Tim Ferguson
Encyclopedia
Timothy Dorcen Langbene "Tim" Ferguson (born 16 November 1963 in Sydney, NSW
) is an Australian comedian and television presenter.
, New South Wales before moving to Canberra, where he attended the radical free-school School Without Walls and Narrabundah College
. He is the son of Tony Ferguson, who was a Vietnam War
correspondent, the first reporter to release news of the Tet Offensive to the world media. Tony became executive producer of This Day Tonight
and Four Corners at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
, and an offsider of the ABC's managing director, David Hill
.
His first major appearance was as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars
, along with Paul McDermott
and Richard Fidler
, on the UK Channel 4 television show "Friday Night Live
" and then the ABC television show, The Big Gig
, where they quickly gained a following. This was soon followed by their own show, the sci-fi sitcom DAAS Kapital
.
The trio launched themselves at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986 and became the biggest selling comedy act in the festival for a decade. Their success led to their own BBC
TV show "DAAS Love", the Channel Four series "Viva Cabaret" and appearances on 'Friday Night Live' with Ben Elton. DAAS took their confronting and often violent comic style to Japan in 1990. They won the Best Comedy Award at the Hokkaido International Festival and sold over 600,000 albums.
Their album, DAAS Icon
became Australia's best-selling independent album at the time.
DAAS broke out of the traditional small comedy venues to perform in major music venues, theatres and stadiums worldwide. Their tours broke box-office records.
In the 1990 Australian federal election, Ferguson stood as an independent candidate for the seat of Kooyong
, against the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Peacock
. Following a "Vote For Tim" campaign conducted by the Allstars on The Big Gig, he gained 3.7% of the vote.
In 1995, Ferguson appeared in Funky Squad, again on ABC
television, and hosted Don't Forget Your Toothbrush on the Nine Network
.
Ferguson's novel, Left, Right and Centre: A Tale of Greed, Sex and Power (ISBN 0-14-026579-1), was published by Penguin in 1997 and became Australia's #1 Best-seller for three months. Politician Graham Richardson
said of the book, "It scared the hell out of me".
During the 90s, Ferguson starred in Australian commercials advertising the video game console the Nintendo 64
.
Ferguson co-wrote and hosted eight series and twelve one-hour specials of his comedy clip show "Unreal TV
".
He has written various opinion pieces and articles for The Age
, Sydney Morning Herald and The Times
. He most notedly penned an alternative to the Australian Constitution Preamble.
In 2001, Ferguson branched out into production when he created, produced and co-wrote the TV1
comedy series Shock Jock
which ran for two series. In 2003, he hosted a talk back radio show on 3AK
and was the host of Big Brother Australia 2003's Big Brother The Insider. Ferguson also appeared in Fat Pizza: The Movie
as the magician "David Cockerfield."
Since then, Ferguson has continued his stand-up comedy and other television commentary and hosting, including "Good News Week
", "The Glass House
", "20 to 1
", Forgettherules and Network Ten
's Unreal TV
. In November 2005, he hosted the Sky Channel
National Day of Protest
against the Howard Government
's industrial relations changes.
He is now one of Australia's top corporate event performers, hosting events and conferences for Australasia's leading corporations. Ferguson's production company is currently developing the feature film Circle Work with Edwina Exton, assisted by Film Victoria. Circle Work is a romantic comedy based at a Bachelor & Spinster Ball
.
Ferguson is a sessional lecturer in Screenwriting and Writing TV Comedy at RMIT University
He won the RMIT Best Sessional Teacher Award in 2010.
In 2010, Ferguson was executive producer, writer and host of WTF - With Tim Ferguson on C31 Melbourne. WTF is directed by Marc Gracie (Full Frontal
, Unreal TV
).
He is currently touring his live standup comedy show "Carry a Big Stick", featuring tales and songs from his life on the 'comedy warpath'.
that he has Multiple Sclerosis
(MS), requiring him to occasionally use a walking cane. Ferguson has experienced MS for much of his adult life.
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
) is an Australian comedian and television presenter.
Background
Tim Ferguson grew up in the country town of BlayneyBlayney, New South Wales
Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre with a population of 2,745 in 2006, in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia...
, New South Wales before moving to Canberra, where he attended the radical free-school School Without Walls and Narrabundah College
Narrabundah College
Narrabundah College is a government college that teaches the last two years of secondary education in the Australian Capital Territory. It was the first school in Australia to offer the International Baccalaureate, starting the programme in February 1978....
. He is the son of Tony Ferguson, who was a Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
correspondent, the first reporter to release news of the Tet Offensive to the world media. Tony became executive producer of This Day Tonight
This Day Tonight
This Day Tonight was an Australian Broadcasting Corporation current affairs program of the late 1960s and early 1970s.- Overview :...
and Four Corners at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, and an offsider of the ABC's managing director, David Hill
David Hill (businessman)
David Hill is a British-born Australian businessman who has held a number of high profile senior positions with public authorities in Australia. He is also a writer....
.
Early career
Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...
, along with Paul McDermott
Paul McDermott (comedian)
Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week which airs in Australia on Network Ten...
and Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler is a well-known Australian Republican and Australian ABC TV and radio presenter. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars , an Australian musical comedy group also comprising Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott...
, on the UK Channel 4 television show "Friday Night Live
Friday Night Live
Friday Night Live may refer to:* Friday Night Live , a television series aired on Network Ten as a part of Big Brother Australia* Friday Night Live , successor to Saturday Live...
" and then the ABC television show, The Big Gig
The Big Gig
The Big Gig was a popular Australian television comedy series based on the British TV series Saturday Live. It was produced and broadcast by the ABC in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was produced and directed by Ted Robinson, who started his career as the director of the second series of the...
, where they quickly gained a following. This was soon followed by their own show, the sci-fi sitcom DAAS Kapital
DAAS Kapital
DAAS Kapital was an Australian television comedy series written and performed by comedy trio the Doug Anthony All Stars. The show starred Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler, along with Flacco, Michael Petroni, Bob Downe and Khym Lam....
.
The trio launched themselves at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986 and became the biggest selling comedy act in the festival for a decade. Their success led to their own BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV show "DAAS Love", the Channel Four series "Viva Cabaret" and appearances on 'Friday Night Live' with Ben Elton. DAAS took their confronting and often violent comic style to Japan in 1990. They won the Best Comedy Award at the Hokkaido International Festival and sold over 600,000 albums.
Their album, DAAS Icon
DAAS Icon
DAAS Icon is the first studio album recorded and released by Australian comedy trio, the Doug Anthony All Stars. Released in 1990, it features the singles "I Want to Spill the Blood of a Hippy" and "Bottle"...
became Australia's best-selling independent album at the time.
DAAS broke out of the traditional small comedy venues to perform in major music venues, theatres and stadiums worldwide. Their tours broke box-office records.
In the 1990 Australian federal election, Ferguson stood as an independent candidate for the seat of Kooyong
Division of Kooyong
The Division of Kooyong is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and encompasses the suburbs of Kew, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, Balwyn, Canterbury, Camberwell and Surrey Hills. The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was...
, against the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Peacock
Andrew Peacock
Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, GCL , is a former Australian Liberal politician. He was a minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments, and was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1983–1985 and 1989–1990...
. Following a "Vote For Tim" campaign conducted by the Allstars on The Big Gig, he gained 3.7% of the vote.
In 1995, Ferguson appeared in Funky Squad, again on ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
television, and hosted Don't Forget Your Toothbrush on the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
.
Ferguson's novel, Left, Right and Centre: A Tale of Greed, Sex and Power (ISBN 0-14-026579-1), was published by Penguin in 1997 and became Australia's #1 Best-seller for three months. Politician Graham Richardson
Graham Richardson
Graham Frederick Richardson , a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics,...
said of the book, "It scared the hell out of me".
During the 90s, Ferguson starred in Australian commercials advertising the video game console the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
.
Ferguson co-wrote and hosted eight series and twelve one-hour specials of his comedy clip show "Unreal TV
Unreal TV
Unreal TV is an Australian television show showcasing advertisements and weird video footage. It was hosted by Tim Ferguson and lasted from 1999 to 2001....
".
He has written various opinion pieces and articles for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, Sydney Morning Herald and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. He most notedly penned an alternative to the Australian Constitution Preamble.
Recent career
In 2010, Ferguson released "The Cheeky Monkey" (Currency Press), a comedy writing manual for screenwriters and comedians. The book offers "a revolutionary approach to comedy writing" and features what Ferguson calls "primal comedy". His Cheeky Monkey Comedy Writing courses tour worldwide.In 2001, Ferguson branched out into production when he created, produced and co-wrote the TV1
TV1
TV1 may refer to:* TV1 , Australian cable and satellite television channel* TV One , New Zealand television network* TV1 , defunct Estonian television channel* TV1 , Lithuanian television channel...
comedy series Shock Jock
Shock Jock
Shock Jock was an Australian television comedy series, broadcast on TV1.The series lasted for two series and was created by comedian Tim Ferguson...
which ran for two series. In 2003, he hosted a talk back radio show on 3AK
3AK
3AK is the call sign of SEN 1116 and earlier the on-air name of a former Melbourne talk-back radio and music station, which, in 2003, leased its licence to sports network SEN 1116...
and was the host of Big Brother Australia 2003's Big Brother The Insider. Ferguson also appeared in Fat Pizza: The Movie
Fat Pizza: The Movie
Fat Pizza is an Australian movie, based upon the stories and characters of the Pizza television series, created by Paul Fenech. It was released by Village Roadshow Pictures and made $7,888,102 at the Australian box office ....
as the magician "David Cockerfield."
Since then, Ferguson has continued his stand-up comedy and other television commentary and hosting, including "Good News Week
Good News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
", "The Glass House
The Glass House (TV series)
The Glass House was a half-hour Australian comedy talk show which screened on the ABC from 2001 to 2006.It was hosted by stand-up comedian Wil Anderson, and co-hosted by fellow television and radio comedians Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes...
", "20 to 1
20 to 1
20 to 1 is an Australian television series, currently hosted by Bert Newton that counts down an undefined "top 20" of elements or events of popular culture, such as films, songs, sporting scandals. Previously the show was hosted by Charles "Bud" Tingwell and narrated by David Reyne...
", Forgettherules and Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
's Unreal TV
Unreal TV
Unreal TV is an Australian television show showcasing advertisements and weird video footage. It was hosted by Tim Ferguson and lasted from 1999 to 2001....
. In November 2005, he hosted the Sky Channel
Sky Channel
Sky Channel can refer to any of the following.* In Europe, Sky Channel was a satellite television channel that was broadcast in the 1980s, it went on to become Sky1....
National Day of Protest
Australian industrial relations legislation national day of protest, 2005
A national day of protest was held in Australia on 15 November 2005, to protest against the industrial relations legislation being introduced by the government of Prime Minister John Howard...
against the Howard Government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...
's industrial relations changes.
He is now one of Australia's top corporate event performers, hosting events and conferences for Australasia's leading corporations. Ferguson's production company is currently developing the feature film Circle Work with Edwina Exton, assisted by Film Victoria. Circle Work is a romantic comedy based at a Bachelor & Spinster Ball
Bachelor and Spinster Balls
Bachelor and Spinster Balls events are hosted regularly in rural Australia, known locally as "B & S Balls" or simply "B&S's". They are staged for young spinsters and bachelors and traditionally the couples dress up in formal wear. Large volumes of cheap alcohol such as beer, spirits, Bundaberg...
.
Ferguson is a sessional lecturer in Screenwriting and Writing TV Comedy at RMIT University
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
He won the RMIT Best Sessional Teacher Award in 2010.
In 2010, Ferguson was executive producer, writer and host of WTF - With Tim Ferguson on C31 Melbourne. WTF is directed by Marc Gracie (Full Frontal
Full Frontal
Full Frontal may refer to:* Full Frontal , an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993* Full Frontal , a 2001 film by Kyle Schickner* Full Frontal , a 2002 film by Steven Soderbergh...
, Unreal TV
Unreal TV
Unreal TV is an Australian television show showcasing advertisements and weird video footage. It was hosted by Tim Ferguson and lasted from 1999 to 2001....
).
He is currently touring his live standup comedy show "Carry a Big Stick", featuring tales and songs from his life on the 'comedy warpath'.
Personal life
Ferguson announced on an episode of Good News WeekGood News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
that he has Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
(MS), requiring him to occasionally use a walking cane. Ferguson has experienced MS for much of his adult life.
External links
- Tim Ferguson's Manager
- International Comedians debate "The Cheeky Monkey - Writing Narrative Comedy"
- "The Cheeky Monkey - Writing Narrative Comedy" Currency Press
- Tim Ferguson talks about his book The Cheeky Monkey on Maynard's Malaise podcast
- "With Tim Ferguson" TV show blog
- Cheeky Monkey Comedy Website