’s happening beyond that. I may get time to work on my new book.

There have been a few in-jokes in MAH – such as the parrot sketch reference, the two iced vovos, the TV guide description mirroring Welcher and Welcher – do you (or the other writers) like to add them for those who’ll notice them, or purely for your own enjoyment?

Michael Ward wrote the sketch with the dead parrot reference, Gary wrote the one with the iced vovos in it and I wrote the program descriptions. Personal tics and favourite references turn up all the time but are rarely the point of a joke or front and centre in a sketch.  I suppose it’s a way of personalising the material. Gary’s sketches tend to have characters named after SANFL footballers and be about form rather than character, Michael’s tend to be mostly about characters who are idiots and mine involve me sitting at the desk, nodding.

Mr Griffiths asks: Where do you get your ideas for your sketches from?

There’s an internet site we use.

Have you enjoyed bringing back old characters like Nobby and Milo?

In MAH we had some jokes which required an immensely stupid character, so I resurrected Nobby. Milo didn’t make an appearance (unless you count Francis’s impression of him in the last episode). I did notice that Nobby seemed a bit sad and lonely looking. My hair is now so white Nobby had to wear a beanie.

What does Gary think of these old characters returning!?

I think Gary was happy to see Nobby. He used to write the sketches for him when he was on Full Frontal. Hard to tell what Gary is thinking. He’s so mysterious.

Has Mr William Duthie become a new favourite?

I liked him. Michael Ward and I wrote the sketches. He might have done his dash though as he became increasingly senile over his five appearances. Keen eyed viewers will note he looks a bit like a character I played in the Micallef Program who burns down a nursing home.

Alex asks: I’m all the way up here in Brisbane, and it’s hard for me to get down to Melbourne, but one day I would love to meet you Shaun! Do you have anything planned in the future in terms of a tour?

Nothing planned as yet, Alex, but I’m always thinking about doing a stage show of some description – perhaps with Francis. I have the title: ‘An Audience in front of Shaun Micallef (and Francis Greenslade) but no actual show written as yet.

Mardi asks: On the scale of one to ten, do you still have the superball I gave you?

Green.

Jenn asks: What is your weapon of choice in the inevitable zombie apocalypse?

Ka-Bar Black Cutlass Machete. Maybe also take out an AVO.


Thanks to Shaun for continuing to be pestered by my questions!

GQ Australia Comedian of the Year

Shaun has been announced by the Australian version of GQ magazine as “Comedian of the Year” in their Men of the Year awards for 2012. Noted as the “silver fox”, he is described as someone who “grafts the subversive to the obscure.”

For someone who doesn’t easily fall into the traditional “comedian” category, it’s a great acknowledge for his wit and charm.

You can read the full story on the website or in the Dec/Jan magazine.