I caught a couple of episodes of his show on one of the UK’s digital channels (could’ve been paramount/comedy) this week.
I don’t know how he plays in Australia, but I have to tell you, I thought he was awesome. Great combination of clever, bad taste, un-PC, and in some ways like (the first series of) the UK creation Alan Partridge.
Anyone care to comment? How long ago was he aired down under? Any more series? Any of you who like him seen the Alan Partridge series?
Your $0.02 please…
Sigh. Started off as an MPSIM, ended up as a mongrel MPSIM/IMHO. Really don’t know where it belongs, sorry.
He’s pretty funny! His show was on the ABC, which is a non-commerical channel, so it probably didn’t get as many viewers as it would on a commercial channel, but we used to tune in. He could be a bit hit-and-miss, but mostly he was very, very funny. Before having his own show, he was on Full Frontal, a weekly show made up of sketches performed by a number of comedians. However, I don’t think most Australians knew who he was until he hosted our television awards show this year - the Logies.
I’m pretty sure it was him I saw do a speech on how much he hates people who give their business a name beginning with “A”, just to get at the front of the telephone directory. He “rang” Aardvaark plumbing, and launched into a huge speech on how bad it all was, and how he, personally, would never do business with a company that stooped so low. When he paused for breath, he stopped to listen to what the plumber was saying. He said “Aha. Aha. Well, thanks for your time, Mr. Aardvaark”.
I guess you had to be there, but it was funny at the time 
Well I know Glenn Ponder is a poof and that Alan has problems with that.
I hadn’t thought of that comparision, but I’m sure it’d be a welcome one. The second series aired about 3 months ago here. Similar stuff, like a less self-conscious Big Train. He also appears fairly regularly on The Panel, a loose chat show made by the people behind The Dish and The Castle.
Abso-frikkin-lutely hilarious. I loved the airplane crash skit. I also enjoy his mockumentraies and one-liners.
His sketch show has this Monty Python way of being a bunch of unconnected skits, that somehow occasionally interlock.
Like for example, he may open his show with some bizarre skit that meanders a bit and has a weak punchline, then he’ll do a whole bunch of other odd skits with other characters, then one of those other characters will start to appear through more skits, then that character will appear back in the first original skit and take it in a totally unpredictable direction, then he’ll interrupt the skit as himself (being the host of the show), so he ends up playing three different characters in one skit, which culminates in, more often than not, no punchline.
He’d be a genius if his show didn’t feel like it was so badly organised.