Tag: Daryl Somers

Face Up Comes Kennedy

If you were born after the last episode of The Graham Kennedy Show went to air (1975) it’s sometimes hard to understand Graham Kennedy’s legendary status in Australian television. Even now little of the tonight show work on which his legend is built is easily... Read More »

A Twenty Year Old Corpse

Is The Late Show the most overrated Australian comedy of the last twenty years? The answer may surprise you: yes it is. Not only is it massively overrated, it continues to be overrated to this very day – which, considering we’re currently celebrating the twenty year anniversary of its initial airing on the ABC, gives... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – The Lifetime Achievement Award for Crap Comedy

This is it – the big one. Not so much for a single year’s work at making crap comedy as a concerted effort across an entire career, this award salutes those who, year in year out, go out of their way to make comedy that puzzles, annoys, and bores the Tumblie... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Worst Comedy Personality or Performer

Some comedians you'll watch in anything, whether they're presenting a 300-part documentary on invertebrates or appearing in a panel show about actuarial... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2011 – Introduction

2011 was a bad year for Australian comedy – on television at least – but not in the ways we’ve come to expect. Yes, the energy level was down across the board, with old favourites either tanking hard or stuck in a rut while the fresh faces were shunted off to digital channels where they wouldn’t upset the Spicks & Specks... 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 »

Stop It, He’s Already Dead

While there hasn’t yet been an official announcement – and who knows, the way things work these days there may never be one – it seems increasingly likely that we have, finally, seen the last of Hey Hey it’s Saturday. It’s a result that should surprise no-one capable of rational thought: for all the cheering... Read More »

A Nitro-Burning Unfunny Car

How can you seriously hate Daryl Somers – yes, strap yourselves in, we’re off to Daryl-land again – when he says things like this: “I’d be happy playing drums in a jazz trio and doing a bit of singing. That would be terrific fun, but you can’t do that and a show like this, which... Read More »

Start Digging Some Nerd Holes

Hey Hey it’s Saturday isn’t dead yet, but it’s sure coughing up blood (from The Age) Having already come back from the dead once, Hey Hey It’s Saturday will go into suspended animation in a fortnight fervently hoping that no one accidentally flicks the switch while it’s off air. Nine today confirmed that the July... Read More »

Abuse News You Can Use

… or alternatively “Actor Best Known for Substance-Affected Violent Bogan Character May Be Substance-Affected Violent Bogan Character” (from The Age): AUSTRALIA’S latest Hollywood hopeful, comedian Jason Gann, might be flying high in Los Angeles, but he’s facing trouble at home after revelations he drunkenly punched a shuttle bus driver on Derby Day in 2007. Gann,... Read More »