Extract from the Guide
GOOD NEWS WEEK
ABC TV, Gore Hill.
When: Thursday night.
Maximum audience: 200.
How to book:
phone (02) 9950 3037 after 9 am on Monday only.
Extras: Wine and cheese beforehand.
A YOUNG crowd, probably students, is ushered into Studio 22. Robinson warms them up with threats and jokes: ‘If you're not laughing, the audience at home will think, look at that dick-head: he didn't get the joke’. One older couple in the audience make the trip down from the Central Coast
as often as they can get tickets. Paul McDermott spots them as he walks on. ‘Great to see you back . . .’ he says. ‘I've been reading the funeral notices, just in case.’
Some casually dressed latecomers sneak in just as Robbins and McCrossin enter. ‘Heyheyhey!’ Robbins calls after them. ‘It’s not like you were late because you were shopping for clothes . .’
McDermott runs through the week's headlines, and when he fluffs, everyone has to back-track. He gives us our cue: ‘If I move my leg like this,’ he gives an Elvis-style swivel, ‘can I have a slight titter?’
Robbins keeps things bubbling. He turns to a boy in the audience. ‘What's your best subject?’
‘English.’
‘Oh dear’ says Robbins. ‘I hope you can drive a cab.’
Later he looks at the audience and asks if there are any people here ‘who get aroused by watching fat guys sweat.’
A few things have to be re-shot afterwards, because of camera problems or human error, but the fun doesn't stop and many of the jokes could never be broadcast. Afterwards, as the team shoots some promos, Robbins and McDermott break into a waltz. ‘Don't lead,’ McDermott snaps.
There is, someone says, too much testosterone in the studio. ‘Does that mean I'm going to get pregnant if I stand here doing the promo shot?’ asks McCrossin.
Suddenly Robbins demands a clitoris: ‘I’m white. I'm male. I'm
middle-class. I deserve a clitoris.’
He decides the best site would be the forehead, and suddenly all start rubbing their foreheads. McDermott says thoughtfully that unless people are careful, one hand might become wasted. ‘Unless you got two . . .’ Everyone starts rubbing with both hands.
The crowd doubles up. They never see this on TV. As Laura Gant, of Caringbah, says: ‘I think its a lot more entertaining than when you watch it on television.’
Extract from:
Jenny Tabakoff
Monday 04/28/1997
THE GUIDE Sydney Morning Herald
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