Finally, after much waiting – Preincarnate, A Novella is on the bookshelves. Wait a minute… why I am blogging… I should be down at the bookshop picking up my copy!
Preincarnate is out today!
Author: Stuart
Shaun on ‘The Circle’
Last Tuesday, Shaun appeared on The Circle (a less annoying version of the US show The View) to promote Your Gen, his book and Good Evening going to Brisbane and Perth. You can watch it below; especially worth seeing him pulling faces at the very end.
Good Evening heading to Perth
The Brisbane season of Good Evening starts next Wednesday, with Shaun and Stephen bringing the classic materials of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore back to the stage.
After finishing on the 21st November, the show is heading to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Perth for a very limited season: November 30th to December 4th.
If you live in either city and haven’t booked your tickets: what are you – crazy?!
Recap: Your Gen, October 26th 2010
It was a Halloween special this week, with Shaun dressed as Frankenstein’s Monster. For the Baby Boomers, Amanda was dressed as Morticia and Kathy Lette as Catwoman. Both Charlie and Angus Sampson dressed as Michael Keaton characters, Beetlejuice and Batman. Gen Y had Josh dressed as Casanova (which Shaun mocked) and Camile Keenan as a She-Devil.
First up was Befuddled, where movie posters were scrambled like Puzzle pieces. Who Goes There? Name That Tune.
The four buttons were all actors who played werewolves, plus ‘Trust Me’:
- Gen Y chose Lon Chaney Jnr, playing Noises Off. While in the ‘haunted bed’, it dropped and a hand raised up to scare them.
- The Baby Boomers decided on Benicio Del Toro which was Chronoloco! A timeline of aliens had to be sorted chronologically, including Marvin the Martian and Dr Zoidberg.
- Gen X picked Trust Me rather than Jason Bateman – with Human Lamington the game. Angus graciously put Charlie forward to be the victim, and with two questions wrong – Charlie got covered in Pumpkin Soup AND Sour Cream.
The Your Gen topic was particularly scary: Algebra… actually it was Monsters. In the end game, the teams had to bob for fruits and vegetables – one of each. Gen X was quickest, claiming the ‘Card Game Trophy’ (actually the 1992 Marsen Prize Fokker Trophy) donated by Gary Childs.
Countdown to Preincarnate
It’s not long until Preincarnate, Shaun’s first novel, hits the shelves. The Age have an article about it, but as Tony Martin pointed out on his Twitter – they don’t once state the title correctly. Good news is he is no shrinking violet – we can expect to see Shaun everywhere over the next little-while, including the season final of Offspring. If you are expecting another New Years show, afraid you’ll be disappointed this year.
Guests for Your Gen, 26th October & 2nd November
It’s Halloween on TAYG this week, with everyone donning the fancy dress. Angus Sampson returns for Gen X, playing up a bit for Mr Micallef. Kathy Lette and Camille Keenan from Rush round out the guests, joining the Baby Boomers and Gen Y respectively.
The following week’s guests are comedian HG Nelson for the Baby Boomers, presenter Chrissie Swan for Gen X and comedian Tim Blackwell for Gen Y.
Recap: Your Gen, October 19th 2010
TAGY returns! During the opening, Shaun delivered a Banana Split complete with sparklers to Charlie. The guests were Merv Hughes for the Baby Boomers, Deb Mailman on Generation X and Maude Garrett on Gen Y.
The first game played was Franken-Face, which soon descended into order chaos, which Shaun broke up with a blast from his recorder. After a red flag and whistle signaled the end of the ad break, Les Wilson, country poet, introduced ‘What’s a Doodle Do?’ which Merv took some time adjusting to.
The magic window buttons were the Fab 4:
- Gen X chose John, which was ‘Who Said That’, during which Shaun hinted at his own acting prowess, commenting “I killed [Seachange]… off”.
- Gen Y picked Paul, playing Celebrities for Sale (similar to Beatles for Sale?!) and determining which celebrity had endorsed which product. Shaun delighted in not actually helping the team determine who the celebrity was until after their answer was final.
- The Baby Boomers went for George: ‘Era Error’. The scene was a 1987 Gym.
The Your Gen round topic was Australian Films. One of the questions posed to Gen Y was “Who Played Premier Cray in Bad Eggs” – with the team unable to answer that it was Shaun himself! (upsetting Shaun more when Josh described it as ‘forgettable’)
Robert Patterson (covered in shaving cream) delivered the end game envelope – which revealed the challenge as “Which Generation is Best at Being a Butcher”. Teams had to fulfill Shaun’s order, creating Sausages, Kebabs and Trifle. Charlie was so put out over the fact he was still making 2kg of sausages after the order was changed to 6, he poured the items one by one into Shaun’s basket. Gen Y were awarded the winners, receiving the Most Spirited Pee-Wee Samurai Karate Jnr 1988 trophy, donated by Kaden McCaffrey.
Interview with Shaun
In the lead-up to Good Evening starting its run in Brisbane, the Brisbane Times has an interview with Shaun on his career and approaching 50.
No real news, but worth a read if you have some catching up-to-do. There is also a video preview of Good Evening, shot when the show played Sydney last year.
Guests for Your Gen, 19th October
After a 2-week break, TAYG returns on Tuesday the 19th with the last few episodes for the year.
Guests for next Tuesday are former cricketer Merv Hughes (for the Baby Boomers), actor Deborah Mailman (Gen X, currently starring in Offspring) and television presenter Maude Garrett (Gen Y).
For the end-game challenge: Which is the Greatest Generation at… running a delicatessen!?
The following week, it looks like we can expect a Halloween theme!
Rewind: Newstopia begins on SBS
It was October 2007, and the industry was abuzz of a new show on SBS. Some were already comparing it to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But this was something unique – Australian, absurb and very Micallef.
Yes, it is 3 years since the first season of Newstopia began. “Shaun Micallef rewrites the headlines” was how The Age Green Guide described it. It was meant to debut during 2008, but was bought forward to coincide with the 2007 Federal Election. It would have no live-studio audience and could almost be mistaken for a real news show. And it would be a great platform to judge the news of the world because “we (Australia) have no control over it.”
Described as the “luckiest unsuccessful” comedian in Australia by The Age Green Guide, Micallef was quoted as saying “I’m a white-faced comedian rather than a red-nosed comedian. I don’t have baggy pants and a ‘love me’ attitude. If you want to find the joke, it’s here somewhere. You just have to look for it.” This goes some of the way why some people might ask: what’s so funny about this guy. To which an equal number respond: everything.
Memories of Micallef Tonight still loomed, even 4 years later. And Shaun himself acknowledged some of reasons why it didn’t work: his lack of experience, the overly-fast-past alienated some viewers – but he was still immensely proud of it.
During an interview, Shaun admitted “I do get depressed sometimes. But it’s not a huge thing. It’s really a very small dog. It’s a chihuahua.”
Shaun himself wasn’t sure Newstopia would be his ‘breakthrough’ success (leaving “target demographics” to the bean counters); he would just try to be funny.