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TV Week, September 1999. By Juliet Rieden.
Believe it or not, comedian Tim Ferguson doesn't consider himself to be a funny man - and he's not just being modest.
No, the one-time member of the Doug Anthony Allstars, presenter of the ill-fated Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, Frank N' Furter in the hit stage production of The New Rocky Horror Picture Show and satirical novelist reckons being funny is "a skill" that he's still mastering. "There's nothing natural to it," he pleads.
But for an "unfunnyman", Tim has a habit of reducing an audience to fits of uncontrollable laughter - which is perhaps why he's been snapped up by Network Ten for its new entertainment series, Unreal TV.
"The show is a compilation of the best bits of the weirdest TV from around the globe," Tim, who plays host in frortoof a live audience, says
Unreal TV picks up where Clive James left off - surfing the world's TV, film and commercials for bizarre momments of onscreen madness - and it's Tim's job to fill in the gaps between the clips.
But the comedian is much more than a glorified autocue reader, Unreal TV is very much Tim's show, and he aims to keep it that way.
"I've been hired to open my big, fat mouth," he chuckles. "I couldn't be one of those hosts who's gaffer-taped to the couch reading the autocue."
Tim's last big TV job was in he hosted Nine Network's Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, an outlandish game show based on the hit English show of the same name. Unfortunately, Australian viewers didn't warm to the Toothbrush and it was axed after one series.
After Toothbrush, Tim went behind the camera at Nine, learning how to produce. "I learned new skills and found producing very much my kind of thing - generating ideas, thinking up shows, problem-solving".
He now has his own production company (Mocking Bird Productions) and is planning to cash in on what he sees as the current reawakening of TV comedy with some ideas of his own.
"It's the most exciting time in Australian comedy for a long while," he says. "The Panel is a brilliant show, Good News Week has some of the best joke writers in the country and Mick Molloy is a genius. Forget what happened - he has more talent in his little pinkie than I'll ever have."
With the production company, his new role as Unreal TVs prime joker, guest appearances on a host of other shows and third novel in the wings, Tim reckons his future is secure.
"Fingers in many pies" is his motto, and it's certainly serving him well. In fact, the 35-year-old father of three couldn't ask for any more. "I'm the luckiest man in the world," he beams.
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