Ok, so Shaun Micallef’s Brain Eisteddfod is a quiz show. Not a comedy quiz show – a good old-fashioned, we’re seriously keeping score so you’d better give the correct answer, quiz show. But is it funny? Two episodes in and we can safely answer that question with… kinda? It’s hosted by Shaun Micallef, a man... Read More »
Well, it may not be a surprise, but it’s definitely still a shock: (the bad news here isn’t the bit about there being a new season – keep reading) As Micallef himself points out, he’s pushing sixty – a perfectly reasonable age to decide to slow things down a little. Comedy is traditionally a young... Read More »
The ABC’s 90th-anniversary program ABC 90 Celebrate! was a noble attempt cover nine decades of broadcasting but left some... Read More »
And just when the election campaign was starting to heat up too. Only joking! Like this election campaign will ever “heat up”: Scott Morrison is the kind of thuggish suburban bully everyone (outside the media) hates, Anthony Albanese is a submarine, and the media coverage is so meta you’d be forgiven for thinking there was... Read More »
One week into the official election campaign and… yeah. Remember when political satire was a central part of Australian culture? You do? Have fun down at Services Australia trying to claim the old age pension. Slightly less snarkily, these days any election campaign really drives home the shrinking opportunities for political comedy on Australian television.... Read More »
(slightly late) Press release time! Lune Media has announced a series commission from Network Ten for a brand-new quiz show – Shaun Micallef’s Brain Eisteddfod. The one-hour, weekly quiz program is hosted by actor, writer, television presenter and one of Australia’s favourite comedians Shaun Micallef. Leonie Lowe, Managing Director at Lune Media said: “I’m thrilled... Read More »
First out of the blocks and we’re off with a bang. Australian comedy needed a kick up the bum after a lacklustre 2021 and Mad as Hell was just the show to do it. Or just possibly we were starved of a good laugh over the Summer of Omicron and we’re wildly overreacting. You be... Read More »
2021 was a year when Australians desperately needed a good laugh. Fortunately, we had Australian comedy to laugh at.... Read More »
Making topical comedy isn’t easy. Forget the time constraints: we’re talking about having to make comedy out of the daily news. In Australia no less, land of no amusing news in good times or bad. And at the moment, things are pretty, pretty, pretty bad. Was 2021 the year that much of Australia woke up... Read More »
One of the many, many ways you can tell Mad as Hell is a great comedy show is that when things get shit out in the real world, the comedy on Mad as Hell gets sharper. Which sounds like it should be obvious, but then you remember The Weekly gave us multiple seasons of Corona... Read More »