If his home was on fire, Shaun Micallef would just let it all burn to the ground and he wouldn’t look back. Loved ones and pets aside, he hastily qualifies.
It’s a concept he’s been pondering given that his new ABC show, Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction, sees him chatting with two celebrity guests and posing the question: “If your house was about to be destroyed, what two things would you save?”
The Adelaide-born-and-bred host quips that the eight-part talk show will be almost like a therapy session with his guests, as they bring along the two physical items they would rescue. And Micallef’s own response to the question also seems like something a therapist would love to unpack.
“Okay, look there’s a couple of autographed books but I’d hate to have to make a choice because there’s too many and I would feel paralysed by indecision in that moment – essentially putting myself in harm’s way,” he says.
“I can’t choose between my autographed book of Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin, Or the one autographed by John Cleese or another one by Eric Idle. I mean, who would I leave behind?”
Micallef muses this is indicative of his ability to live very much in the present.
“And I’ve got my memory, you know, unless I hit my head on the way out. And I think my inability – or perhaps my unwillingness – to choose to save anything speaks very highly of me that I have lived in the moment.”
He is even happy for all record of his illustrious four decade-career – which includes stage, drama and comedy shows across a few networks – to be wiped.
“I’m happy to see anything I’ve done on TV to go. I’d be setting fire to the YouTube; iview – that could all go. I don’t want anything to remain – ashes to ashes and all that.
“I think it’s indicative of me – I don’t tend to look back that much. I always encourage my sons (with wife Leandra) to do the same thing – not looking back or resting on your laurels. I’m not terribly sentimental, I suppose is what I’m saying.”
It’s three days before shooting begins on Micallef’s latest work for the ABC, and he’s wandering the corridors of the national broadcaster’s Melbourne building. Ostensibly he’s seeking a spot where the reception’s great – but also, he’s got nothing to do during the day until he’s hosting the new chat show, which will feature guests including cricketer Usman Khawaja, actors Stephen Curry and Rebecca Gibney, and comedian Mary Coustas.
“I’m so happy to talk to you – to anybody, really, given I’m largely irrelevant now,” Micallef laughs, tongue firmly planted in his cheek about his absence from our screens.
Shaun Micallef is back in the groove as host of a new eight-part talk show on ABC TV and iview. Photo: ABC
The three-time Logie winner hung up the mic on his popular comedy news program Mad as Hell in 2022 after 15 seasons. He was ready.
“But then in 2023 I was starting to get really antsy about doing something new – I knew I didn’t want to do any more Mad as Hell,” Micallef shares, adding he even had to switch off completely from the news for a while.
“It got to the point where I was watching the news and thinking up jokes instinctively – just wasn’t taking it seriously any more. I didn’t want to be that person.”
He got his groove back by travelling. There was the small matter of a role in Time Bandits, a 10-episode series for AppleTV+, directed by Taika Waititi with a cast led by Friends’ Lisa Kudrow. Oh, and he wrote a trio of books – two for children and an anthology of parody, poetry, prose – all to come out within a month of each other this year.
“I’m kind of kind of at the age now where I’m willing my own children to produce,” Micallef says, of his burgeoning desire to write children’s books.
“I think that’s what it is. I think I’m keen to be a grandparent.”
Family ties are important and Micallef gets back to his hometown as often as he can – especially to visit his parents “who are getting on a bit”.
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And, in a twist to his usual mantra of not looking back, he’s soon heading here for his school reunion at Sacred Heart College, where he was college captain before graduating in ’79.
He’s confident it will be easier than the previous gathering.
“It’s quite nice to be able to go to a second one and just be beyond the fact of trying to work out who’s who – because people change a lot in 40 years,” Micallef says with a laugh.
“My eyesight is going so I was trying to read the badges. But now that it’s not that long since I last saw them, I’ll remember them, and they’ll remember me, and we can have a bit more of a decent conversation.
“So I’m kind of looking forward to that – it will be fun.”
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction premieres at 8pm on August 14 on ABC and iview.
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