An old Paul article Wednesday, 03-Jun-98 01:23:04
203.17.154.18 writes: Apologies if this has been posted before but I just found this Uni interview article through a link at www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/4165/ and I thought you might enjoy it.
A university newspaper in Sydney, 1997
Affable although cynical, charismatic, complacent and suave, Paul McDermott is as smooth offstage as he is on. The ex-Doug Anthony Allstar believes fun lies in Tupperware parties, describes the monarchy as mentally unhinged and confesses to knocking out George Michael.
Sitting in an outside courtyard of the ABC studios, Paul tells of how his time as a petty criminal led him to join the Allstars.
"I needed some big canvases for my last year of art school and I couldn't afford to buy them, so I would steal them from the bins of a nearby theatre. I though thievery wasn't a good way to go for my last year.
At the time, the Allstars (Tim and Richard) were busking and making more money than waiters. So I thought it would be easier to run around and steal money from people on the streets rather than stealing canvases."
Paul spent almost a decade in the three man team that made up The Doug Anthony Allstars. The Allstars were undoubtedly one of the most successful comedy troupes Australia has produced and their popularity reigned in Britain.
Yet Paul didn't seem interested in talking about the Allstars.
"We broke up. It was as simple as that. Richard and I wanted to keep working in Britain and Tim had responsibilities back home. We got to the point where we had done all we could in Australia."
Paul made it clear that there won't be a DAAS reunion.
"Comedy is not a thing you can come back to. If it was like the Stones and people made love to a certain joke or if they met the first love of their life listening to the "Necrophilia" song, then maybe. Or if "I f--- Dogs" had special significance for them, then sure. Comedy doesn't bring back warm memories of times passed. For the Allstars to reunite, it would be just tragic."
After the DAAS called it a day, Paul stayed in Britain working on cable TV. When he returned to Australia, he created a live theatre show, Mosh. Last year the director of Mosh approached Paul with the suggestion of Good News Week.
"Good New Week is a great programme in that there is no other show at the moment where people have to look at contemporary issues or events and be spontaneous."
It was through Good News Week that Paul met Mikey Robins. Paul and Mikey are now the proverbial duo that wake the nation every morning with the Triple J Breakfast Show.
"Mikey is fairly amiable; he's very professional and doesn't have any dramatic mood swings. You can do something ridiculous and go out on a limb and he'll be there to catch you if you stumble. Radio's a weird thing, you just talk. You make absurd observations and you hope that someone out there knows what you're talking about."
The mention of the ABC budget cuts is a passionate area for Paul;
"Without something like the ABC you don't have the follow through of performers or comedians. I mean, no one on commercial TV would have been as adventurous as the ABC to take on something like Frontline. No one would have touched Roy and HG. Who else would employ Stuart Littlemore, for godsake?"
In his student days, Paul seized the opportunity to be a radical. "We used to protest at Art school and there was nothing to protest about in those days, in comparison to today. We would protest about a $5 library charge. Imagine how much fun it would have been in Paris in the student riots? There's fun. It's time to actually get out there and carry a placard."
After spending over ten years in the entertainment industry, Paul still doesn't know what he wants to do; "I just don't want to be a tax consultant. I've never had to have a normal job, and I've done quite well for myself. There's an accepted social agenda that we are told we have to adhere to. We need this to keep the wheels of society functioning. You don't have to though. You can drop out and go to Nimbin and smoke whatever hideous plant you can imagine, have Tupperware parties, go surfin', campout, have FUN!
"We went through our hippy trippy days in the 60's and 70's, but by the 80's there was this new conservatism. Institutions like universities should be a place to learn and they're not that. There's this idea that you have to get a job out of a uni, and that's the prime motivation for being there. The prime motivation should be to drink and have sex and learn about life. When you are not doing these things, then study."
Paul lit up a cigarette and paused to contemplate for a moment. "I have a confession that I have never admitted publicly." Years ago when George Michael toured Australia he played in a club called Inflation. Paul was there with a friend, dancing at the time George Michael and his entire entourage came down stairs.
"I was totally oblivious to it for reasons I don't need to go into. George was there with a stunning Asian girl, dancing right next to us. I was a bit fritzed in the skull and at the time I was wearing these motorcycle dispatch rider boots from the 30's that came right up to the knees. They were hog nail boots, solid blood red leather. To walk in them was quite difficult because they were so heavy, like moon boots. They had big horseshoe metal around the heel and the toe with nails all the way through. What would happen was when I was dancing the boots would often get a bit of movement of their own, the momentum would carry them around."
Paul demonstrated some grooving moves in his seat.
"Anyway I was dancing and suddenly I connected with something hard but soft. I didn't know what I had done until I looked down and saw George Michael on the dance floor. I was thinking 'Oh f---, I did that' and just then four huge bouncers came for me. They were just about to lay their hands on me and George was saying 'No, no, no, he's OK. He didn't mean to.' I thought to myself that I'm one of the few people to down George Michael and get away with it. My biggest regret is that I didn't do it with intention, if only it had been a forethought."
Paul McDermott is charismatically quirky. He is sarcastic, cynical but incessantly witty. The politically incorrect ex-Doug Anthony Allstar describes the monarchy as "inbred and incestuous and mentally unhinged", and says that "we're just waiting for all the old folks to fall off - the ones who actually love the monarchy. Oh I'm dead."
Rushing off to prepare with Mikey for the next morning's show, he ironically adds "Apart from that it's all a happy lovely world. Everything's beautiful."
- Alex Smith
Ziyal posted this to the MOSH!!
board.
Sourced from Caroline's
webpage, 3 June 1998.