GOOD NEWS WEEK CLOSING CEREMONY - GNW'S LAST EVER SHOW (08/11/00) - BY EPOD "I regret that Good News Week went commercial" - Flacco (GNW finale 08/11/00) "Nothing like a quote taken out of context." - Epod (15/11/00) It is the final taping of Good News Week ever. Sydneys' ornate Capital Theatre is packed full of people who want to say their last goodbyes to GNW - the show that has been mangled beyond recognition by the wonder that is commercial televison. Earlier in the evening during his standard pre show spiel, Ted Robinson, producer of Good News Week has thanked everyone for coming along and supporting the show. There are lots of people here tonight who've heard this speil over and over again, but they still seem to laugh in all the right places. Me included. I take the time to turn off anything that vibrates or might go bump in the night. I check that I'm not at the taping with someone I don't want to be seen with on national television. I will try to resist the temptation to say "Hi mum!" if I see a camera pointed at me. I remember that if there is a fire or famine or other emergency to follow the crew "cause they'll be the one's running". I will also make a point to remember that if I have any question in my mind as to whether something is funny or not "to laugh anyway, otherwise there are going to be thousands of people all around Australia, pointing at their tv sets saying, 'that dickhead didn't get the joke." Unbelievably, people still turn up late. They've paid $45.10 for the privelege of seeing the final show and they're late. Ted asks if there's anything that he can get them, "...like a watch." I applaud, "spontaneously, and on the count of three." Paul Mc Dermott, Mikey Robbins and Julie Mc Crossin are now onstage. Paul is sick (again). He asks the audience whether anyone has had the horrible flu that he's got. A number of hands are raised in the audience and he displays a brief look of confusion for a moment and says, "oh...I didn't realise I kissed every one of you?!" It's only a few minutes into the show and GNW's "workplace health and saftey" is called into question when Mikey Robbins falls into a hole (literally). Paul assists Mikey out of the hole - how he actually did this (and how much he and Mikey enjoyed it) is most probably better left unexplained. Julie is watching all this from the other side of the stage and simply shakes her head and smiles at what she has just seen. Julie Mc Crossin is an amazing performer, who is often overlooked in the shadow of Paul Mc Dermott and Mikey Robbins. In fact, one can almost be bowled over by the amount of positivity, energy, thoughtfulness and intelligence that radiates from this very talented woman. One of the things that I loved most about all the GNW tapings that I've attended was when Paul and Mikey went into what was dubbed as "creepy land". (ie. finding the line between good and bad taste and then going way over it) Julie was always the voice of reason. Seeing her sometimes helpless attempts at trying to get two grown men to 'behave' caused me and many others no end of amusement. It is a shame that a lot of stuff that happened during the tapings of Good News Week never made it to air. Some of it was because it was "too rude" (aka creepy land), other stuff never was shown because they could've been sued over it. There was also considerably more stuff taped then what actually ended up in the televised version of GNW, so I do feel a little sorry for those who weren't lucky enough to attend a taping at some point during the five years of GNW. I consider it to have been so much of a privilege for me to be lucky enough to live in Sydney and to have the opportunity to attend so many tapings. Back to the show though, and Paul has just completed his monologue, and newspaper has been exploded from the paper cannons all over the stage. Explosions. Something that Good News Week have done plenty of. Also something that tends to scare the crap out of me every time they happen. I was absolutely fearsome at a GNW debate taping earlier this year when they let Rove Mc Manus loose with a blow torch. Particularly when they had to redo the segment again as something went wrong. Paul and Mikey look on as the paper that has just been exploded is hastily picked up from the stage and put into bins by the GNW crew, and then Paul overly enthusiastically starts picking up papers and throwing them away. It is then, amongst all the paper that has been sent flying that he discovers a picture of Olympic starlet, Nicki Webster. After much deliberation he chooses to place her picture back into the paper cannon, "so that everyone can see her fly again" A small group of shrieking teenage girls begin screeching "We love you Paul!!!", which proves to be truly irritating. A young gentleman in the audience offers a promising retaliation to their statement by yelling sincerely, "I love you Paul!". Some hecklers in the balcony also make the mistake of telling Paul that "they're from Campbelltown!", and he lets fly with plenty of jokes, in fact they're the jokes that he usually reserves for the people of Adelaide. i.e - "look out! they've got knives!!!", and "oh, it's okay, you can jump". I watched as a huge number of guests were introduced and it was almost a surreal experience for me to see all those people on stage, right in front of me, knowing that this was the last time this was ever going to happen. These were the people who'd made me laugh so many times - some of whom I would never have been introduced to had it not been for Good News Week... Rove Mc Manus, Natasha Stott Despoja, Bob Downe, Tanya Bulmer, James O' Laughlin, Corinne Grant, Rhys Muldoon, Richard Fidler, Joanna Griggs, Peter Berner, Wil Anderson, Rod Quantock, Kate Fisher, Flacco, The Sandman. After a massive five hours taping of GNW, and musical performances by 'The Gadflys', 'Anastacia', 'Paul Mc Dermott and Mark Trevorrow', the show was drawing to a close. GNW ended with what I thought was very little fanfare at all, and there were not a lot of tears. I think everyone involved had already realised a very long time ago that it was time to move on. Paul Mc Dermott ended the show by singing the Britney Spears song, "Lucky", and also with a big pash from Wil Anderson. The audience ended the show with a standing ovation. I think that it's going to be a very long time until Australian tv comes up with a show that has anywhere near as much wit and personality as Good News Week, but it was good while it lasted, and the memories of it will last forever. "The End." - Sandman (08/11/00)

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