Feb 14 2012

Sports Fever! S01E03 Ratings

Source: au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/sports-fever

Sancho, Stan and Ted graced an average 182,000 television screens last night at around 10:37pm (probably an extra 1 million viewers on a two minute Optus time delay are missing somewhere). A wonderful show that if you don’t follow any type of sport, Sports Fever! makes it extremely entertaining.

This week, baseball, parts of the cricket, soccer and darts were covered (with Thor’s Hammer), along with special guests former cricketer Damien Flemming and baseballer Daniel MacGrath dropping in for a chinwag. Also, essences of Cup Fever! were seaping in with new segments:

* Are They Gonna Pash? – highlighting if some sporting players about to go in for the tonsil hockey.. or are they? Ed Kavalee gets his jollys…
* We Watched It So You Didn’t Have To – crazy and boring sporting events that the guys watched and try to find the best parts. The Tour of Qatar had Sam Pang sitting on the edge of his seat with anxiety, while Santo Cilauro was puzzled to see how many sponsors could fit on a sports gun for the Bi-athon World Cup in Oslo.

Missed it? Check program guides for repeats on 7Mate, hit up Sports Fever! Facebook page or watch online for the next seven days on Plus7. I’m off to chase down Mr Snuggles.

Feb 08 2012

Mick Molloy in Tropfest Film

Source: Tropfest

It’s that time of the year where the annual Tropfest Film Festival captivates talented and budding film directors and actors to get their name on the big screen.

From the Tropfest site:

Tropfest is Australia’s most prestigious short film festival and one of its most iconic cultural events. It is also the largest short film festival in the world. At home, Tropfest is recognised for its enormous contribution to the development of the Australian film industry by providing unique platforms for emerging filmmakers through its events and initiatives, and new and expanded audiences for their work.

The festival brings out the best in people – celebrities in tow.

The guidelines are:

Your film must be made specifically for Movie Extra Tropfest Australia 2012

The festival must be your film’s first public screening, including online

Your film must be no longer than 7 minutes (including titles and end credits)

Your film must contain the Signature Item for 2012 – LIGHT BULB

This year, Mick Molloy featured in a short film called “Sacrifice The Messenger“. Without explaining what the film is about, watch the footage below:

There’s a few days left to vote for the 16th finalist – so visit the Youtube Tropfest page and read the instructions on how to vote!

Feb 08 2012

Rob Sitch on In Gordon Street Tonight

source: abc.net.au/tv/adamhillsIGST

Former Spicks And Specks host Adam Hills is back with the second season of In Gordon Street Tonight. The first episode was launched tonight (Wednesday 8th February) with the first guests Rob Sitch and Josh Lawson, promoting Any Questions For Ben.

Sitch briefly spoke about how they had to alter a park to get the autumn leaves appearing, and also how Lawson and co-star Rachael Taylor hooked up. Further in the show, Sitch also briefly spoke about the history of The D-Generation, as well as some other stories.

If you missed the episode, it’s available to watch on iview for 14 days, on the official site, and podcast on itunes for free. Get it while it’s hot!

Feb 07 2012

Sports Fever! S01E02 Ratings

Source: au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/sports-fever

With a slightly earlier start of 10:40pm (technically it was 10:43pm as per my watch), the perfectly timed second episode of Sports Fever! with “Santo, Sam and Ted” raked in 200,000 late night viewers. Sure, it’s a little down from their premiere first episode last week, but… well…

I have nothing. It was still entertaining, nonetheless.

Maybe we were all burnt out from so much Superbowl, or we didn’t know much about the game. Either way, after having Yankee comedian Jeff Stilson coming in to explain in simpleton terms the game, and former AFL-cum-NFL player Ben Graham come in to show off his sparkle, it all started to make sense. Another highlight was showing off the swan-lake style failed catches in cricket, and Sam Pang doing his street talk to the kids at the T20 games. Kinda cute.

After reading some backlash about Sports Fever! not covering football/rugby so far – maybe because the game isn’t in season yet and will most likely get reported on closer to date. All about patience, entertainment, and me-no-rikey jokes…

PS: Ed – no more product placement name jokes.

If you missed the show, it’s repeated Tuesdays 8:30pm on 7Mate, and online on Plus7 when available. Don’t forget to see behind the scenes photos and videos on the official Sports Fever! Facebook page.

Feb 05 2012

Remembering: Paradise Beach

Part two of our irregular “Remembering” theme to mark 20 years since The Late Show, does anyone remember the epicly popular (and that term is used loosely) Channel 9 soap drama Paradise Beach from 1993?

Maybe this is a refresher… dare you to watch as much of it as you can.

..or, you can watch the 2 minute sypnosis of the cliche ridden show, as seen through the eyes of The Late Show cast. LOOK! Warner Brothers Movie World! From Season Two.

Feb 04 2012

Any Questions For Ben? Getting Social

Source: Twitter @AnyQsForBen

Have you hopped onto the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon yet?

If not – why are you on the internet?

Social media is a strong, powerful tool which allows the general public to interact with each other and express thoughts, opinions and discussions about anything at all. You can even interact with your favourite actor, musician or any other person you want to (as long as they’re willing to do the same – no stalking!!). Heck, this site, other than the infamous forum, we’re on Facebook and Twitter as well.

The beauty of this is that you can get more information about your favourite TV show and/or film nearly instantly. Even speaking with the staff who work on the set. Working Dog‘s film Any Questions For Ben? have done just that – putting themselves up on Twitter and Facebook. (Click the hyperlink to be directed there). Why not follow / like them so you can see what they’re up to? They’ve been currently posting photos of premieres and interviews, updating every few minutes.

Here’s a few pictures from the @AnyQsForBen account.

Get on it!

Feb 04 2012

Sports Fever! Article: Q&A Santo Cilauro

Source: smh.com.au

We just can’t get enough of Working Dog lately. 2012 seems to be their year of shows and films. Other than Any Questions For Ben (out Feb 9) and Sports Fever! hitting our screens, one more ace Working Dog have up their sleeves is Pictures Of You – a show that loosely touches on This Is Your Life but with photos from the subject’s past, highlighting the good and bad times of their life. (Pictures Of You will be shown on Channel 7 later this year).

More publicity rounds are happening (Bring it on!) and it seems that one of the journalists at Fairfax, Andrew Murfett, is a big D-Generation/The Late Show fan, asking a few questions to subject Santo Cilauro that would usually fly under the radar and not get published. The prominent questions, which would answer a lot for people who have requested on Facebook and the forum, are:

Speaking of The Late Show, will Graham and the Colonel be appearing?

There’ll be no Graham and the Colonel. There are requests … The sad thing about Graham and the Colonel is that Rob [Sitch] genuinely needs a wig and I have grey hair. When we get to that point, you think they’ve had their day on television. But then again, you never know, they might come back. We still have the green jackets somewhere.

The Late Show has never screened again. Have you ever thought about allowing reruns to air?

Things like rerunning stuff, we don’t think much about. We really just look to the future. We get asked on a regular basis if we can make a sequel to The Castle. It almost takes no thought at all. We just don’t want to travel backwards. So repeating The Late Show, there’s almost like a statute of limitations on how far you could go back. We even thought a couple of years ago about whether we’d redo The Panel again. But there’s a certain time you’ve gone forward too far. I suspect The Late Show looks better in DVD bites. If you went back and watched a whole episode, the romance of it might be tarnished just a bit. It’s a long hour.

Santo isn’t wrong about the DVD bites. Having seen all 40 episodes from video, there were a few train wreck sketches and incidents that I personally didn’t remember when they were first screened back in 1992. But seeing them now, it still makes it…. Champagne Comedy!

More indepth Q&A on the Sydney Morning Herald article here.

Jan 30 2012

Santo, Sam & Ed’s Sports Fever! (SSESF) S01E01 Ratings

source: au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7

Well, after a few false starts with the scheduled time (originally 10;30pm, then moved to 10:45pm, only to have Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris still teasing the kids about how their dad met their mother), Santo, Sam & Ed’s Sports Fever! finally got the ball rolling a few minutes before 11pm.

The show was an exact image of Cup Fever! when on SBS, minus the soccer. Covering a hour long broadcast in front of a live studio audience who were quite close enough to the stage, that you could nearly touch Ed Kavalee‘s knees, the desk was similar to The Panel desk used, give or shave off a few centimetres. A cozy studio setup, Santo Cilauro, Sam Pang and Ed sat together comfortably like an old pair of shoes, and the jokes started flying nearly straight away.

It was amusing where some funny incidents were shown during some sporting events (John Newcombe‘s oriental accent, Miley Cyrus and the tennis), but not being too sure if some scenes were legit or not, still made for a funny grab or a ‘me no rikey!’ moment. With special guest retired basketballer Vlade Divac who gelled in quite well for a first guest, and Seven Sports journalist Chris Jones giving a part-serious summary of a sports wrap coverage, Sports Fever! did a decent 236,000 viewers – considering the late start.

A few sports tragics have noted that rugby wasn’t covered, or barely touched at all, as well as a few other sports, but as it is still finding ground and the season hasn’t started yet, the show will still grow and develop more content as it goes.

Hot tip: If you can’t stay up until late and DVR the show, make sure you give about 5 minutes to start recording before hand, and about 15 minutes of extra end time.

If you missed the show, watch it online for the next seven days here.

Love it / hate it / dizzy stuff / cheap, nasty & downright boring / not enough for Snato fans? Leave your comments below or sign up for free in the forum.

Jan 30 2012

AQFB Article: Location, Location, Location

Source: smh.com.au

The articles and reviews are being laid on thick with Any Questions For Ben? due out in cinemas February 9. Sydney Morning Herald‘s journalist John Mangan talks to Working Dog frontman and AQFB Director Rob Sitch about their new feature, and how precise the locations needed to be to film their newest work of art. Melbourne looks like it is the place to be.

Sitch, who directed and shares writing credits with his fellow Working Dogs Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner, also has a crucial acting role, playing the jolly headmaster who utters the film’s title line, as Ben (Josh Lawson) cataclysmically discovers the students at his old school think his life is boring. Instead, they’re dazzled by attractive but shy foreign-aid worker Alex (Rachael Taylor), who starts looking pretty dazzling to Ben as well.

We’re in Mr Tulk, a funky cafe in La Trobe Street attached to the State Library, having a coffee before a city walk that will take in numerous historic churches, laneways and fashionable restaurants, culminating high above Swanston Street at the Rooftop Cinema in Curtin House.

While his engaging gaze and assured voice can’t help but remind you of Mike Moore, the vacuous current-affairs host in Frontline, or Tony, his scruple-free government operative in The Hollowmen, the real Rob Sitch is more interested in talking about town planning, church architecture and the minutiae of professional camera equipment.

”I guess it’s a rom-com,” Sitch says, getting back to the film. ”But it’s not the Katherine Heigl sort of pure rom-com dominated by the question, ‘Will they, won’t they?’ It’s really a comedy about a guy with a crisis and he’s completely clueless. It’s what the Greek philosophers were on about 3000 years ago, saying that a life has to be examined to be lived well. It’s funny – with various quotes by the great philosophers, if you hid their names you’d think they were said by your grandfather.”

You can read the full article on Sydney Morning Herald’s site here.

Jan 28 2012

Judith Lucy – Nothing Fancy Interview

Source: SMH.com.au

Judith Lucy, the “Fifth Beatle” to The Late Show in 1993, is on tour with her latest show Nothing Fancy.

In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Lucy talks about her previous stage shows, her 2011 TV show on the ABC Spiritual Journey and her 2008 book The Judith Lucy Alphabet.

Here’s a tiny excerpt below:

Her new stand-up show, Nothing Fancy, is just that – plain old joke-telling. No song-and-dance routines, no leaping out of a coffin as she did a decade ago for Colour Me Judith, which opened in Melbourne just months after her father died. This time it’s just gags on stage – a situation where Lucy is, quite possibly, at her happiest: ”Despite the fact that I might fight it, stand-up does continue to be the backbone of my career.”

She may love telling jokes to an audience but Lucy has an on-off relationship with touring. During the 2006 tour of I Failed!, her anxiety brought on eczema. Midway through her last tour, in 2009, she ”went a little crazy”.

”Even though I really loved doing the show, it was a really long tour,” she says. ”I also got really sick and I cancelled a show for the first time ever, in Melbourne. It was just so much time on my own and I thought, ‘This is a bit nuts’.”

The answer for Nothing Fancy is to reduce the number of performances per week in Sydney and deliver short seasons in large venues for the rest of the tour.

Read the full interview here.

Judith Lucy – Nothing Fancy is at the Sydney Comedy Store from February 2 to March 25. Purchase tickets online at www.comedystore.com.au