.gif)
Paul McDermott (comedian)
Encyclopedia
Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week
which airs in Australia on Network Ten
. As a comedian, he is best known both for Good News Week and for his role as a member of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars
, which disbanded in 1994; he has also performed individually and as a part of GUD
. He has frequently appeared at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
and taken part in its two major televised productions, the Comedy Festival Gala and the Great Debate. He has also hosted two other ABC
programs and briefly featured on Triple J
as a morning radio presenter between 1996 and 1997.
McDermott is a published author, having released several books both in collaboration with the Doug Anthony All Stars and individually. He has written as a columnist for a number of Australian newspapers and a selection of his columns have been compiled into a book, The Forgetting of Wisdom. He has also written and illustrated two storybooks, both of which have been adapted into short films with McDermott scripting, directing, performing and painting all of the animations.
, where he describes himself as having been painfully shy and a "bit of a loner". After completing his ACT Year 12 Certificate at Dickson College
, he attended the Canberra School of Art with the intention of becoming an artist. He describes painting as his first love, and still considers his final year piece at art school to be his finest work. Indeed, he only started performing at the age of 25 because he needed money to buy canvases. "It was either that or waiting on tables and I thought I'd soon get pissed off with people doing that," he says. Privately, McDermott maintains his interest in art through painting, drawing and hand-crafting books.
McDermott is a self-described atheist who says that his political leanings lie somewhere between ultra-conservative and the radical left "depending on the time of day". He has criticised the war on drugs
and society's tendency to ignore the large drug subculture
that involves people of all ages. "It's out there and it happens, but there's still a fear of talking about it," he says. "In cities like Manchester, with unemployment problems, there are no-alcohol venues where five thousand people under the age of sixteen are eccy'd off their heads every Saturday night."
He has one child, Xavier, with his partner Melissa Lyne.
and Richard Fidler
of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS). McDermott was asked to join the group when the third member, Robert Piper, left due to other commitments. His primary reason for joining, he says, was monetary: "I'd been stealing canvas from the bins around the art school." Initially busking and performing live in clubs, with McDermott writing the majority of their material and songs, DAAS achieved success at the 1986 Adelaide Fringe Festival and subsequently travelled to Britain for the Edinburgh Fringe
festival, where they were nominated for the Perrier Award. They toured both nationally and internationally, appearing on British television and playing at the opening of the Barcelona Olympics
. After initially struggling to gain success in Australia, in 1989 DAAS was picked up to perform on the ABC show The Big Gig
, on which they became a popular feature. They appeared frequently on the show until 1991, when the group premiered their own series on the ABC, DAAS Kapital
, which ran for two seasons. McDermott says that he liked performing with DAAS because it allowed him to bring together a range of his interests—he got to write, perform, sing, create costumes and paint backdrops.
The group split up in 1995 after a final farewell tour of Australia. Rumours of a falling out among the trio persisted for many years, but all three maintained that they had parted on good terms and that it had simply been time to move on, as they had wanted to pursue careers in different directions. Ferguson has since revealed that the break-up was in large part due to his being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
in 1995. In the two years following the break-up of DAAS, McDermott wrote two film scripts and the stage show MOSH!. He says that he was not particularly interested in returning to comedy, which he came to regard as an "aberration, something that had been good to do for eight years but now it was over," until in 1996 he was recruited as host of the satirical news-based quiz show Good News Week.
, which aired on the ABC from 1996 to 1998, and on Network Ten from 1999 to 2000 and then returned in 2008 for a new series. He hosted the AFI awards
in 2002, and in 2004 and 2005 presented the ABC show Strictly Dancing
. McDermott reunited with Robinson in 2007 when he was named host of a new ABC variety program, The Sideshow
, a show described as a successor to The Big Gig. It premiered on 21 April 2007, and quickly built a strong cult audience. However, due in part to poor programming, the show did not rate well and was cancelled after its initial run of 26 episodes. McDermott says he was saddened by The Sideshows cancellation as he believed it was an excellent venue for performers of alternative work which would have achieved ratings success if it had been allowed to continue.
, it features two teams, with two permanent captains and four guests, competing to answer questions based on recent news events. McDermott opens each show with a humorous monologue
based on the news on the week and is responsible for posing questions and awarding points to teams. "I'm sort of judge, jury and executioner," he says of his role. The show premiered on the ABC, but moved to Network Ten in 1999.
The ABC was initially apprehensive about Robinson's choice of McDermott as host. He had dreadlocks
at the time, and was best known for the crude, aggressive "bad boy" character he had played in the Doug Anthony All Stars, which many tended to confuse with his actual personality. In addition, it was doubted that he was capable of ad libbing and speaking well, as in past interviews he had usually allowed his fellow band members to do most of the talking. McDermott cut off his dreadlocks for the show and succeeded in broadening his appeal by showing a gentler, more charming side as host. He has said that although he feels there are still elements of his more aggressive character in Good News Week, they are "toned down... I've got to be the generous host now, spin-the-wheel sort of thing. I'm basing myself on Mike Brady now. I'm the disciplinarian."
He would regularly sing on the program, particularly on Good News Weekend and GNW Night Lite, including some of his own original songs. In one episode, McDermott performed the self-penned "Shut Up/Kiss Me" as a duet with Fiona Horne
. It was met with such a warm reception from viewers that it was eventually released as a single. Some of his other musical performances from the series are featured on the CD Good News Week Tapes Volume 2, and a collection of his monologues from the start of the show appear on Good News Week Tapes Volume 1.
McDermott expressed his relief when the show was cancelled in 2000, saying that he could not have maintained the relentless production schedule for much longer. "I'm just so tired, I don't feel I have been human for five years," he said. Network Ten had initially intended only to bring back Good News Week as a one-off special, but decided to expand it after the short supply of US shows resulting from the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
caused the network to take an interest in developing more local programs. The revived series premiered on 11 February 2008 with McDermott reprising his role as host.
In 2010, McDermott was nominated for a Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television
.
, the AWB scandal
, torture
and the War on Terror
.
In 1995 he wrote, directed and performed in a stage show entitled MOSH!, which he says is based on "my drug-addled observations when I've been abusing substances". MOSH! received a range of responses; it won the award for best fringe show at the Adelaide festival and was described by one reviewer as "often hilarious", but was savaged by other critics as being "gratuitously offensive". Columbia Artists
expressed interest in the show, but after nearly a decade of international travel with the Doug Anthony All Stars, McDermott did not wish to go to New York to do an off-Broadway show.
He reappeared in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 2002 with Cameron Bruce and Mick Moriarty in a music-based comedy trio called GUD
. The group uses topical humour in its music; their act includes songs about Osama bin Laden
, the transportation of live animal stock and what they describe as contemporary Australian "folk heroes" such as Chopper Read
, Rene Rivkin
and convicted serial killer
Ivan Milat
. McDermott says that GUD is in a similar vein to the Doug Anthony All Stars in that it revolves around music, comedy and the inter-relationships between the band members onstage. According to McDermott, the group is named GUD in mockery of the way American people pronounce the word "god", "because that's who Americans thank at awards ceremonies, and I thought someone should be taking the credit." Their 2003 show, "GUD Ugh
", won The Age
Critic's Choice Award for best Australian show of the festival.
In 2002, he also performed a solo stand-up show entitled Comedyoscopy, a deconstruction of comedy, comedic techniques and what makes people laugh. He has frequently participated in the televised Comedy Festival Gala, appearing in 2008 as its host, and has often captained one of the two competing teams in the festival's Great Debate since his first debate appearance in 1994.
McDermott has written as a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald
, The Sun-Herald
, The Weekend Australian and The Age
. In late 2000, a selection of his columns were published in his first solo book, The Forgetting of Wisdom. Prior to this, he had coauthored books with the Doug Anthony All Stars (Book, DAAS Kapital and Trip) and the writers of Good News Week (Good News Week Books One and Two).
He has also written and illustrated two children's books, The Scree and The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, both of which have been adapted into short films with McDermott scripting, directing, performing and painting all of the animations. McDermott describes the stories as "little Gothic
, dark, morality tales" which draw on the dark children's tales he consumed during his own childhood, such as the Brothers Grimm
's fairy tales. The 2004 film adaptation of The Scree won Best Film at the 2005 Flickerfest
International Film Festival and was nominated for an AFI Award
for Best Short Fiction Film, while The Girl Who Swallowed Bees (2007) won the AFI Award for Best Short Animation. McDermott says he enjoys filmmaking because it brings together all of his skills. He reportedly has plans to work on a third short film, entitled Crab Boy and the Girl in the Shell, and has expressed an interest in moving into feature films. He also voiced characters in the 2009 short film Tegan the Vegan
.
McDermott has also had roles in Australian film, musical theatre and radio. In 2002, he appeared in the Australian theatre production of The Witches of Eastwick
in the role of Darryl Van Horne. Despite having sworn he would never do a musical, McDermott says he was interested in the show because "it was still forming, still shaping. It's more challenging than doing a musical that's already in place." He has also had small acting roles in several Australian films, including that of the band manager in The Night We Called It a Day
and Trevor in the TV miniseries Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story. Between 1996 and 1997 he co-hosted the breakfast radio program on Triple J with Mikey Robins
, Steve Abbott and later Jen Oldershaw
.
Good News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
which airs in Australia on Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
. As a comedian, he is best known both for Good News Week and for his role as a member of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars
Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...
, which disbanded in 1994; he has also performed individually and as a part of GUD
GUD (band)
GUD is an Australian comedic music-based trio composed of Paul McDermott, previously of the Doug Anthony All Stars, former Gadflys guitarist Mick Moriarty, and Club Luna Band keyboard player Cameron Bruce...
. He has frequently appeared at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
and taken part in its two major televised productions, the Comedy Festival Gala and the Great Debate. He has also hosted two other 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....
programs and briefly featured on Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
as a morning radio presenter between 1996 and 1997.
McDermott is a published author, having released several books both in collaboration with the Doug Anthony All Stars and individually. He has written as a columnist for a number of Australian newspapers and a selection of his columns have been compiled into a book, The Forgetting of Wisdom. He has also written and illustrated two storybooks, both of which have been adapted into short films with McDermott scripting, directing, performing and painting all of the animations.
Personal life
McDermott was born in Adelaide, a fraternal twin and one of six children in a Catholic family. His father, John, was a senior public servant and his mother, Betty, a home manager. The family moved to Canberra when McDermott was three. He attended Marist College CanberraMarist College Canberra
Marist College Canberra is an all-boys independent Catholic school school founded in 1968. The college is situated on 15 hectares and located in the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra. The college provides boys from years 4-12 with a well-rounded education. Founded by Marist Brothers, it...
, where he describes himself as having been painfully shy and a "bit of a loner". After completing his ACT Year 12 Certificate at Dickson College
Dickson College
Dickson College is a two-year secondary college located in the Canberra suburb of Dickson, Australian Capital Territory. It was created in 1976 when Dickson High School closed....
, he attended the Canberra School of Art with the intention of becoming an artist. He describes painting as his first love, and still considers his final year piece at art school to be his finest work. Indeed, he only started performing at the age of 25 because he needed money to buy canvases. "It was either that or waiting on tables and I thought I'd soon get pissed off with people doing that," he says. Privately, McDermott maintains his interest in art through painting, drawing and hand-crafting books.
McDermott is a self-described atheist who says that his political leanings lie somewhere between ultra-conservative and the radical left "depending on the time of day". He has criticised the war on drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
and society's tendency to ignore the large drug subculture
Drug subculture
Drug subcultures are examples of countercultures, which are primarily defined by recreational drug use.Drug subcultures are groups of people united by a common understanding of the meaning and value of the incorporation into one's life of the drug in question...
that involves people of all ages. "It's out there and it happens, but there's still a fear of talking about it," he says. "In cities like Manchester, with unemployment problems, there are no-alcohol venues where five thousand people under the age of sixteen are eccy'd off their heads every Saturday night."
He has one child, Xavier, with his partner Melissa Lyne.
Doug Anthony All Stars
McDermott began busking in 1985, which he says equipped him with useful experience and the ability to cope with most situations when he later started performing in clubs. He joined a group called Gigantic Fly which performed at a new Canberra club called Cafe Boom Boom. It was here that he got to know Tim FergusonTim Ferguson
Timothy Dorcen Langbene "Tim" Ferguson is an Australian comedian and television presenter.- Background :...
and Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler is a well-known Australian Republican and Australian ABC TV and radio presenter. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars , an Australian musical comedy group also comprising Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott...
of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS). McDermott was asked to join the group when the third member, Robert Piper, left due to other commitments. His primary reason for joining, he says, was monetary: "I'd been stealing canvas from the bins around the art school." Initially busking and performing live in clubs, with McDermott writing the majority of their material and songs, DAAS achieved success at the 1986 Adelaide Fringe Festival and subsequently travelled to Britain for the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...
festival, where they were nominated for the Perrier Award. They toured both nationally and internationally, appearing on British television and playing at the opening of the Barcelona Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
. After initially struggling to gain success in Australia, in 1989 DAAS was picked up to perform on the ABC show The Big Gig
The Big Gig
The Big Gig was a popular Australian television comedy series based on the British TV series Saturday Live. It was produced and broadcast by the ABC in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was produced and directed by Ted Robinson, who started his career as the director of the second series of the...
, on which they became a popular feature. They appeared frequently on the show until 1991, when the group premiered their own series on the ABC, DAAS Kapital
DAAS Kapital
DAAS Kapital was an Australian television comedy series written and performed by comedy trio the Doug Anthony All Stars. The show starred Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler, along with Flacco, Michael Petroni, Bob Downe and Khym Lam....
, which ran for two seasons. McDermott says that he liked performing with DAAS because it allowed him to bring together a range of his interests—he got to write, perform, sing, create costumes and paint backdrops.
The group split up in 1995 after a final farewell tour of Australia. Rumours of a falling out among the trio persisted for many years, but all three maintained that they had parted on good terms and that it had simply been time to move on, as they had wanted to pursue careers in different directions. Ferguson has since revealed that the break-up was in large part due to his being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
in 1995. In the two years following the break-up of DAAS, McDermott wrote two film scripts and the stage show MOSH!. He says that he was not particularly interested in returning to comedy, which he came to regard as an "aberration, something that had been good to do for eight years but now it was over," until in 1996 he was recruited as host of the satirical news-based quiz show Good News Week.
Television career
In 1996, McDermott was recruited by director Ted Robinson, with whom he had previously worked on The Big Gig, to host Good News WeekGood News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
, which aired on the ABC from 1996 to 1998, and on Network Ten from 1999 to 2000 and then returned in 2008 for a new series. He hosted the AFI awards
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
in 2002, and in 2004 and 2005 presented the ABC show Strictly Dancing
Strictly Dancing
Strictly Dancing is an Australian television show that aired between 2004 and 2005 on ABC TV. Hosted by Paul McDermott, the show is a form of dance competition, with each episode featuring four dance couples from around Australia and New Zealand. The competition has three rounds, each consisting of...
. McDermott reunited with Robinson in 2007 when he was named host of a new ABC variety program, The Sideshow
The Sideshow
The Sideshow was an Australian television programme that was broadcast on ABC TV in 2007. The show was a mixture of stand-up comedy, sketches, live music, circus stunts, cabaret and burlesque. The hour long show was hosted by Paul McDermott...
, a show described as a successor to The Big Gig. It premiered on 21 April 2007, and quickly built a strong cult audience. However, due in part to poor programming, the show did not rate well and was cancelled after its initial run of 26 episodes. McDermott says he was saddened by The Sideshows cancellation as he believed it was an excellent venue for performers of alternative work which would have achieved ratings success if it had been allowed to continue.
Good News Week
McDermott hosted Good News Week from 1996 until its cancellation in 2000, as well as its two spinoffs, Good News Weekend (1998) and GNW Night Lite (1999), and reprised this role when the series returned in 2008. A comedic quiz show with a similar format to that of the British program Have I Got News for YouHave I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, it features two teams, with two permanent captains and four guests, competing to answer questions based on recent news events. McDermott opens each show with a humorous monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
based on the news on the week and is responsible for posing questions and awarding points to teams. "I'm sort of judge, jury and executioner," he says of his role. The show premiered on the ABC, but moved to Network Ten in 1999.
Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks, also called locks, a ras, dreads, "rasta" or Jata , are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as backcombing...
at the time, and was best known for the crude, aggressive "bad boy" character he had played in the Doug Anthony All Stars, which many tended to confuse with his actual personality. In addition, it was doubted that he was capable of ad libbing and speaking well, as in past interviews he had usually allowed his fellow band members to do most of the talking. McDermott cut off his dreadlocks for the show and succeeded in broadening his appeal by showing a gentler, more charming side as host. He has said that although he feels there are still elements of his more aggressive character in Good News Week, they are "toned down... I've got to be the generous host now, spin-the-wheel sort of thing. I'm basing myself on Mike Brady now. I'm the disciplinarian."
He would regularly sing on the program, particularly on Good News Weekend and GNW Night Lite, including some of his own original songs. In one episode, McDermott performed the self-penned "Shut Up/Kiss Me" as a duet with Fiona Horne
Fiona Horne
Fiona Horne is an Australian singer, rock musician, radio and television personality, actress and author. She is famous for her public promotion of Witchcraft and as the singer in Australian band Def FX...
. It was met with such a warm reception from viewers that it was eventually released as a single. Some of his other musical performances from the series are featured on the CD Good News Week Tapes Volume 2, and a collection of his monologues from the start of the show appear on Good News Week Tapes Volume 1.
McDermott expressed his relief when the show was cancelled in 2000, saying that he could not have maintained the relentless production schedule for much longer. "I'm just so tired, I don't feel I have been human for five years," he said. Network Ten had initially intended only to bring back Good News Week as a one-off special, but decided to expand it after the short supply of US shows resulting from the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
caused the network to take an interest in developing more local programs. The revived series premiered on 11 February 2008 with McDermott reprising his role as host.
In 2010, McDermott was nominated for a Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television
Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television
The Gold Logie Award has been awarded annually to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the TV Week Logie Awards since 1960...
.
Live comedy
McDermott describes his performance style as "in your face and unapologetic, grotesque, offensive, loud. But it's all essentially me with the amp turned up—I don't own that many great acting skills." He has stated that he does not consider any subject out of bounds in terms of comedy, which is "one of [his] problems". "I honestly believe you can make a joke about anything if you have something to say," he says. "It really depends on the motivation... The moral objective, I suppose." He is interested in topical humour and targets issues about which he feels passionately, including the detainment of David HicksDavid Hicks
David Matthew Hicks is an Australian who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism...
, the AWB scandal
Cole Inquiry
The Cole Inquiry, formally the Inquiry into certain Australian companies in relation to the UN Oil-For-Food Programme was a Royal Commission set up by the Government of Australia in November 2005...
, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
and the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
.
In 1995 he wrote, directed and performed in a stage show entitled MOSH!, which he says is based on "my drug-addled observations when I've been abusing substances". MOSH! received a range of responses; it won the award for best fringe show at the Adelaide festival and was described by one reviewer as "often hilarious", but was savaged by other critics as being "gratuitously offensive". Columbia Artists
Columbia Artists Management
Columbia Artists Management is an international leader in managing the careers and touring activities of the world's most prominent performing artists and institutions.Led by Chairman and CEO Ronald A...
expressed interest in the show, but after nearly a decade of international travel with the Doug Anthony All Stars, McDermott did not wish to go to New York to do an off-Broadway show.
He reappeared in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 2002 with Cameron Bruce and Mick Moriarty in a music-based comedy trio called GUD
GUD (band)
GUD is an Australian comedic music-based trio composed of Paul McDermott, previously of the Doug Anthony All Stars, former Gadflys guitarist Mick Moriarty, and Club Luna Band keyboard player Cameron Bruce...
. The group uses topical humour in its music; their act includes songs about Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, the transportation of live animal stock and what they describe as contemporary Australian "folk heroes" such as Chopper Read
Chopper Read
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is an Australian ex-criminal, who wrote a series of semi-autobiographical and fictional crime novels. The 2000 film Chopper was based on his life.-Early life:...
, Rene Rivkin
Rene Rivkin
Rene Rivkin was an Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many years until his death in 2005.-Early life:...
and convicted serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Ivan Milat
Ivan Milat
Ivan Milat-Luketa was a Croatian painter and sculptor. He is a painter of the modern era in Croatian art history.-Life:...
. McDermott says that GUD is in a similar vein to the Doug Anthony All Stars in that it revolves around music, comedy and the inter-relationships between the band members onstage. According to McDermott, the group is named GUD in mockery of the way American people pronounce the word "god", "because that's who Americans thank at awards ceremonies, and I thought someone should be taking the credit." Their 2003 show, "GUD Ugh
Gud Ugh
Gud Ugh was a musical comedy show performed by GUD in 2003 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and on tour. It won The Age Critic's Choice Award for Best Show Of The Festival....
", won The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
Critic's Choice Award for best Australian show of the festival.
In 2002, he also performed a solo stand-up show entitled Comedyoscopy, a deconstruction of comedy, comedic techniques and what makes people laugh. He has frequently participated in the televised Comedy Festival Gala, appearing in 2008 as its host, and has often captained one of the two competing teams in the festival's Great Debate since his first debate appearance in 1994.
Other projects
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
, The Sun-Herald
The Sun-Herald
The Sun-Herald is an Australian tabloid newspaper published on Sundays in Sydney by Fairfax Media. It is the Sunday counterpart of The Sydney Morning Herald. In the 6 months to September 2005, The Sun-Herald had a circulation of 515,000...
, The Weekend Australian and The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
. In late 2000, a selection of his columns were published in his first solo book, The Forgetting of Wisdom. Prior to this, he had coauthored books with the Doug Anthony All Stars (Book, DAAS Kapital and Trip) and the writers of Good News Week (Good News Week Books One and Two).
He has also written and illustrated two children's books, The Scree and The Girl Who Swallowed Bees, both of which have been adapted into short films with McDermott scripting, directing, performing and painting all of the animations. McDermott describes the stories as "little Gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
, dark, morality tales" which draw on the dark children's tales he consumed during his own childhood, such as the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
's fairy tales. The 2004 film adaptation of The Scree won Best Film at the 2005 Flickerfest
Flickerfest
Flickerfest is an Australian, Academy Award-accredited short film festival. Founded in 1992 at Balmain High School which is now called Sydney Secondary College Balmain Campus, it is held every January in Sydney. The films then go on tour throughout Australia. The Festival Director is currently...
International Film Festival and was nominated for an AFI Award
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
for Best Short Fiction Film, while The Girl Who Swallowed Bees (2007) won the AFI Award for Best Short Animation. McDermott says he enjoys filmmaking because it brings together all of his skills. He reportedly has plans to work on a third short film, entitled Crab Boy and the Girl in the Shell, and has expressed an interest in moving into feature films. He also voiced characters in the 2009 short film Tegan the Vegan
Tegan the Vegan
Tegan the Vegan is a 2009 stop-motion animation short film which stars the voices of Charli Delaney, Noni Hazlehurst, Paul McDermott and Pippa Black...
.
McDermott has also had roles in Australian film, musical theatre and radio. In 2002, he appeared in the Australian theatre production of The Witches of Eastwick
The Witches of Eastwick (musical)
The Witches of Eastwick is a 2000 musical based on the novel of the same name by John Updike. It was adapted by John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe , directed by Eric Schaeffer, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh....
in the role of Darryl Van Horne. Despite having sworn he would never do a musical, McDermott says he was interested in the show because "it was still forming, still shaping. It's more challenging than doing a musical that's already in place." He has also had small acting roles in several Australian films, including that of the band manager in The Night We Called It a Day
The Night We Called It a Day (film)
The Night We Called It a Day is an Australian film directed by Peter Clifton starring Dennis Hopper as Frank Sinatra and Melanie Griffith as Barbara Marx, and featuring Portia de Rossi, Joel Edgerton, Rose Byrne, and David Hemmings. The movie is based on the true events surrounding one of several...
and Trevor in the TV miniseries Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story. Between 1996 and 1997 he co-hosted the breakfast radio program on Triple J with Mikey Robins
Mikey Robins
Mikel Mason "Mikey" Robins is an Australian media personality, comedian and writer. He is best-known for the satirical game show Good News Week, which ran on the ABC and Network Ten between 1996 and 2000, and returned again when the series was resurrected in February 2008.-Personal life/health...
, Steve Abbott and later Jen Oldershaw
Jen Oldershaw
Jen Oldershaw began as a presenter on Triple J, presenting music shifts. She presented the Morning Show in 1996 and 1997 and Breakfast with Mikey Robins and the Sandman in 1998 before becoming the producer of Merrick and Rosso's drivetime radio show on Triple J during 1999 and 2000.When Merrick &...
.