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Foxtel Magazine, April 2001. By Adam Perrett.
For 10 years Tim Ferguson was the tall, good looking Doug Anthony All Star. Now the jokes and songs are long gone, Tim has embarked on a new career, bringing his new creation, the comedy/drama Shock Jock, to TV1.
There's more to life than singing crude songs and telling crude jokes, no matter how well you do it. For 10 years, Canberra-born Tim Ferguson was part of a group known as the Doug Anthony All Stars that was among the best in the world at shocking, and often offending, audiences. But all good things come to an end.
"It was very difficult. In the end it was I who turned and said 'I can't do this any more. I've got a family in Australia and we're bouncing around the world.' My choice was to drag my family with me, which we had done before, or leave them at home. At the end of the adventure I figured that our saddlebags weren't gonna get any more full, so that would have to do me. So we packed all the money in giant suitcases, mailed them to Switzerland and that was it."
After the axe was put to the All Stars in 1994, Tim was seen in the bizarre Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, the retro Funky Squad, the cult stage show Rocky Horror - spending nine months in stilettos as Frank N Furter - and in the clip show Unreal TV, which enters its sixth season this year.
It's fair to say that this strapping lad from Canberra has come a long way from his days of busking on the streets with Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler in order to pay the rent and, more importantly, to buy beer.
"People started laughing and giving us money and we all worked out that 'hey, even if we are no good at this, it's paying our rent, so let's stick with it'. And we literally did keep ourselves alive doing that same act, and many of the same jokes, for the 10 years that followed. It was a blind fluke. We were doing it for beer money. As things got bigger and better, we had to drink more beer."
Now living in Melbourne with his wife and three kids, Tim has taken on other projects over the years. 1997 saw the release of his first book, a political novel called Left, Right And Centre, and this year will see his second, Madhouse, a look at casino culture. On top of that, Tim has a column in Melbourne's The Age newspaper.
Then came the idea to be a producer.
"About 18 months ago I sat down and decided, 'producers: if you can't beat them, join then and then sack the bastards', which is why I joined up with Marc Gracie," who is well known as both a producer and director.
It's a path he hopes to follow. "I've done everything else in television and I think directing and producing is the next direction I want to head. I'd rather put my neck on the chopping block and screw up than just play it safe all the time and feel like I was asleep. This is new territory for me."
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If you remmeber Beta video, wore shoulder pads, played Pac Man, grew up in a world ruled by vinyl records, and listened to them on AM radio, Shock Jock is for you.
Barry Gold has had enough of his breakfast radio show in his country town. It's time he turned up the heat and hit the big time. The city is calling, fame is on its way.
What Barry doesn't know is Chat AM is struggling to stay in the game - bad ratings and the onslaught of FM has left the station on the brink of extinction. And to make matters worse, Barry is stuck on the night shift. So what's a 30-year-old, ambitious, Wham look-alike to do? Be controversial, that's what.
Coming to TV1 on April 1 is Shock Jock, a new Aussie drama/comedy about the lives of the staff at Chat AM, set firmly in the memorable '80s.
'It was very improtant to get good performances and to do that you need good actors,' explained creator Tim Ferguson of the cast that includes Matt Dyktynski, Michael Veitch and Rod Mullinar. 'And the good thing about that is good actors can cope with the schedule being more hectic than usual.'
Mowing through two episodes a week would definitely rate as hectic.
'They are all great actors. Up front we thought "should we get abunch of funny people and keep it light and fluffy or will we try to go for the drama?" Instead of relying on topicality and gags, the idea was to make it a drama first and worry about the humour second.'
Inspired by the recent cash-for-comments AM radio saga, Tim took his original idea for the show to an expert. 'I ran the Shock Jock concept past Marc Gracie [who had produced The Craic, Acropolis Now, Totally Full Frontal and Jimeoin, to name a few] and we too a jackhammer to the Shock Jock idea and managed to get lucky... it was a big call for a guy with five feature films on the boil to turn around and say, "this has legs, let's go for it." I'm enourmously lucky to have had that chance. Without Gracie, this thing would never have happened.'
Much of the humour comes from the show being set in the '80s. The attention to detail, especially in the costumes, will have many Gen Xers cringing or fondly reminiscing.
'Michael Chisolm was our wardrobe man, he's done all the big Aussie movies, his big thing is the '80s,' revealed Tim. 'He said that for the first time '80s clothes were hard to source. They've been on the rack but all of a sudden the '80s look is starting to creep back. People are looking at those bolero jackets and thinking 'maybe I could, maybe it still works.'" Scary thought.
'And Choose Life T-shirts were impossible to find. Everybody's either burnt them or they're saving them,' he said, with a wry laugh.
Now that's shocking.
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Tune into the stars of Chat AM, with Tim Ferguson.
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Barry Gold Matt Dyktynski
'I think Matt in the whole time - and we had 13 episodes to get into his head - I think forgot his lines three times, and were doing marathon scenes. The man has a brain the size of a planet.' |
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Tracy Tracey Sancia Robinson
'Sancia's developed this wild, uptight, overwrought manic girl who happens to be the only woman who works at the station, so I think she's done a great job crafting this very strange character.' |
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Jack Piper Michael Veitch
'Michael is known so well as being the funny guy from the D Gen and Fast Forward. He's done a fair bit of drama before, but never in a 13-weeks-of-the-same-character way. He's just great.' |
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Basil Hannigan Rod Mullinar
'He has been in everything great in Australian film. Working with Basil is like working with Elvis. Being vicious, nasty, horrible and hypocritical is quite an effort. But Basil's not a villain all the time.' |
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Clive Rank Tom Budge
'Not only is he a close personal friend of Kylie Minogue [check out the new Pepsi ads], he is going to be huge. One day we'll be saying, "we knew Tom" and he'll be saying, "and you are?"' |
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