Author: Stuart

Recap: Your Gen, October 19th 2010

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TAGY returns! During the opening, Shaun delivered a Banana Split complete with sparklers to Charlie. The guests were Merv Hughes for the Baby Boomers, Deb Mailman on Generation X and Maude Garrett on Gen Y.

The first game played was Franken-Face, which soon descended into order chaos, which Shaun broke up with a blast from his recorder. After a red flag and whistle signaled the end of the ad break, Les Wilson, country poet, introduced ‘What’s a Doodle Do?’ which Merv took some time adjusting to.

The magic window buttons were the Fab 4:

  • Gen X chose John, which was ‘Who Said That’, during which Shaun hinted at his own acting prowess, commenting “I killed [Seachange]… off”.
  • Gen Y picked Paul, playing Celebrities for Sale (similar to Beatles for Sale?!) and determining which celebrity had endorsed which product. Shaun delighted in not actually helping the team determine who the celebrity was until after their answer was final.
  • The Baby Boomers went for George: ‘Era Error’. The scene was a 1987 Gym.

The Your Gen round topic was Australian Films. One of the questions posed to Gen Y was “Who Played Premier Cray in Bad Eggs” – with the team unable to answer that it was Shaun himself! (upsetting Shaun more when Josh described it as ‘forgettable’)

Robert Patterson (covered in shaving cream) delivered the end game envelope – which revealed the challenge as “Which Generation is Best at Being a Butcher”. Teams had to fulfill Shaun’s order, creating Sausages, Kebabs and Trifle. Charlie was so put out over the fact he was still making 2kg of sausages after the order was changed to 6, he poured the items one by one into Shaun’s basket. Gen Y were awarded the winners, receiving the Most Spirited Pee-Wee Samurai Karate Jnr 1988 trophy, donated by Kaden McCaffrey.

Guests for Your Gen, 19th October

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After a 2-week break, TAYG returns on Tuesday the 19th with the last few episodes for the year.

Guests for next Tuesday are former cricketer Merv Hughes (for the Baby Boomers), actor Deborah Mailman (Gen X, currently starring in Offspring) and television presenter Maude Garrett (Gen Y).

For the end-game challenge: Which is the Greatest Generation at… running a delicatessen!?

The following week, it looks like we can expect a Halloween theme!

Rewind: Newstopia begins on SBS

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It was October 2007, and the industry was abuzz of a new show on SBS. Some were already comparing it to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But this was something unique – Australian, absurb and very Micallef.

Yes, it is 3 years since the first season of Newstopia began. “Shaun Micallef rewrites the headlines” was how The Age Green Guide described it. It was meant to debut during 2008, but was bought forward to coincide with the 2007 Federal Election. It would have no live-studio audience and could almost be mistaken for a real news show. And it would be a great platform to judge the news of the world because “we (Australia) have no control over it.”

Described as the “luckiest unsuccessful” comedian in Australia by The Age Green Guide, Micallef was quoted as saying “I’m a white-faced comedian rather than a red-nosed comedian. I don’t have baggy pants and a ‘love me’ attitude. If you want to find the joke, it’s here somewhere. You just have to look for it.” This goes some of the way why some people might ask: what’s so funny about this guy. To which an equal number respond: everything.

Memories of Micallef Tonight still loomed, even 4 years later. And Shaun himself acknowledged some of reasons why it didn’t work: his lack of experience, the overly-fast-past alienated some viewers – but he was still immensely proud of it.

During an interview, Shaun admitted “I do get depressed sometimes. But it’s not a huge thing. It’s really a very small dog. It’s a chihuahua.”

Shaun himself wasn’t sure Newstopia would be his ‘breakthrough’ success (leaving “target demographics” to the bean counters); he would just try to be funny.

For more information, see the Newstopia page

Preincarnate out next month

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Yep, you heard it. Shaun’s first (and possibly only) novel ‘Preincarnate’ is due for release one month from today – November 1st.

The publisher, Hardie Grant Books, have a full Micallef-esq description on their website.

At only $30, there is no excuse to not buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend’s Christmas present.

Personally, I can’t wait!

[Update – Shaun will be at a Sydney event for his book, 27th October! – Thanks Andrew for the alert!]

Recap: Your Gen, September 28th 2010

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Shaun took Amanda for a ‘drive’ in a Mini Moke before introducing the guests: singer Leo Sayer (BB), actor Kimberley Davies(Gen Y) and model, come-actor Scott McGregor (Gen Y).

Games played were:

  • Fad-tastic
  • Who Goes There?
  • Chinese Internet – ‘factoids’ have been censored, and each team had to fill in the answer – like a cross between Blankety Blanks and Temptation.

The four buttons round had the options King Kong, Dr. Zaius, Cheetah and Trust Me.

  • Gen Y picked Cheetah, playing Watch Your Mouth – where Scott played the mouth and Josh guessed the actor.
  • Gen X chose Dr Zaius which was Draw That Movie!
  • Against Amanda’s wishes, Leo chose Trust Me – a challenge called Gravy Suit. The game involved Amanda answering questions to save Leo, who was dressed in a suit covered in gravy, from a pack of dogs.Getting the last question wrong meant the dogs were released (much to the enjoyment of Josh), and a bunch of puppies began licking Leo.

For the Your Gen round, each team was quizzed on The Ocean, with Shaun being particularly cruel with the questions and the accuracy of the answers.

The Phantom delivered the end game envelope, which revealed the challenge as: Which Generation is Best at Delivering Newspapers. The teams rode around a make-shift block, and their accuracy and time was measured. Gen Y won the 2004 Most Improved Jumping Trophy, donated by Astrid Vinycomb and Happy, from Williamstown.

Bad news is that “TAYG” is on break until after the Commonwealth Games, so we’ll have to wait till the 19th for our next fix of Shaun. But at least we got a brief Christopher Walken impression this week!

Recap: Your Gen, September 21st 2010

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Tonight on TAYG, the guests were Mark Trevorrow (Baby Boomers), Claire Bowditch (Gen X) and Josh Lawson (Gen Y).

Josh (Thomas) revealed Shaun had taught him to shave that day and Claire tuned Shaun’s guitar.

Games played were:

  • Befuddled – movie posters are run through the befuddle-mesh, scrambling them like a puzzle
  • Whose Ink Do You Think – identify the celebrity from the tattoo
  • As Quick As – introduced by Hello Kitty, who then began arguing with Shaun on if a giant power turtle was going to invade, which was fast money against a kettle.

In the four buttons round:

  • BB chose Music, playing Name That Tune
  • Gen Y picked Lifestyle which was What Am I Drinking – all home-remedies. Nana Gaga helped reveal the drinks, but for some reason – only 4 drinks were revealed, when there were 6 on the table?!
  • Celebrity was the choice of Gen X, playing 7 Degrees – a game involving the 7 degrees of separation concept and a line-up of celebrities.

Clint Eastwood was the Your Generation topic, and the end game challenge was “Which Generation is Best at Going to Market?” – with the envelope delivered by ninja. Gen Y managed to herd the animals fastest, winning the Tullamarine Country Club Hole in One trophy donated by Claude DiCianni.

Come one; come 500

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I just want to take a few moments to thank everyone who has been visiting and making this site such a success.

Since launching only 3 months ago, we’re now getting 500 visitors a month. Looks like there are a number of Shaun fans out there!

Keep your comments coming, email me your suggestions and please recommend this site through-out the Internet – this will help us get towards the top of Google, and therefore spread more of the love for Shaun!