Few Australian performers could manage to get a Catholic priest on stage shouting, "I'm running and leaping for Satan is Lord!" The infamous Doug Anthony Allstars pulled off such a stunt. "Ireland was fun," says one of the trio, Tim Ferguson. "We really did get the priest up on stage with us but he wasn't wearing his robes or anything. Actually we didn't know he was a priest until he told us. I nearly choked on my drink."
After reaching a national audience through their anarchic spot on ABC's Big Gig several years back, things have bloomed for the Canberra trio who are now based in London and are regulars on the new British television show Viva Cabaret.
Joining the Dougs - Paul McDermott (the nasty one), Tim Ferguson (the gorgeous one) and Richard Fidler (the guitarist) - on Viva Cabaret are among others, Sandra Bernhard, Julian Clary and Tom Jones.
Since they began busking in the national capital in the mid-Eighties, the Doug Anthony Allstars have appeared at comedy festivals, including Edinburgh, Montreal, New York and Melbourne.
Complementing the Dougs' full-frontal comedy routine are their considerable musical skills. They have recently completed their second CD.
It will no doubt sit well among the other marketable by-products released by the trio including their own film, videos and books.
Paul McDermott says their act had been popular in England before the Big Gig made them national identities in Australia. "We played on the English television show, Friday Night Live. When we got back to Australia no-one had ever heard of us and we survived by busking in Melbourne."
However, after a five-season stain with The Big Gig, the Dougs were given their own television show DAAS Kapital. One of the better reviews was in the Melbourne Age: the show was described as "television on the edge of chaos".
"I suppose that's what you get when you have a weekly comedy show without a script or story-line, based on a Peter Greenway-type film plot," says Fidler. "No-one said it was boring," chips in Ferguson.
This year DAAS will tour universities in England, and are planning to return to Ireland.
