Charles Firth
Encyclopedia
Charles Henry Burgmann Firth is an Australia
n comedian
, best known as a member of The Chaser
productions CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything
. He is the brother of Verity Firth
who was a Minister for the Labor Government of New South Wales.
, where along with Chaser colleagues Dominic Knight
and Chas Licciardello
he ran the satirical school magazine The Tiger.
where he completed an Arts degree, edited the Honi Soit
student newspaper, and in 1997 broke through a plate glass window during a University Senate meeting to protest the introduction of full fee paying places at the university. While attending Charles was also the subject of a reality-TV
style documentary called Uni, by film-maker Simon Target
. centred around the lives of students at the University of Sydney
. Fellow Chaser Andrew Hansen
was also a subject. It was aired on the ABC
in 1996.
On CNNNN, broadcast in 2003 and 2004, he played a role as host of the fictional segment "The Firth Factor", parodying journalistic styles used by the American Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly
's prime time show The O'Reilly Factor
.
During the 2004 Australian federal election (during production of The Chaser Decides) an eBay
user of the name "Charles Firth" was seen selling their vote. This segment was never aired.
By 2006, Firth had moved to the United States
. He periodically appeared on The Chaser's War on Everything
in a segment about American culture entitled "Firth in the USA". This segment serves to highlight American ignorance of Australia and the world in general. His first book, American Hoax, a multi-character (including ad-man Bertrand Newton
) journey, was released in November 2006.
Firth went to Adelaide
in July 2007 to present at the Festival of Ideas
with fellow Chaser Julian Morrow
, where his performance included asking the audience to SMS
their questions to him, throwing lollies to the audience, and "defacing" three Wikipedia
articles.
Firth was working on a new weekly print magazine and news website, which was launched in mid-August 2007 called The Manic Times. The newspaper has since ceased production and that company is now called "Manic Studios" producing web video for the Australian, and more recently, American Union movements in partnership with The Republic. Charles remains actively involved as a writer, performer and producer.
He generated controversy among the Westboro Baptist Church
when he began to openly "flirt" with Fred Phelps
's son while interviewing him for The Chaser's War on Everything
at a Westboro picket. As Phelps junior began to walk away, Firth followed him and continued to openly "flirt" with him. The rest of the picketers began to call him a "fag-ass pervert", but he persistently continued.
Firth is married to Amanda Tattersall, a community organiser and expert on building coalitions between unions and community organisations. They have a 1½ year old son together, named Hartley.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, best known as a member of The Chaser
The Chaser
The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...
productions CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
. He is the brother of Verity Firth
Verity Firth
Verity Helen Firth is the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Education Foundation in Australia and a former politician....
who was a Minister for the Labor Government of New South Wales.
Early years
He attended Sydney Grammar SchoolSydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, where along with Chaser colleagues Dominic Knight
Dominic Knight
Dominic Sebastian Knight is an Australian comedy writer, best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy group The Chaser, as well as being an independent writer and former blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald...
and Chas Licciardello
Chas Licciardello
Chas John Licciardello is a comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
he ran the satirical school magazine The Tiger.
Later years
Firth went on to attend the University of SydneyUniversity of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
where he completed an Arts degree, edited the Honi Soit
Honi Soit
Honi Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney, first published in 1929 and produced by an elected editorial team as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council...
student newspaper, and in 1997 broke through a plate glass window during a University Senate meeting to protest the introduction of full fee paying places at the university. While attending Charles was also the subject of a reality-TV
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
style documentary called Uni, by film-maker Simon Target
Simon Target
Simon Target is a British/Australian film-maker. He is best known for a series of self-filmed television documentaries he made for The Australian Broadcasting Corporation which include King's School , Flight for Life , The Academy , and...
. centred around the lives of students at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. Fellow Chaser Andrew Hansen
Andrew Hansen
Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
was also a subject. It was aired on the ABC
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
in 1996.
On CNNNN, broadcast in 2003 and 2004, he played a role as host of the fictional segment "The Firth Factor", parodying journalistic styles used by the American Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
's prime time show The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...
.
During the 2004 Australian federal election (during production of The Chaser Decides) an eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
user of the name "Charles Firth" was seen selling their vote. This segment was never aired.
By 2006, Firth had moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He periodically appeared on The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
in a segment about American culture entitled "Firth in the USA". This segment serves to highlight American ignorance of Australia and the world in general. His first book, American Hoax, a multi-character (including ad-man Bertrand Newton
Bertrand Newton
Bertrand Newton is a fictitious character created by Charles Firth for his satirical book American Hoax. In this book Newton , is described as the founder the 527 political action committee AdBack...
) journey, was released in November 2006.
Firth went to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in July 2007 to present at the Festival of Ideas
Adelaide Festival of Ideas
The Adelaide Festival of Ideas has been held every two years since 1999 over a period of three or four days in October at venues throughout Adelaide in the alternate year to the long-established Adelaide Festival of Arts....
with fellow Chaser Julian Morrow
Julian Morrow
Julian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser...
, where his performance included asking the audience to SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
their questions to him, throwing lollies to the audience, and "defacing" three Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
articles.
Firth was working on a new weekly print magazine and news website, which was launched in mid-August 2007 called The Manic Times. The newspaper has since ceased production and that company is now called "Manic Studios" producing web video for the Australian, and more recently, American Union movements in partnership with The Republic. Charles remains actively involved as a writer, performer and producer.
He generated controversy among the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...
when he began to openly "flirt" with Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. is an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church , an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas...
's son while interviewing him for The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
at a Westboro picket. As Phelps junior began to walk away, Firth followed him and continued to openly "flirt" with him. The rest of the picketers began to call him a "fag-ass pervert", but he persistently continued.
Firth is married to Amanda Tattersall, a community organiser and expert on building coalitions between unions and community organisations. They have a 1½ year old son together, named Hartley.
Other work and guest appearances
- In 2008, Firth created a one-hour television special for SBS on the then up-and-coming US election, titled 'Mr. Firth Goes To Washington'. It aired on Tuesday, 4 November at 8:30pm. A blog was also posted for this Mockumentary at the SBS website.
- Firth, along with fellow Chaser comedians, appears regularly on ABC Local RadioABC Local RadioABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites...
. - Firth co-hosted Episode 50 – "The Chaser Special" – of the Macquarie Radio NetworkMacquarie Radio NetworkMacquarie Radio Network is the name of the company that owns and operates 2GB and 2CH in Sydney and MTR 1377 in Melbourne. It is a publicly listed company, majority owned by John Singleton. The Chief Executive is Angela Clarke....
's podcast "Radio Ha Ha" on 10 November 2006. - Outtakes from this episode were run in Episode 51 – "The Belated 50th Episode Special" the following week, on 17 November 2006