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1995 Scans

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	Herald Sun (Australia: 1994) Scan Provided By: Mona		Herald Sun (Australia: 1994) Scan Provided By: Mona		Herald Sun (Australia: 1994) Scan Provided By: Mona		Herald Sun (Australia: 1994) Scan Provided By: Mona

1995: TV Extra: Funny Buisness

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Written By: Tony Johnston
Typed & Provided By Mona
Australia: September 19, 1995

They make a living making us laugh with their sketches, but what do the folks at Full Frontal draw on from the broader canvas of comedy for their own amusement?

Whoever coined the phrase "comedy is a serious business" must have had tongue in cheek. Take Seven's Full Frontal team, for example. It has a great deal of fun being funny. And it knows that if you can't laugh while making laughs, it's a good bet the audience isn't going to laugh either. Full Frontal, this week beginning its impressive fifth series, has enhanced its longevity by ensuring a core of its performers also writes material. So far, as the ratings have consistently shown, it has been spot on. As team member Shaun Micallef points out, Full Frontal could quite easily become an Australian version of America's Saturday Night Live, which has been running for 20 years and spawned megastars such as Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and the Belushi brothers. In keeping with Saturday Night Live's habit of "freshening" up its cast every year, Full Frontal introduced a few new members earlier this year in Daina Reid (from Jimeoin), and Sydney stand-up comediennes Kitty Flanagan and Julia Morris. Old hands back for this series are Kim Gyngell, Eric Bana, Glenn Butcher, Shaun Micallef and Ross Williams.

So what makes these people laugh?
TV Extra quizzed a few of them:

Shaun Micallef
"I still listen to The Goons on radio every Saturday morning."

Micallef gave up a 10-year law career to do something completely different and ended up in comedy as part of the Artist Services team. He started as a writer on Big Girl's Blouse and moved onto FF last year as a writer, performer and co-producer.

In the previous series, his character Fabio, based on the hunk who adorns millions of romantic novellas world-wide, really caught on - to the extent Fabio's laugh follows him out of restaurants, and little kids mimmick Fabio's "dance of love".

"Artist Services (the producers) have lashed out this series and brought me a new moulded chest for the character, so I can leave the shirt open now. Before, the fake chest was attached with gaffer tape."

And his favorite funny people?
Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, (early) Steve Martin, Buster Keaton, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Dawn French.

Locally: Bob Franklin, Glynn Nicholas. Kitty Flanagan
"I've become very visually orientated with my humor. I've also become mean. We had an old guy on the set for a sketch recently and he was meant to be diving a golf buggy around. Well he crashed into the set upending a banquet table, and then caught a wheel on one of the cables. I couldn't stop laughing, even though he was a bit upset."

Flanagan started as a copywriter in Sydney, first with a radio station then in an advertising agency. When she was sacked from the latter, she did stand-up comedy. After a successful stint on the Sydney pub circuit, Flanagan and sometime partner Julia Morris were asked to join FF.

"I love doing understated characters. I'm told I play cold hard bitches well." Her favorite character on the show is the newsreader. "It's playing ridiculous things straight." Like in Frontline? "Yeah, like Rob Sitch (Mike Moore). He's always been a favorite of mine."

Other favorite funny people are Billy Connolly ("my inspiration - my favorite of all"), Diane Keaton (in Annie Hall) and Woody Allen. Locally: Bob Franklin ("Just love that dry delivery.")Eric Bana

"I'm not really a student of comedy. When I'm not working I'm just as happy to be informed or entertained on other levels."

In fact, Bana would prefer to walk his dog, read or go to the gym than watch TV.

"I find funny things in the ordinary. Everyday people provide the funniest things (material) you can get. I find a lot of humor in my friends, like blokes just being blokes, the things they'll do just to be seen to be one of the blokes."

Bana came to FF from pub stand-up, and in the past two years has branched out with a CD, a video clip, and expanded material for his live act. His all-time favorite comic performer is Richard Pryor. "I just love Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder films. I could watch them over and over."

Locally, his favorite funny people are John Cavanagh and Bob Franklin.
"Franklin (an English import) I like because his mind's on the same plane as mine. Subtle."

Kim Gyngell
"What I find funny depends on my state of mind at the time. Otherwise it's a hard question. I think the strongest thing ever said to me about what makes us laugh was in reference to human beings being the only species with a sense of humor. It goes hand in hand with our consciousness, as a balance to the knowledge that we are going to die. That makes sense to me."

Gyngell, who has an illustrious track record in film and TV (most notably with The Comedy Company and in his spin-off sitcom Col'n Carpenter), does not consider himself a comedian. He does not do stand-up, "although I admire those who do - they are incredibly brave".

Looking for favorite performers he cites the legendary Lord Buckley, a 70-year-old who dressed up as an English Lord back in the 50s and spoke in a sort of black jive talk.

As for local favorites, he picks performers rather than comics. Fred Parslow, Gerard Kennedy, Dennis Miller, Monica Maughan and Anne Phelan, all of whom had been guests on his sitcom.

 

 

 

 

 

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