Micallef Tonight

In the glut of Aussie tonight shows, Micallef shines. While Rove Live panders to the masses with its 'nice' humour, all likeability and no edge, Micallef Tonight takes the genre, tears it into pieces and satirises it. It is a parody while still being a significant contribution to the tonight show stable.

While Rove seems to have been watching too many tapes of Conan O'Brien recently (to the point of Rove blatantly copying his cat hisses, "I'm cool baby's" and camera sparring), Micallef has obviously seen Conan and allowed him to influence his show much more indirectly. As a result (like O'Brien) Micallef includes sketches in his show - slotting them between guests and sometimes even during interviews. He has embraced O'Brien's sense of the visual in his comedy (this is TV, after all) - so expect to see many more cartoons, puppets and clay-mation. Like O'Brien, rather than see the real world and pass comment on that (like Letterman does so brilliantly), Micallef creates his own comic world and cuts loose within that. And at last we see a live Australian TV show that has edge - and has the bravery to put their plums on the line and say 'we're now going to commit to this sketch and laugh if you want, but we don't care.' Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien and Letterman have the same philosophy.

I don't understand all these allusions people are making between Shaun's High Horse and '...what the?'. They're both completely different. Let's get one thing straight - all observational humour comes from the same basic premise - 'what's the deal with that?, did you ever notice this/that, etc...different comedians say it differently obviously. Then they riff off their thoughts on why something is so absurd (Seinfeld - parakeets flying into mirrors, Jimeoin - thongs, Micallef - rapid acting Panadol). It can take on many guises - The Late Show (D-Gen) had 'What's All That About' with Tony and Mick, who both later did their radio show with segments called 'Please explain', 'Cocobananas' (ie - that makes me cocobananas) and 'nutbags' (what a nutbag). All of this material could come under the same heading but is presented differently.

Anyway - 'what the...' is NOT observational humour - it's 'Phunny Photos' from Hey Hey It's Saturday, with a few misspellings thrown in for good measure. But that's how you win Gold Logies, apparently. Be nice - don't offend anyone or try anything different so middle Australia will like you. Rove's now in fine company with his other banal friends, Daryl Somers and Bert Newton. Rove Live jumped the shark in the first episode, but I thought the episode in which he interviewed Heidi Fleiss dragged it down to a new level. Tacky. Could you imagine any other tonight show host doing that - Leno, Letterman, O'Brien? It doesn't exactly reek of class to me.

I loved Micallef Tonight - a few dead spots but it showed real spirit and creativity and that's what counts for a show to have legs. Francis Greenslade is still a ham though. Even on the old show. Not funny.

Rove Live is Rove Dead. Micallef: 9/10.

After the slew of new comedy shows to come out in the past 6 or so months in Australia, I had high expectations for Shaun Micallef's latest effort. His ABC shows were genius, easily the best comedy ever to come out of this country.

He never struck me as the kind of comedian suited to a live talk style show though. So it was interesting to see how he'd handle it.

Firstly, the show made me laugh more times in the first 10 minutes than all the Comedy Inc episodes put together. Sure it had some slow parts, but nothing more than what you'd expect from a first time attempt at a live show.

Also, for those who think Shaun getting up on his high horse was a complete rip off of Rove's 'what the...' segment should know that he did the segment in his original ABC series many years ago. If memory serves me, it was before Rove's show was airing on channel 10, correct me if I'm wrong. Truthfully, I really don't see too many similarities between the two... and Shaun makes me laugh more anyway.

Overall, I think it's a great start, and will only get better. Hopefully he'll add some comedy sketches like he had on his ABC series, it was probably the only thing the live show was lacking.

The Jamie Durie thing was pure Micallef also. Let's just pray he doesn't attempt the excruciating Rove style satellite interviews.

There's my two cents. Cheers

I'm lodging this comment a little too late, but I was fast forwarding through some old TV tapes (y'know, where you tape certain shows you aren't able to watch there and then) and I saw Shaun Micallef interviewing Anthony LaPaglia and Dave Hughes....Why the sam hill isn't Shaun Micallef on TV!?!?!?

In my rather stunted view, he is funnier than any ol' Jim Carrey or Mike Myers or (dare I say it) Christopher Guest! C'mon, with segments like "The Credible Hulk", characters like Myron and Action Boy and small jape-esque phrases like "Miced Volvo" and "Homosexuality" (you had to be there to understand), surely there is some room for him on the box, particularly if Tony Squires can have his own 60 minute program. Obviously not...

If you're not as furious as I currently am, let me leave you with this quote from David McGhan's "Dr. Miracle."

"Jack, get me 4 BP's of stat and Electrocardioman. Rory, get me 10CC's of Murgol. Because I've gots me an idea..."

Oddball, strange humour is oddly clever and strangely endearing. No toilet, low-brow humour here (with the exception of a vomit-Matrix gag, which he was clearly embarrased by and which he asked the audience not to applaude; they did anyway) just clever, clean, odd fun. It's also very, very funny. Micallef Tonight deserves a lot more attention then Micallef Tonight gets.

"If you're like me, then it's probable your a clone with my exact same DNA."

"Worried about dry skin? Concerned about wrinkles? Well, visit a burns unit and get some perspective"

"If you want to get Donald Bradman's hat back in Australia, send money to this address. OR if you want the hat to stay where it is, send your money to this address, and we'll give the money to World Vision" (to people who actually need it; this wasn't said, but it was implied)

To embarassed guests- "Yes, well, a good story, and well told!"

Shaun Micallef's experiment with variety television has only been done in two episodes so far but it's enough to give me a flavour as to what it's like.

To put it bluntly, it's hilarious, clever and thoroughly entertaining. But I find myself asking a number of questions during each episode.

For one thing, most of the funny parts are Micallef talking in his oddball fashion about current events or politics or, better still, advertising campaigns and slogans. Also his exchanges with voice-over veteran Peter Smith have that same sort of fractured-reality touch that we all used to love about Micallef in his sketch shows.

But the question raised - why is he bothering to do a live variety show when all these elements, at least in part, are present when he does his sketch show? Sure, he's a funny, clever comedian and his interviews with celebrities are enjoyable, light entertainment. But they're just not as funny to watch as his mock interviews that he used to do with regular members of the cast playing various characters.

Secondly, while it isn't a question it's more of a criticism. The program airs on Channel Nine and I find there is quite a lot lacking. For one thing, we have ads in the middle which upset the flow of the show which was always a key part in his shows on the ABC. Secondly, there's a lot more to mock on the ABC with particular reference to their low rating programs and cutbacks and so forth. It also seems to be easier to get away with biting political satire on the ABC than on a a commercial network. And thirdly, there is less editorial eminence and independence given to Micallef since Channel Nine runs a far tighter ship than the ABC. There were so many hilarious sections to his shows on the ABC when he'd actually give you the impression you were watching regular viewing and in actual fact you weren't. For an example, let me use the episode where, during the phase where the ABC logo was 'drawn' on the screen by various normal people in black & white, there was a section, before the show had started, where the same black and white type picture was shown of an Oliver Stone-sendup whereby Micallef, dressed as Lee Harvey Oswald, stepped out to assassinate JFK and as he was dragged off, he drew the ABC logo on the screen with his pistol. I just can't imagine the Nine Network allowing him to send them up like that, and it's a shame, because it's part of the brilliance of Shaun Micallef that he does laugh at the establishment in that way.

Essentially I'm not knocking this show. It's funny, clever, and has the stuff to last. But all I ask is, when each episode appears to be half sketch show, half nothing-out-of-the-ordinary interview, why not just continue with the commercial-free intellectual dandyism?

But I won't complain, as long as Shaun Micallef's on my screen I know Australian television comedy is where it should be.