Paul Anthony Michael McDermott (born 13 May 1962) is an Australian entertainer, best known both for Good News Week and for his role as a member of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars. 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. McDermott has also performed and written numerous shows as a solo performer and authored children’s books and newspaper articles and directed short animated films.
Personal life McDermott was born in Adelaide, South Australia, 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 Canberra, where he describes himself as having been painfully shy and a "bit of a loner"; Dickson College; and the Canberra School of Art at the Australian National University, where he studied art for four years. 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. He works under the alias of artist 'Young Master Paul'.
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 son with his partner Melissa Lyne. He is also the first cousin of retired Adelaide Crows AFL footballer and current Adelaide media personality Chris McDermott.
Career Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were a singing comedy trio (comprising McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler) who began busking in Canberra in the 1980s and later gained notoriety at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This led to regular appearances on ABC TV’s The Big Gig, where they gained a strong following. Their innovative, brash style broke down many taboos of the time, and many Australian comedians have described DAAS as being their inspiration for wanting to become comedians. McDermott took lead vocals on most songs and wrote much of the material. The group also starred in their own spin off TV show called DAAS Kapital. They broke up in 1995 but later reformed with new guitarist Paul Livingston (replacing Fidler) in 2014 for a series of live shows.
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 Ferguson 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.
In 2014, McDermott and Tim Ferguson reunited to tour Australia as the Doug Anthony All Stars, with frequent collaborator Paul Livingston (also known as "Flacco") replacing Richard Fidler as guitarist due to Fidler's radio commitments.
Television career In 1996, McDermott was given the role of hosting the ABC's new topical comedy game show Good News Week. The show was notable for being one of the first in Australia to feature an introductory comedic monologue about the week's events, delivered by McDermott. McDermott's monologues also broke new ground in Australian TV for their direct and harsh criticisms of prominent figures, especially politicians. The ABC received a large number of complaints about McDermott for making light of tragic events, use of profanity and drug references, but his willingness to push boundaries was also the reason for his popularity. McDermott would then introduce the two teams of comedians, artists and politicians including team captains Mikey Robbins and Julie McCrossin. This was one of the earliest panel comedy shows on Australian TV and was notable for ensuring gender balance as early as the mid 1990s.
In 1998, McDermott hosted a spin-off called Good News Weekend, which followed a similar format, but with questions based around pop culture. Most episodes finished with McDermott singing a non-comedic song with house band the Gadflys. Many of these songs were cover versions, but his original song "Shut Up and Kiss Me" was released as a single and charted in the JJJ Hottest 100. In 1999, both programs moved to Channel Ten, which renamed Good News Weekend as Good News Week Nite Lite. During this time, McDermott's popularity led to him being given roles as the host of significant Australian award shows including the ARIAs and the AFI Awards. Good News Week was terminated in 2000.
In 2004, McDermott hosted the ABCTV dancing competition Strictly Dancing, which was notable for featuring same-sex dancing partners.
In 2007, McDermott hosted ABC variety program The Sideshow. Each episode began with a monologue similar in style to McDermott's Good News Week monologues. The show was notable for introducing Australian TV audiences to a broad range of cabaret and circus acts while also featuring popular comedians and musicians. Most episodes finished with McDermott singing an original non-comedic song.
In 2008, Channel Ten relaunched Good News Week with McDermott as host. McDermott was nominated for the 2010 Gold Logie award for his hosting role.
In 2015, McDermott hosted SBS interview program Room 101. In 2018, he hosted ABC game show Think Tank.
Good News Week
In 1996, McDermott was recruited by director Ted Robinson, with whom he had previously worked on The Big Gig, to host 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. 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 You, 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 and 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.
Other TV work 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.
McDermott returned to regular television hosting in July 2015 as the host of Room 101, an Australian version of the long running British TV show of the same name, airing on SBS One. In 2018, McDermott returned to the ABC as presenter of quiz show Think Tank.
Live comedy