[SammySatine]

Wednesday April 18, 2007

The West Australian- Today section

Sideshow right up Paul’s Alley

By Rania Ghandour

Age does not seem to have mellowed Paul McDermott very much. The former Doug Anthony Allstar, Good News Week host and all-round acerbic wit is not known for being easy to chat to, so when he admits he’s speaking to me only because he has to as part of his job, I wonder what I’ve let myself in for.

When I ask if he likes the attention that comes with performing, he replies: “Maybe, I don’t know,” a phrase that peppers the first few minutes of our interview.

Hoping the rest of the chat still might yield valuable information about the activities of this writer, painter, comedian, filmmaker and television host, I forge ahead with a question about how he juggles all his different projects and, thankfully, he seems to relax.

McDermott sees the different roles simply as different means of expressing thoughts and ideas. “It all comes from the same source- everything I do comes from the same place,” he says.

“I actually prefer sitting down and writing and painting and not having to perform but often the stuff I write, I don’t think anyone else would perform.”

His latest project is The Sideshow, created with long-term collaborator Ted Robinson, who produced The Glass House and Good News Week.

McDermott stresses this is not a talent show a la Red Faces but an old school variety show with professionals only, hence there no need for judges or voting off.

Some of the professionals lined up include the Umbilical Brothers, Tripod and Perth’s own Claire Hooper and Tim Minchin.

“Claire is extraordinary, very impressive and Tim is just brilliant. He’s a scorcher,” McDermott says.

“The last show I would have been involved with like this would have been The Big Gig (which ran from 1989 to 1992) and there’s been nothing on Australian television quite like it since, so it’s about time.” Warming to his subject, McDermott starts to imagine the possibilities of touring the Sydney-based show and I get a glimpse of how his mind works.

“I’d travel around Australia with this. Paul McDermott’s Travelling Sideshow and Medicine Van. Or something like that,” he jokes. And while it’s funny, it’s possibly quite a good idea. There is more than a hint of pride as he talks about what he wants this new show to be.

“It’ll be partly Spiegeltent, partly futuristic, partly sideshow, cabaret, burlesque- it’s all those things mixed in as well as music and standup. I’d love to have one of those shows that families sit and watch together, which I did with Strictly Dancing.”
“I heard from so many people, ‘My husband and I weren’t getting along and then we saw your show and we started having salsa lessons and we fell in love again.’ It’s really quite touching. I think this show might have that ability too.”

He confides that years after The Big Gig, people would go up to him to say their parents used to let them stay up and watch the show: ‘I t was so naughty and it was the one time I thought my parents were human because I saw them on the couch laughing.” He adds: “I hope this show can do that.”

When I ask him, tongue in cheek, if bringing people together is what motivates him, he laughs and says: “Oh yes, I love all the people of the world. You’ve seen through my thin disguise.”

Television and comedy keep McDermott busy but his current passion is filmmaking.
His second short film, The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, starring Pia Miranda and Hugo Weaving, was selected for screening at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

“It’s the way I express ideas in the most successful, articulate and beautiful way, I think. That’s why I love doing it.”

The Sideshow premiers on Saturday, ABC, 7:30pm.