Looking for laughs? This recent scene is likely to be one of the funnier conversations you’ll enjoy on TV this year. Comedians Mick Molloy, Glenn Robbins, Lawrence Mooney and Sam Pang gathered in a studio for Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention, cracking jokes, ribbing each other, competing for the best comeback line. Just a bunch of mates sittin’ ’round having a laugh, joined for a bit by Santo Cilauro. Good, mostly clean fun, simple and happily entertaining, as it’s intended to be.
The creation of this atmosphere looks casual, almost effortless. But appearances are deceptive – an observation that might also apply to Molloy’s career.
The show’s creator, co-producer and host – despite what the title suggests – has made it all look easy. Part of the reason for that relates to his public persona as a slightly rumpled every-bloke with an affection for beer and burgers and an abiding passion for the Richmond footy club. Yet while the laid-back image might not announce it, he’s gradually become a media power player, a writer, producer and performer who’s built a successful, decades-long professional life in TV, film and radio. Not simply surviving, but thriving, with this new show as the latest example.
The clutch of comedians listed above has ostensibly gathered to perform a “tough love” assessment of Pang, the target, er, subject, of the second episode of an eight-part series from Molloy Boy Productions. The aim is to encourage Pang to take a long, hard look at himself, although the exercise will be conducted, Molloy stresses, in a loving way. There’s a cursory flip through Pang’s stint hosting the history quiz show ADbc, his Eurovision Song Contest gig and the footy-playing days that earned him the nickname “The Orchid” (because he supposedly needed perfect conditions to blossom). It’s basically just an excuse to poke fun at a pal while offering upbeat prime-time entertainment.
The canny combo of This is Your Life and a good-natured celebrity roast is the latest production from the company that Molloy founded with his brothers, John and Richard, to produce his first feature, Crackerjack. It became the country’s top-grossing homegrown film of 2002.
Before that and since, Molloy’s enjoyed a varied, consistently successful radio presence with a range of colleagues, starting in the mid-’80s as a member of The D-Generation team that went on to make the inventive TV sketch comedy, The Late Show. Later his radio days also featured Late Show alum: four seasons with Tony Martin on Martin/Molloy (1995-98) and three and a bit with Jane Kennedy on Kennedy Molloy (late 2017 to 2020). Now it’s Mick in the Morning, with co-hosts.
Not only a regular on radio, Molloy’s also taken acting roles. He starred in Crackerjack, an affectionate comedy based around a suburban lawn bowls club and written with Richard, which led to him contributing as a lawn-bowls commentator for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Other notable roles include a wily politician in the Murray Whelan movies, Stiff and The Brush-Off, as well as sleazy Gary Poole, Kath’s former husband and Kim’s dad in Kath & Kim. Gary’s the antithesis of Kath’s new love, fit and accommodating gourmet butcher Kel, played by Robbins.
On TV, The Front Bar, produced by a company operated by Molloy, has been a triumph. The beloved AFL panel show, now in its 11th season, grew from a modest online offering, a cheeky nightcap following Friday matches. Like Celebrity Intervention, it’s a smart play on a familiar format. Now presented from a pub set – originally an actual pub – it was gradually shifted by Seven into direct competition with The Footy Show, which for years was Nine’s unassailable giant dominating Thursday nights. Although The Footy Show was noticeably ageing and ailing in its later years, the David-and-Goliath battle saw the low-budget, low-key upstart defeat its heavyweight opposition.
As The Footy Show degenerated into ill-judged sketches and raucous revues, Front Bar merrily bubbled along, its panel, Andy Maher, Molloy and Pang, debating the ideal half-time locker-room lollies – snakes, jelly beans or bullets? – and lamenting that the term “argy-bargy” had fallen out of favour in game commentary. It was a refreshing contrast to the overblown shenanigans of its rival.
A recap of Molloy’s career highlights should note politely that it hasn’t all been sunshine and roses, or a steady run of winners. Crackerjack arrived following a rare miss. The Mick Molloy Show, a variety series from Nine (which owns this masthead), tanked after only eight episodes of the intended 20 in 1999. The late-night, news-based comedy The Nation (2007), hosted by Molloy, lasted only three months.
Following those no-doubt bruising yet instructive experiences, Molloy said in 2009, “I can definitely rule out hosting a TV show again … but you often learn more from the failures, sometimes, than the successes”.
One thing that he clearly learned is that he’s a good team player. As his brother Richard observed that same year, “[Mick] is a great collaborator and working with others seems to bring out the best in him.”
That might help to explain both the title and Robbins’ role on Celebrity Intervention. There’s a different co-host upfront with Molloy in each episode – Mooney, Kate Langbroek, Denise Scott – in addition to the reliably funny Robbins doing a kind-of sidekick shtick. He sits in a slightly amorphous place that appears to be defining itself as the show goes along.
What is clear, however, is that this every-bloke knows what he’s doing in his variety of roles. Watching Molloy amid the antics on The Front Bar and Celebrity Intervention is a bit like seeing a crafty crocodile who appears to be dozing and then pounces with precision – often with a killer crack that’s possibly ad-libbed, or perhaps cleverly anticipated.
As Tony Martin observed in 2005, “There’s nothing bunged-on about Mick’s image, but that’s not to say he isn’t a smart guy. He wouldn’t have lasted this long if he was just a shambling idiot or a yobbo.” More than two decades on, that assessment still seems spot-on.
Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention airs 7.30pm Mondays on Seven and 7Plus.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
