The Sideshow hosted by Paul McDermott - 2007

[SammySatine]

I think he might be hosting a circus more than a variety show.

I don't mind the vest.

I know this will sound dodge but I like the way those pants fit him.

I'm very excited about him coming back on TV though.

Amities,

SS

[susanjacobs]

I didn't mind the vest either. Maybe his clothes choices of the past has blinded me. I don't know. And I agree, he did look good in those pants.

After seeing the promo, I have more hope for it, and I am beginning to think that Hey, Hey wasn't a good comparison for it. Maybe because there aren't as many good variety type shows that they have only Hey, Hey to compare it to? Just a thought, and it could show some of my ignorance of Aus TV.

[Abundance]

The vest has got me thinking about Apollo 13 where the NASA Chief used to get a new vest everytime they did a new launch.

[TimChuma]

I cringed when they mentioned burlesque. Having taken a large amount of photos of their shows and experienced how bossy they can be I say good luck to them.

[unfrufru]

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment...-10388,00.html

THERE will be a familiar feel to The Sideshow, the ABC's new Saturday night variety program, especially for fans of The Big Gig and </I>Good News Week</I>.
The show was created by veteran live TV figure Ted Robinson, who produced The Big Gig and GNW along with other variety and comedy shows such as Live and Sweaty, Kitson Fahey and the recently axed The Glass House.
Its host Paul McDermott first found fame as the militant member of musical comedy act the Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS).
The trio of McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler were regular performers on The Big Gig before they were given their own show, DAAS Kapital, which was also produced by Robinson.
Most recently, McDermott was the host of the ABC's amateur dance-off Strictly Dancing, a popular celebrity-free precursor to Dancing With The Stars.
Although he admits to not watching much TV, and isn't known for his gushing outlook in interviews, he says putting on a positive grin to promote The Sideshow is no stretch.
“Normally I'm pretty blase about most things but this is really exciting,” says McDermott.
When the show was announced, ABC TV's head of arts, entertainment and comedy Courtney Gibson promised a program that would steer clear of conventional formats and, unlike commercial interpretations of the variety genre, there would be “no judges and no voting off”.
McDermott says the show is sure to fulfil its promise and deliver “classic variety”, provide a regular home for some of Australia's best comedy acts and be a halfway house for unusual and absurd performers.
“In the last 10 years there have been so many outstanding acts coming out of Australia, not just in comedy and music but even less conventional forms of entertainment,” he says.
“Usually in TV the word circus is a dirty one, but there's some really interesting stuff out there in the Jim Rose Circus and Lollapalooza vein, some really bizarre stuff, and some of the new burlesque acts are really taking off, so there will be no limit to the style of acts we can have on the show.”
Two pilot episodes have been filmed of The Sideshow and the first episode will be recorded next week before going to air on April 21.
“From the start there was such an amazing mood in the room and that was with a crowd that responded to a call out after Gardening Australia ... they were a little older than we expected but they got right into it,” he says.
Although one punter needed to block his ears, such was the volume of low-fi rock band Youth Group, he told McDermott after the show that he “loved the young people's music”.
McDermott says the parallels to The Big Gig are fair, with the new show having a similar ensemble feel with a cast of regulars including The Umbilical Brothers, Tripod and stand-up comedian Claire Hooper.
Paul Livingston's quirky character with the trademark curl, Flacco, best known for his work on GNW shows, will also make weekly appearances with stand-up routines and animations while the house band will be led by Cameron Bruce, McDermott and guitarist Mick Moriarty's cohort on the crude comedy project, GUD.
Musical comics Tim Minchin and Eddie Perfect will also appear as regularly as their busy schedules allow.
“Because there's such a lack of this type of TV around we really have the pick of the best acts around,” McDermott says.
He points to the success of The Umbilical Brothers' in the US with their kids program, The Upsidedown Show, and marvels at the constant improvement of musical trio Tripod.
“The ABC used to have a stranglehold on Saturday nights as the home of variety with shows like The Saturday Show and The Barry Crocker Show, so many people first made a name for themselves on shows like that, so we hope this show can be a new dawn, so to speak,” he says.

[SammySatine]

Hey guys,

There's an article in the West Australian Today section about this today.

If anyone wants to post it up they can otherwise I'll do it somewhere between today and Friday.

Depends on the time i get on the computer between now and when the show airs.

Amities,

SS

[unfrufru]

show starts 2morrow. paul was on the shebang this morning plugging it.

there will be the umbies, ed byrne, claire hooper and tripod

[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.

[Gutter Monkey]

Two guys I went to uni with just happen to be writers for this show. They were also writers for The Glasshouse and during their time their they kept a blog so people could see what they wrote and compare it to what ended up on screen. They'll be doing the same thing for The Sideshow.
You can find their blog at http://media-empire.net/blog/ .

[Laney]

did anyone else waste their saturday night indoors watching this show?

some of this show was quite amusing. i think paul's monologues were quite amusing, and when paul was talking unscripted that was even more funny. it was nice to see paul back on the tellie.

seeing eddie perfect on the show also was great. it'll be awesome if he continues with weekly appearance.

but on the whole this show was lame. it was boring. but of course, if you like the kranskey sisters (sp?), or the umbilical brothers, or 3 random girls miming, then this could be the show for you.

i also think 1 hour for the show is too long. half an hour would have sufficed.

anyway, as a positive note, i will actually watch this show again, because i think it has the potential to be better, and i hope it will be

[Spoofy]

Originally Posted by Laney

did anyone else waste their saturday night indoors watching this show?

some of this show was quite amusing. i think paul's monologues were quite amusing, and when paul was talking unscripted that was even more funny. it was nice to see paul back on the tellie.

seeing eddie perfect on the show also was great. it'll be awesome if he continues with weekly appearance.

but on the whole this show was lame. it was boring. but of course, if you like the kranskey sisters (sp?), or the umbilical brothers, or 3 random girls miming, then this could be the show for you.

i also think 1 hour for the show is too long. half an hour would have sufficed.

anyway, as a positive note, i will actually watch this show again, because i think it has the potential to be better, and i hope it will be

I didn't think Claire Hooper was funny but then I am not a fan of female comedians.

I was actually laughing at Paul and thinking it reminded me of GNW days (could have something to do with watching some episodes yesterday!)

Tripod - love them.....but new song please!!

What was with those women? I switched over to Bring it on cause they were stupid.

Thought Mick was suppose to be in the band? and why is it called "Bruce Cameron and the ABC band"???

Im sure it will get much better after a few weeks. The early episodes of GNW were a bit tragic until they got settled with Mickey and Julie

[sharleen]

I was actually quite impressed.
I really enjoyed the show - from the hosting, the variety of acts that appeared, even the music selection was spot on.
Made me very nostalgic for Big Gig though.

[Laney]

Originally Posted by Spoofy

What was with those women? I switched over to Bring it on cause they were stupid.

I was about to switch over and decided I'd hang in there to wait for the joke... Maybe I missed it, but could someone explain to me why they were supposed to be funny. I thought they were stupid too.

[Mythor]

"Those women" were still more fun to watch than the Kransky Sisters though. Yikes.
I thought Claire Hooper was fairly amusing... but her boobs were better.
Paul's opening monologue felt very GNW-y, in a good way.
Flacco having his "Tuesday, 2am" stuff was amusing but probably better for nostalgia value.
The Umbilical Brothers were alright.

Tripod was shit. The song wasn't performed well and other than a couple of different lines it was exactly the same as the other times they've done it on TV. If they're going to be regulars I hope they're planning on doing more stuff that hasn't already been on various shows...

I'll watch next week but I might not watch much beyond that... Or at least not pay much attention to it, which amounts to the same thing.

[SammySatine]

I think the show has a lot of potential....

Sure Tripod, The Umbilical brothers and Flacco did some old stuff but maybe they weren't sure whether new material was safe to use. Besides some people might not have seen the stuff before. I hope they do some new material.

The Kransky sisters are good. I thought there one hour show would flop after 15 minutes but they did very well. Besides, I like the saw.

Claire Hooper really needed to cover those breasts. I don't normally look at breasts but hers distracted from her comedy. Thought it was a good idea to have an interview of an up and coming stand up then later get them to do their material. Which was what Claire Hoopers segments were about. i think i prefer Corrine Grant and others to Claire.

Funny Photos segment? I hope it's not trying to put Rove's 'What the...?' onto the ABC.

I liked Ed Byrne's bit. It was great. Good miming skills.

Paul was great too. Abit more like he was on GNW. And good to see him singing again.

Not sure about those women twisting themselves around though. But freaky just like in a circus.

I apologise to all the Eddie Perfect fans but I hate him. He's too crude and too rude for me without even trying to lighten it up.

But he did not make fun of the aboriginals.

Note to Paul: Can we please avoid the Diana jokes? It reminds me of the over use on GNW. Don't repeat yourself. Great work though.

Amities,

SS