Mikey Robins Articles/Reviews

[Fiona Rohana]

My Barbecue

Choosing the perfect barbecue can be a confusing experience so comedian Mikey Robins simply opted for the cooker with the funniest name.
The Triple M breakfast show co-host purchased a Beefmaster Delux. With four burners of stainless steel flesh frying technology in his eastern suburbs backyard, Robins has honed his skills over the past two years of Beefmaster ownership.
"We usually barbecue at least twice a months during summer," says Robins, who is married to former actor and current business manager Laura Williams. "Often it's just me and the wife but if we're having people over it's the easiest way to make sure everyone gets fed."
Many a Sunday afternoon is whirled away with Robins holding court over the Beefmaster, beer in one hand, tongs in the other, steaks and snags sizzling away.
"The barbecue is my domain," he said. "Once the fire is lit, I am in charge. My wife is usually in the kitchen sorting the salads. She likes the fact that I am out of her way and I like the fact that I can stand around drinking beer with a teatowel around my waist.
"As soon as I get anywhere near a barbecue I turn into my dad. But I am not alone in that. I think its hilarious to watch the way blokes gravitate towards the flames and swap theories about gas versus heat beads and whether or not to pour the beer over the onions. "

Not surprisingly, Robins has his won tips for the best barbie. He recommends using one burner to keep food warm while everything else is still cooking "unless you're one of the annoying people who can time everything perfectly", closing the roasting hood when barbecuing thick pieces of meat to ensure it's cooked right through and spraying the plate with a dash of olive oil to prevent sticking. But one element of barbecuing Robins hasn't quite mastered is cleaning after use.
"I'm one of those people who never cleans the barbecue straight after using it," he confessed. "I usually leave it till the next morning or, er, the next barbecue. So last year we decided to have our first barbecue of summer and we took the lid off only to realise it hadn't been cleaned for eight months. There were new life forms growing in there.
"Of course we could have bunged them on with the sausages but some of my mates are lawyers so it's probably not a good idea."

Sun Herald, 20 Jan, 2002.

[Munchkin]

Wake-up to some fresh air

Mikey writing a screenplay

Wake-up to some fresh air
February 17 2003
The Sun-Herald



The crew . . . Mikey Robins, Peter Berner and Amanda Keller at Bondi Tratt. Photo: Fiona-Lee Quimby


Triple M's trio of funny-bone ticklers keep up the humour even when off air. Andrew West reports.



Sitting around a Bondi cafe with the Triple M breakfast team, as the scent of eggs and sausages wafts through the air, the conversation turns inevitably to Mikey Robins and his weight.

Since last August, he's lost 30kilograms, down from 150kilograms. Yes, he's exercising and, of course, he has a personal trainer. "It's Sydney. What do you think?" he insists. "My personal trainer has a personal trainer!"

Indeed, Robins has signed up to a very expensive gym, partly as an incentive to keep coming back for his money's worth. "Going to a cheap gym is like buying a McDonald's meal. You don't care if you finish or not."

But as he slathers the butter across the Bondi Tratt's thick, white toast - a veritable feast of carbohydrates - he admits to having a couple of weeks off the diet at regular intervals. "Man cannot live on protein bars alone," he declares.

Robins has tried many diets, including the famous Israeli Army diet. "That's the one in which armed soldiers surround the fridge and keep you away," says Peter Berner, who joined Robins and co-host Amanda Keller on the breakfast shift in mid-2002.


Keller says the pair try to support Robins's campaign for personal improvement, cheering him on at the weighing sessions. "But I find the venison on the rotisserie in the studio a bit much," she chuckles.

Robins, Keller and Berner can afford to kick back and laugh a bit. Their breakfast show on Triple M rates number two among the FM stations in their timeslot, not too far behind 2DAY. They have held back those old stagers such as WS-FM and the ABC's Triple J, and stared down the younger upstarts, Mix and Nova.

In the past decade, Sydney's FM music market has expanded dramatically, making it increasingly competitive. It's light years away from the 1970s, when Keller, Berner and Robins were all in their teens and tuned into 2SM, one of the rarer rock stations, for their musical nourishment.

It also pits the team against old friends, such as Adam Spencer and Wil Anderson at Triple J, Brendan Jones at WS-FM and, of course, Wendy Harmer and Greg Fleet at 2DAY. Almost all are alumni of Good News Week, either in its nascent years on the ABC or in the sharper, more cynical times on Channel Ten.

"People often ask us to compare our shows, but, duh, how do we do that?" Keller says. "We're on the air at the same time."

And they insist they feel no heat from their bosses to keep ratings high in such an environment. "I think it puts management under a lot more pressure than us," Robins says.

"Absolutely," Berner adds. "If you're going on air to compete against the others, it's a recipe for disaster because you're going to sound like try-hards. At the end of the day, if it's not going to work, management will let us know."

The major strategy in the FM breakfast ratings battle is, naturally, humour. Berner left advertising in 1988 to begin a career in stand-up comedy, while Robins knocked around Newcastle until the early 1990s, when he also took to the stage as a comic. Keller has had a more diverse media career, mainly in magazine television, including stints as a reporter on Beyond 2000 and The Midday Show with Ray Martin. They have developed a sharp eye and a cutting tongue for the worst excesses in popular culture. "Our TV is so ripe for it now because we have so much crap," Keller says.

And the crappiest being ..."Big Brother!" Berner insists. "No, no," Keller says, "it's got to be Temptation Island."

Both programs certainly made "personalities out of utterly ordinary talent". But that's not Keller's real point. "Temptation Island was the pinnacle of appalling television on a number of levels," she says. "It was morally just so all over the shop."

So she wasn't convinced that the bronzed, buffed and bikini-clad couples were there purely to test the durability of their relationships against the alluring charms of a harem of singles? "Hah! It was so spurious."

As the relationships unravelled and the bile of jilted lovers spewed forth, it became irresistible viewing for the team. Triple M had already sent a reporter to Fiji, where Temptation Island was being filmed, for the intimate details before it went to air.

"Voyeurism is the number one TV concept the world over," Berner says. "It was like watching a car accident or medical procedure on TV. You don't want to watch but you just can't help it."

Their newest target is the revamped A Current Affair on Channel Nine, now preening itself as "serious", with "journalistic integrity" and Ray Martin, the master of the soft celebrity interview, back at the helm.

"Hang on a minute," Keller says. "Look at what they covered [last week] - Michael Jackson! You're not telling me Ray wouldn't have to cover that. He's made such a big song and dance about saying 'we're hardening up' and how he's going to go after Kerry O'Brien [on ABC's The 7.30 Report]."

But Berner believes Martin will find a way to combine this renewed interest in hard-nosed political issues, especially the looming war against Iraq, with A Current Affair's traditional fare.

"You watch. He can do stories about Saddam Hussein but only if he's a dodgy builder," he says.

"And Premier Bob Carr, he'll also get a slap, but only if he's been doing some shonky mechanics."

As for their own off-air distractions, Robins says he is writing a screenplay, tentatively

- well, jokingly - titled The Island Of Lost Whores, something set on a tropical island and combining "Robinson Crusoe and Pretty Woman"; and Berner says he is trying to write the long-overdue lyrics for Chopsticks, a piano tune for learners.

"Geez, you guys are ambitious," says Keller, who has a 20-month-old son, Liam, and is pregnant again.

"I'm too busy making mashed bananas."

[Munchkin]

Mikey and Austereo part ways

Mikey and Austereo part waysBy Scott Ellis
December 8, 2003
The Sun-Herald


After nearly three years with Triple M and just over three months with the station's new afternoon show, The Whole Shebang, Mikey Robins is leaving the network.
Austereo Sydney general manager Patrick Joyce said the split had come after Robins and Triple M management were unable to come together on a number of issues, but he thanked Robins for his contribution to The Whole Shebang and Triple M and "wished him well in the next phase of his career".

The Whole Shebang will return without Robins next year, Joyce said

[Moogie]

"Best place for a laugh."
'My Favourite Room', Sunday Mail, Feb 1, 2004
By Jenny Wills

Out in his leafy courtyard, in the shadow of a clifftop gymnasium, is the place Mikey Robins likes to take his morning coffee.

It's the place you'll find him - radio ham, stand-up comedian and all-around joker - first thing in the day, boning up on the news and finding the funny side of serious business.

Mikey's own funny business, his laugh-a-minute banter on Triple M's drive show, The Whole Shebang, took a serious turn at the end of 2003 when he found himself no longer on the payroll of Triple M owner Austereo.

For a moment it looked like the pile of Christmas reading he'd stashed away for the break was going to need topping up. Then a regular sport on the Seven Network's Sunrise program and a flurry of interest from various networks and producers quickly put paid to that idea.

The courtyard is Mikey's green room, his thinking space, but more importantly it's the reason why he and wife Laura, who is also his manager, bought their terrace in Sydney's trendy eastern suburbs in the first place.

"We wandered through the house," Mikey says, "and it was nice. But the moment we saw the back yard, we thought 'This is the place'."

It's proven to be a welcome little sun-trap in winter and a cool haven in summer, with its old sandstone walls covered in moss and well-established trees framing the sky.

Big antique planter pots were an unexpected but much appreciated bequest from the previous owners.

Stone steps snake their way from the courtyard and up the cliff to the garage and gym where Mikey works out three days a week.

A guy in the public eye has got to keep up appearances.

And he's been doing a lot of that over the past few months, touring a Rat Pack-style show to regional centres with a couple of his old Triple J co-horts, Steve Abbott (aka The Sandman) and Paul McDermott.

The trio also shared the stage in Good News Week, a TV panel show that still seems to have a life of its own even off the air. "We've done live shows in the past with Good News Week, but they've been major productions. This is smaller, which means we can go to smaller places." That's meant places like Perth, Hobart and Mikey's hometown of Newcastle have been given a welcome taste of live Robins and Co.

When they're not on the road, Mikey and Laura like to gather people around them rather than going out a lot.

Making the most of a newly-installed kitchen designed and built by Laura's brother, the couple both love to cook - though never together.

"That's rule No. 1," says Laura, a former actor who gave it away to manager Mikey's career.

"Both of us being in the kitchen is a guaranteed fight."

Rule No. 2 has to do with where friends are allowed to congregate, and that's at the back of the house, spilling out into the "green room" and sparing the good furniture in the front rooms.

Mikey's core group of friends has been around since his Newcastle University days.

If not for guest appearances on The Fat during 2003, Mikey's busy schedule would have prevented him from catching up with his old buddies, among them Sandman and Tony Squires.

"A lot of my career these days seems to be in catching up with mates," Mikey says.

"I'm in a lucky position in that I work with friends."


There was also a black and white picture of Mikey sitting in his courtyard that accompanied this article.

[unfrufru]

Its in the cars guide on learning to drive

Never too old to get wheel
Mikey Robins
18jun04

Comedian Mikey Robins, 42, is the face of Land Rover. But as he writes below, it's just a pity that he can't drive one. Yet.

Australians are a nation in love with the automobile. Trust me, I know. Every time it came up in conversation I didn't drive, I was treated with the usual contempt we keep for people smugglers or folk who use leaf blowers on Sunday morning.
Not driving is seen as about as un-Australian as playing soccer with Phar Lap's heart.

People would walk away from me shaking their heads in disbelief.

It was embarrassing. Particularly because I never had a good excuse. It's not that I don't like cars. I love them. They are beautiful objects. But I just never got around to learning how to use the damn things ... until now.

That's right, at the age of 42 I decided enough is enough; it's about time I got behind the wheel.

Well that's not actually true – I have driven once or twice in my life before. When I was 17, I managed to get my mum's Honda Civic into third in a Newcastle Coles' car park.

The noise she made as we narrowly missed the Salvation Army clothing bin still haunts me to this day.

Then there was the time on Hamilton Island – a small incident involving a few too many tequilas, a golf cart and a roundabout that resulted in my wife walking back to our room while explaining to me that it "was not a good thing to get the cart up on two wheels", much to the amusement of the other guests.

You see, I think it all goes back to the dodgem cars at the Royal Easter Show. Remember me, the fat kid going the wrong way until the ride attendant jumps on the back and does the steering for him?

There's something sad about being an eighth-grader and being crudely and furiously berated by an adult who you know has had less education than you have.

So between those "happy" memories and being poor in my 20s, then getting very busy in show business about 10 years ago, I just never got around to learning to drive. Until this year when I shot an ad for Land Rover.

The Land Rover folk were lovely. After they laughed at me a bit behind my back I'm sure, they suggested I go for my licence and dangled a carrot of a loan of a car if I passed. My wife said yes, so next thing I knew I was studying up on the road rules like an over-excited 17-year-old.

You see, for people of my generation, it's a little harder to get your licence now than it was in our day.

These days, you have to pass the knowledge exam before you get your L-plates. And wasn't it fun? Me and every spotty Herbert up at the RTA sitting behind computers trying to get the rules to roundabouts correct.

Not only was I more than twice the age of every one around me but having had the good fortune of having made a few telly shows over the years, the little buggers all knew who I was.

Oh yeah, old Uncle Mikey was the cause of much giggling that day. But at least I passed. I even had the maturity not to go "in your face" to the poor kid next to me who failed. Even though deep down inside, I really, really wanted to.

Next, it was time to meet my instructor, Joseph, a man of infinite wisdom and patience. You see, there is something very physically different between learning to drive at 42 and doing the same at 17.

At 17, you are indestructible, you live on junk food, you've never had a hangover, hell, you've never even said to a doctor "nothing wrong, just thought I'd pop in for a check-up".

By 42, you are already more than fully aware of your own mortality. Learning to drive for the young is a simple rite of passage; for the older bloke, it's like learning to fly a jet fighter into battle.

Which I suppose can make one err a little on the overly cautious side. I'm certain I was the only student that day to whom Joseph kept saying "you can go a bit faster if you want to mate".

Then there was the issue of racking up the 50-odd hours of driving required before I can take my test. There was no way I was going to fork out for 50 paid lessons and seeing as my parents are now gone, I was in the odd situation of having to ask my wife if she'd take me out for driving lessons.

Now there's a question you don't see in the wedding vows. But she's been great, apart from the fact that she constantly narrates the action up ahead, as in "Okay, set of lights coming up, we're going to make a right turn, there's that silver car coming the other way".

Apparently, it's not for my benefit. She claims it keeps her calm, plus I'm certain she's leaving tiny little grip marks in the passenger door handle. She even let me take the car for a spin to the Blue Mountains the other day.

And hell, I have to admit weaving through the bends among that beautiful scenery and feeling the car respond to each small change I made in acceleration, braking and steering, I was kicking myself.

Why the hell didn't I do this 20 years ago. I smiled and could have sworn I saw in the rear view mirror, the ghost of a dodgem car attendant gently falling off the back of the car and swearing his head off.

The Daily Telegraph

[unfrufru]

BIG man of Aussie comedy Mikey Robins will unveil his newly trim bod when he hits the stage at The Basement tomorrow for a comedy gig to raise money for The Smith Family. Robins has shed 20kg since a stomach stapling operation four weeks ago. Tickets to the two-night giggle-fest, starring 17 comedians including Libbi Gorr, Corinne Grant and Tom Gleeson are still available on 92512797.

[Leishpod]

in a related note - Tripod are on 702 and just said they'll be playing at this gig tonight.

[unfrufru]

Breakfast lightens up
Sue Javes
April 9, 2007


Mojo found ... (clockwise from bottom) Vega's Angela Catterns, Tony Squires, Mikey Robins and Rebecca Wilson.


He is the first to admit he's a little obsessed with clothes at the moment. At a recent publicity shoot for Vega 95.3, Mikey Robins squabbled with long-time mate and on-air partner Tony Squires over who should have first dibs on the best shirt. Hosting a fashion parade for charity the other week, he delighted the audience by briefly taking to the catwalk to show off his new physique. Laura, his wife of eight years, says he's spending more money on clothes than he used to spend on lunches.

"You can't blame me," he says with an infectious grin. "I've been locked out of the candy store for 20 years." Even when discussing clothes he still thinks food. Old habits die hard. He's had to throw out half-an-hour of fat jokes from his stand-up routine.
Anyone who reads the social pages will have seen the new Robins - 60 kilograms lighter, minus the dark bags under his eyes, glowing with good health and looking understandably pleased with himself. But the dramatic weight loss has meant a lot more than wearing fashionable clothes. He's suddenly bringing more energy and creativity to his work, which he'll need to help boost Vega's breakfast program as it slowly edges into a competitive position for the first time since the FM station began.
Robins weighed 147 kilograms before having lap-band surgery a year ago. "I realised if I didn't do something I was going to be seriously unwell in a few years," he says. "I was staring down the barrel of being a diabetic with high blood pressure and cholesterol and facing a premature death."
A spin-off from the weight loss and regular exercise program has been a decent night's sleep. Robins was belatedly diagnosed with sleep apnoea a couple of years ago. What he assumed was tiredness from years of breakfast radio on Triple J and Triple M was oxygen and sleep deprivation. His doctor said he was averaging 45 minutes sleep a night. Since the weight loss, the apnoea has disappeared and he's sleeping seven hours a night.
"I feel I have got my old powers back," he says. "I no longer have that wet sock in the front of my head. I think I'm back to being as quick-witted as I was 10 years ago, so it is a very happy time to be on air."
Robins joined Squires, Angela Catterns and Rebecca Wilson on the breakfast shift at the start of the year. A four-person team for a relatively small audience seemed like overkill at the time but there's no doubt Robins's humour and wit have been a positive addition. There are signs that Sydney listeners are slowly taking to Vega. The station has added 80,000 listeners during the past six months to claim an audience of 350,000 and more people in the 40 to 54 age bracket are listening to Vega than 2UE.
"It reminds me of when I started at Triple J with Helen Razer," Robins says. "People think Helen and I and Angela and Debbie Spillane were an overnight success on Triple J but it took us four years to get a healthy set of numbers. There is the same vibe here at Vega. Things are on the move and it's the greatest feeling in the world to be part of that growth process."
Robins has chosen to appear on the ABC's Australian Story later this year rather than write a book about his weight loss. "I didnt want to do a minor-celebrity-loses-weight story with a picture of me holding out an old pair of pants," he says. "I'm not a sudden expert on dieting. All I can tell people is this was my journey and this is how it has changed my life."

[unfrufru]

mikey as elvis,

worth it for the photo

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...006002,00.html