Shaun Micallef: ‘Charlie Pickering said that’s the only thing keeping him going – to vanquish me’
Your latest novel, De’Ath Takes a Holiday, is a vampire comedy, a satire of gothic fiction and a revision of Bram Stoker’s Dracula,Why?Well, I love that period of writing, and one of my favourite books is Samuel Butler’s Erewhon, which is a satire of Victorian values,I took a leaf out of his book in wanting to do a satire of how the world got to be the way it was,I’m basically blaming this proto-Dracula figure – the Comte De’Ath – for introducing the rather bloodless, exploitative way the world works,So [in my book] he meets a whole bunch of people throughout history, including Sigmund Freud and Henry Ford, and influences them.
Someone really nicely described it as being like Forrest Gump.You’ve done a hell of a lot of TV over your career; what’s been the most fun?Probably Mad As Hell.My job was to distract people in any given week, and hopefully find the fun in the news, if there was any.And in terms of having a great group of people around, with whom it was fun to make a show, it was definitely those 11 years.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningIt’s a long time to spend with people, and it was a joy to go to work – even during Covid.
Because the audience wasn’t there during those two years, we were just basically amusing each other,Even when the audience came back, I found myself just sitting there enjoying these performances happening around the desk,I can clearly be seen laughing and enjoying it – in a way that I think is unprofessional,What habit are you trying to kick?Well, I try to give up something every now and again, just to make sure I can,That’s quite Catholic of you.
Maybe it is, yes,I’ve decided that eating butter is a sin, so I must stop that,I figure that at some point I won’t be allowed to do certain things like eat salt or butter or whatever, so I might as well get rid of it now,It’s a controlling thing, I think, rather like quitting a show well before they sack me,So yeah, having got rid of tomato sauce, I’ve now moved on to butter.
It’s a challenge but I’ll win.I’ll beat it.That’s my nemesis – my Moriarty is butter.Do you have an actual, human nemesis?I guess it’s Charlie Pickering, because he had the show that’s most similar to mine.I’d been at the ABC for a couple of years doing Mad As Hell and Charlie asked me to lunch.
He was talking about a news satire that he was thinking of doing and I was like, “That’s great, Charlie, you should do that,” I’m thinking, “Oh, he’s coming to me as the old master,He wants to sit at my knee and learn what I’ve learned over my vast, long career,I wonder where he’s going to do this show,”As it turned out, it was in the same time slot and the same network that I was on.
We had a tag team approach for a few years – he’d do his little show, then I’d do my little show.After I finished in 2022, I went on his radio show and he asked me how long I’d done Mad As Hell.I said: “It was 11 years and 15 seasons.How many seasons are you going to do?” And he said: “I’m going to be doing 16 at the very least.” He said that’s the only thing keeping him going – to vanquish me.
What’s the most chaotic thing that’s ever happened on set?I did a variety show for Channel Nine in 2003, and they kept making me do pilots but not giving me any notes.I thought: “Well, they’re clearly not happy with it, but they won’t tell me why.” By the time we went to air, they had almost just shrugged their shoulders and said: “Oh well, we might as well” – so I had no confidence in the show at all.It was live to air and I remember I was standing backstage waiting to go through the curtain and I had this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.I rang my wife, just as the voiceover was starting, and I said: “Oh my God, I just hate this.
” She couldn’t believe it: she’s watching the TV, seeing the curtain, hearing the voiceover, hearing the music playing, and then I ring her, and all I say is “I hate this” and then “I’ve got to go” – and then I walk straight out on stage,It’s floating around the internet, and you can see the expression on my face when I walk through the curtain – this sort of fake, plastered, odd smile,It just makes me realise what a sham I am,[laughs]What’s the best lesson you learned from someone you’ve worked with?When I started working in television back in 1994, as a writer on Jimeoin’s show,The director was a fellow called Ted Emery, who I then went on to work with on Full Frontal.
He was the one who put me in front of the camera,I always assumed I would just be a writer because I was 30 and felt my years as a potential lead were over, but he had faith in me,I think I was earning $120 a week as a writer and he said he’d give me another $40 a week to be an extra,Eventually I had some lines, and then I was on the live night, and then I was in the cast,I owe my career to him.
He taught me everything I know about how to produce a TV show; how to make sure you’re building a family of people, how you listen to people,[He taught me that] anyone’s contribution is worth listening to, if you’ve got the time,He passed away earlier this month,I miss him terribly,You’re a cinephile.
What film do you always return to, and why?Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life,It’s my Christmas film and I must have seen it 30 times over the course of my life,I always get a bit emotional by the end,It has some great truths in it and as I’ve gotten older I see it more clearly,A lot of people come to it thinking it’s going to be a fun festive film – but it’s actually very dark.
It reflects the jaded cynicism that existed immediately after the second world war.James Stewart and Frank Capra had both served in the war and they’d seen a lot of death.It looks almost like a silly comic book film at first but then 40 minutes in you’ve got somebody wanting to kill themselves.And then you come out the back of it and you’re uplifted and feel very positive about life – thanks to the skill of the storytelling and the actors.What’s the last thing that made you laugh out loud?I saw Lachy Hulme in A Christmas Carol last year.
He’s always been very funny,The best laughs are in the theatre,I spent a bit of time in London earlier this month, watching as many shows as I could – including Dracula – but I also saw a whole bunch of comedies and had the great pleasure of being in a room with other people laughing at something on stage,There’s something very special about that,What’s on your career bucket list at this point?I’d love to tell a story in a feature film.
I’ve had a crack at the half-hour dramas and telemovies but there’s something nice about going to the pictures,I’d like to be the person responsible for something that would make people say, “Oh, let’s go to the pictures,” I’m giving myself away by using that expression, I sound like somebody from the 1920s,I’ll make a very unpopular film, it probably won’t have sound and it’ll need someone playing the piano during it,I did, for a while, entertain the idea of [running a cinema].
My wife once asked: “What do you want to do when you retire?” and I said: “Oh, it’d be nice to buy an old cinema and just run my favourite films.”What are you secretly really good at?In all honesty, I don’t think I’m good at anything – but I’m OK at a whole bunch of things.I’m doing comedy by default, really, because I can’t sing, I can’t dance, I can’t play musical instruments.I have no discernible talent for anything, nor do I have the discipline to learn anything.I wasn’t a great lawyer.
If I’d stuck at it … I reckon I’d be pretty good,I’m pretty forensic,I think I’m reasonably good at making sense of things – and that’s our job as human beings, isn’t it? To try to make sense of, if not life with a capital L, then our own small-l life,And I do that through my efforts at art,De’Ath Takes a Holiday by Shaun Micallef is out on 31 March (Ultimo Press, $34.
99).Shaun Micallef appears at the Wheeler Centre on 31 March and at Melbourne writers festival on 6 and 9 May.
Ilia Malinin completes redemption arc with third straight world figure skating championship
Ilia Malinin claimed a third straight world figure skating championship on Saturday afternoon, completing a swift redemption a month after his shock Olympic collapse with a commanding free skate.The 21-year-old American entered the final at Prague’s O2 Arena with a commanding lead after Thursday’s short program, where his personal-best 111.29 had put him more than nine points clear of the field. This time, there would be no unraveling.Skating last, Malinin produced a free program of 218
Lachie Kennedy upstages Gout Gout to win 200m at Peter Norman Memorial
Gout Gout has a problem and his name is Lachie Kennedy. In another enthralling evening in Australian athletics, the superstar teenager was once again upstaged by his fellow Queenslander, at the Maurie Plant Meet on Saturday.Under pouring rain at Lakeside Stadium in front of close to 9,000 fans, Kennedy held off the fast-finishing Gout in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m. The result was a replay of last year in a race that is now the clear highlight of the Australian athletics season.“Today he got the win, but next time I’ll be better for sure,” Gout said after crossing the line second, five hundredths of a second behind the winner
Illinois imposes alcohol limits near campus with Final Four berth at stake
Officials in Champaign have imposed temporary alcohol restrictions around the University of Illinois campus ahead of Saturday night’s Elite Eight game between Illinois Fighting Illini and Iowa Hawkeyes, citing public safety concerns tied to anticipated postgame celebrations.The emergency order, issued by mayor Deborah Frank Feinen, requires bars in a designated campus area to serve alcohol only in plastic, paper or aluminum containers during a set period before and after the game. Sales of packaged liquor and cocktails-to-go will be restricted after tipoff, while alcohol deliveries into and out of the area will be temporarily prohibited.The order also bars licensed establishments from selling more than one keg of beer to a single customer.City officials said the measures are intended to reduce the risk of injury or property damage in crowded areas
Featherstone’s long and quiet Sundays in a rugby league town that lost its soul
Club’s financial crisis meant exclusion from the RFL Championship this season, and it could be a long way back for one of the sport’s storied namesSunday afternoon in Featherstone. The first shoots of spring are creaking through the skyline and the Railway pub is bustling with rugby league supporters as the town’s pride and joy, Featherstone Rovers, prepare to face Swinton Lions.Or at least, that is what should have happened last weekend. Instead, streets of this West Yorkshire town built on coal mining were deserted. The Railway, just a few hundred yards from Rovers’ Post Office Road home, was largely empty and the gates of the stadium chained shut
‘I’m not a superhero. I’m just a boxer’: Moses Itauma on racism, identity and living on £7 a week | Donald McRae
Britain’s heavyweight prospect puts his unbeaten record on the line against Jermaine Franklin on SaturdayMoses Itauma might represent the glittering future of heavyweight boxing but right now he is locked in the present. In the back seat of a car, while being driven from one swanky hotel to another in Manchester, the 21-year-old turns to me and says: “Let’s get going.”I know how much Itauma dislikes interviews and so the only sensible option is to resist this blunt invitation to rush through our 45 minutes together. On Saturday night, in Manchester, Itauma fights Jermaine Franklin, the tough American who should provide his first notable test after he has won all 13 professional fights so far, with 11 ending in brutal stoppages. So he nods, just a little grudgingly, when I suggest we wait until we are sitting face to face
Kimi Antonelli pips Mercedes teammate George Russell to pole for F1’s Japanese GP – as it happened
Giles Richards reports on another Mercedes front-row lockout, this time in qualifying at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.And that is all from me … Giles’s report will be along shortly, and do join Joey Lynch tomorrow for the race itself.Andrea Stella, the McLaren principal, is pleased to be mixing it with Ferrari this weekend. He says they are getting a bit more out of the chassis, but more the power unit. He says Piastri has been faster here and indeed all season, but just not able to show it, with his two did not starts
‘It feels like they’re pulling figures out of the sky’: UK pet owners welcome crackdown on vet fees
Hundreds of North Sea licences granted by Conservatives have ‘so far produced only 36 days worth of gas’
‘Our assumptions are broken’: how fraudulent church data revealed AI’s threat to polling
‘They feel true’: political deepfakes are growing in influence – even if people know they aren’t real
Aryna Sabalenka edges tense battle with Coco Gauff to triumph in Miami Open final
Prem top four looks done and dusted after Northampton repel Saracens comeback