Bean Is A Carrot, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 48 of 52

New comedy? Yes indeed.

Yesterday TV Tonight published an exclusive interview with Ben Elton, in which Elton defended the first episode of Live From Planet Earth: "Apparently the principal criticism is that it was too smutty, and to be honest I actually put my hand up to that. I do think we got the mix... Read More »

Right on Adam and Hannah

A show not so dissimilar to Hey Hey made its debut a few nights ago and did pretty well. In Gordon Street Tonight combined all those magic ingredients that Daryl Somers said we all wanted to see on our screens: live music, international and local guests, comedy, stunts, audience interaction, and social media as part of the show. The main difference between IGST and Hey Hey is that the newcomer did it a million times... Read More »

The Biography Treatment

It's hard to think of an Australian comedian more written about than Barry Humphries. If you're a Humphries fan your bookshelves are already groaning with numerous biographies and studies of the great man. Now there's a new Humphries book to add to the shelf – one that could just about replace all the Humphries books ever written - the biography One Man Show: The Stage of Barry Humphries by University of New England academic Anne... Read More »

Late Arrivals at the Comedy Boom

You probably saw the story in the Herald Sun the other day that Hamish & Andy are “close” to finalising a deal with Nine. This came as a bit of a surprise to those of us who expected them to sign with Ten (who screened their radio spin-off TV shows), but apparently what swung it was that Hamish & Andy “like that Nine is backing comedy”. And who can blame them? 2011 looks like being one hell of a year of comedy on... Read More »

A flannelled panel and a premier premiere

This time of year usually signals the start of a two month-long drought of repeats and programmes too bad to be broadcast during the ratings season. But in a surprise move both ABC1 and The Comedy Channel have launched new panel shows in the past... Read More »

The Other WTF

Just as Charles Firth's WTF was finishing on GO!, a new WTF started on Melbourne's Channel 31 - With Tim Ferguson. Described on its website as “a reactionary Live TV show” and “shock-jock radio with pictures”, With Tim Ferguson is a part comic/part serious look at politics, current affairs and... Read More »

Third Tuesday Book Club

In a new, and no doubt soon to be highly irregular, feature of this blog, Bean Is A Carrot trawls through her collection of books about Australian... Read More »

WTF! off

Back in July we noted the announcement of WTF!, a send-up of fast-paced entertainment news shows created by ex-Chaser member Charles Firth. We were fairly sceptical about whether this show would be any good or not, and after two weeks of episodes on GO! (and the thecompleteandutter channel on YouTube) it seems were right to be... Read More »

Some that glitters is gold

Eighteen or so months ago the news came through that a DVD of The Money or The Gun was in the works. It would feature compilations of six episodes and a commentary from host Andrew Denton, director Martin Coombes and producer Mark Fitzgerald. The DVD was supposed to be out in November 2009, was then delayed twice, and has still not appeared; EzyDVD currently list the release date as “unknown”. But when DVD companies don't come through with the goods the internet eventually does, and recently a number of full episodes have been made available online – they're a fascinating watch.... Read More »

Election 2010: Rise of the Impressionists

The comedic story of Election 2010, which we can now finally close the book on, was this: while the ABC broadcast the “official” election comedies, Gruen Nation and Yes We Canberra!, online venues, such as YouTube, were full to bursting with impressionists. So much so, that there came a point towards to end of the election campaign when the joke switched from being about Julia Gillard, to about the people impersonating Julia... Read More »