The West Australian, 5th October 1989
We all owe a debt of gratitude to a "crap military brass band" for forming the anarchic genius that is the Doug Anthony All Stars.
Tim Ferguson, 25, and his fellow Canberra friends, Paul McDermott, 24, and Richard Fidler, 24, are probably the funniest trio to gift Australian television in years.
But they only progressed into comedy through "a brass military cadet band which we performed in at the age of 14 - and it was the only way we could get out of waving bayonets at stuffed dummies in cadet training."
"As the years went by we lost our loathing for girls and each other and decided that comedy was the only way to go," Ferguson said.
"We started as a busking trio and told jokes between songs. But after a few months we had to go overseas as the only way to succeed in Australia is to go overseas and then come back and say how successful you were."
Ferguson finds it frustrating that DAAS had to go overseas before they received any recognition here.
"We sold out venues in London and performed really well at the Edinburgh Festival, but when we came back to Australia it was as if no one would believe us," he said.
But through the ABC's The Big Gig, hosted by Wendy Harmer, DAAS have shot to fame in rapid time.
Ferguson believes they are now famous because DAAS manipulated the public into believing they were famous and so everyone believed them.
Television can be a deceptive medium as DAAS appear to have formed for the sole purpose of fighting, drinking and robbing banks.
But over the telephone Ferguson talks quietly and rarely becomes animated in contrast to his riotous behaviour on The Big Gig.
Ferguson said they called themselves The Doug Anthony All Stars after their manager of the same name.
The problem with interviewing comedians is that you never know if they are being sarcastic or truthful.
Previous interviews with DAAS said they got the name from the former Country Party leader and one time Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Doug Anthony.
But in this interview they labelled him "a nobody" and said "despite the fact we grew up in Canberra, we know nothing about politics.
"People keep saying to us why call yourself the DAAS, and in a way that is our cross to bear - but then again we all live in a hellish world we didn't create so we will just have to put up with it," Ferguson said.
Another self-inflicted millstone they have to bear is writing a book, wittily titled Book, that people expect to be funny. Ferguson says it is influenced more by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment than comedy.
"Their expectation of reading a comedy ruins their enjoyment of the first two chapters which are very dark and nasty," he said.
"Once they forget it is actually written by us, they will probably enjoy it - I tell people to read it from back to front."
Ferguson said they hoped to release another three books at three-monthly intervals and defended himself from accusations of exploiting their new-found fame, saying: "We started writing books well before we were doping anything else.
"People find it funny that we have written a book, but comedy is basically all about reading out loud to an audience."
Ferguson said their next book would be called The Book of the Film and would be followed by Gods and Icon.
He said they were having a lot of legal problems with Icon in "Thatcher's Britain" due to their views on the political situation in Europe and their position on church ideology.
The Doug Anthony All Stars will play at His Majesty's Theatre at 8pm today and at 6pm and 9pm tomorrow and Saturday.
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