Paul McDermott
Paul began performing as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars along with Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler, starting out as buskers and performing live in clubs...
After sucess at the 1986 Adealide Fring Festival, they travelled to Britain for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. While working there they picked up to perform on the ABC show The Big Gig, where they quickly gained a following, and, in time, their own show DAAS Kapital. They had frequent appearances on Australian televsision and toured extensively, performing independentlym, and in the three major festivals, Edinburgh Fringe, Montreal's Just For Laughs and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
After the Dough Anthony All Stars disbanded, Paul wrote, directed and performed in a stageshow entitled MOSH! with a group of young Australian performers. Following that he was recruited to co-host Good News Week from 1996 - 2000. In 1996 and 1997 he was also co-hosting breakfast radio on Triple J with Micky Robins, Steve Abbott and later Jen Oldershaw.
While starring on GNW, Paul wrote a number of songs. Two of these appeared on a single. Shut Up / Kiss Me was the title track. It was a duet with Fiona Horne and was co - written with Paul Mac. The single also featured Paul's song happiness. Some of his other songs also appeared on Good News Week Tapes Vol 2, such as The Drugs, Everything and More and Nothing. Paul sang most weeks on Good News Weekend and Good News Week Nite Lite and many fans used to record these songs to create bootlegs CDs. The CD Good News Week tapes Volume 1 featured several of Paul's monologues from the start of the show.
Paul also hosted the ABC Strictly Dancing in 2004 - 2005. He has released several books with Doug Anthony All Stars and several on his own (The Forgetting of Wisdom, The Scree, The Girl Who Swallowed Bees). One of his books, The Scree, has been developed into a short film. The Scree won Best Film at the 2005 Flickerfest International Film Festival, and was invited to be screened at the 54th Berlin Film Festival.