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ROVE MC MANUS FLYING HIGH - SUNDAY MAGAZINE - BY MAREE CURTIS (28/01/01)

A few years ago, Rove Mc Manus was doing the dirty work in a pub. Now he's the bright young star of the stand-up circuit and his TV show, Rove live, is all set to enter its second season. Maree Curtis trades jokes with the grand poobah of comedy.

As head honcho of his own television production company, comedian Rove Mc Manus could call himself anything he likes - MD, CEO, chairman, - but that would be way too boring and pretentious. Instead, his business card announces that he is Roving Enterprises, Grand Poobah. "That is the title I prefer to be called, but around here they just tend to use Poobah."

Here, is a large, semi-converted warehouse that serves as the offices for the company. With its op shop furniture, handful of twenty-something staff and a variety of toys that are both decoration and distraction, it's more like a very big version of the shared-house than a corporate headquarters.

Grand Poobah? That must go down well in the boardroom. "I'm really the director of the company, but I'd never have that on my business card."

For the uninitiated, the Grand Poobah was the head of the Water Buffalo Lodge in The Flintstones. It is just another example of the seemingly endless inspiration Mc Manus gains from vintage popular culture. Part of the fun of his Rove live television show is picking up on the constant references (Star Wars is a particular favourite) to songs, films and television series, many made before he was born. It can also turn into an annoying distraction if you can't quite remember where the line comes from.

"I was only joking, "he insists, just in case I thought he was serious about the staff calling him Poobah. "They don't really call me that."

It's like the business card, he would hate you to think he was up himself. Mc Manus is at pains to appear "normal", no different from anyone else. A bit more famous perhaps, but definitely not better. In fact, its part of the secret to his success, he seems to be just an ordinary bloke, who happens to have a gig on TV.

Mc Manus is liberally blessed with the charm of his father's Irish heritage; he is entertaining, amusing, friendly and self-effacing without being falsely modest. He's a good bloke. And he's just a little bit shy. But he's not ordinary. At 27, he's a television veteran. The second series of his live national tonight show is about to go to air on the Ten Network. His sayings ("Crisis over", "Oh my word, it shall be fun", "Say hi to your mum for me") are working their way into the vernacular of the young and the cool. When he was just 25, he was hosting a similar show on a rival network which, despite it's late night timeslot, enjoyed enviable ratings. The show was not picked up after the first series but several months after being cancelled, it was nominated for two Logies. In a profession where many would sell their first-born child, for the chance of a guest appearance on national television, it's an impressive record.

As a bloke who prides himself on being down-to-earth, he almost can't quite let himself believe it. "I've got scrapbooks, three now. On the first page is a listing for a comedy club and they go right up to covers of magazines. I think, 'You're doing ok kiddo'. If it all came crashing down, like last year (when his show wasn't renewed), I can still open up my scrapbooks. I've got proof to show my kids that I'm not lying when I say dad used to be on television."

He still rings his parents to tell them when he's on TV or when an article is coming out, and a noticeboard in the outer office is covered with newspaper and magazine clippings about the show and its star. On the wall of his office there are pictures of a grinning Mc Manus with industry stalwarts such as Bert Newton (Mc Manus is a genuine fan), H.G. Nelson, Steve Vizard, Daryl Somers and Kate Fischer. His obvious delight in his good fortune, tempered with just the right amount of "why me?" is endearing.

Mc Manus's small frame, clad in jeans and a red Cat in the Hat T-shirt, is tucked into the corner of a battered green couch. He's hugging a Bugs Bunny cushion and I have Sylvester the Cat. He is "not very tall" (173 cm), and he's looking a little pale, but his hazel eyes twinkle as they do on television, lighting up his face with a look that suggests he's planning some wonderful mischief. He's cheeky. Oh, and he has nice teeth. "People always say that"

The most noticeable thing in the room is the toy collection. A variety of action figures are arranged on his desk, shelves hold an assortment of games (including a Sale of the Century game signed by Glenn Ridge) water pistols, robots and great big clowns feet. He points out that he doesn't really play with the toys. Really? Well not a lot anyway. Only sometimes, like today because I'm visiting. "I don't, like, role-play. That would be borderline neurotic. I might just spin a head around when I'm on the phone or something"

The largest photo on his desk is a stunning shot of Belinda Emmett. Mc Manus has been going out with the blonde actor and television personality for a little over a year and they are Australia's hot celebrity couple. They are the darlings of the women's magazines because they are happy to be photographed together. Early on they decided it would be too difficult and too ridiculous to pretend they were not involved, but they have steadfastly refused to do a joint "relationship story".

As well as attempting to maintain some privacy, in the relationship's early days Mc Manus was concerned lest anyone think he was using Emmett's then higher profile to advance his own celebrity. "I was still very new and she'd been in the television industry and an actor for seven years. I didn't want to be seen like I was pushing myself up. It's not a publicity stunt, it's real life. Every now and then something will happen and you'll read about it. It's something you think is private and now everyone knows about it."

The couple also have the tyranny of distance to contend with. Emmett's career is firmly Sydney-based while Mc Manus has just bought his first home in Melbourne's inner city. "it's tough but we get by. It's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. It's unavoidable at the moment, but the ultimate aim is to eventually live in the same city."

Along with the stardust sprinkled on him by Irish ancestors, Mc Manus has a good dollop of the work ethic and pragmatism of his mother's Scottish heritage. He served his apprenticeship doing stand-up in comedy rooms in his native Perth and later in Melbourne and Sydney, and honed his television skills hosting a tonight show on Melbourne's community broadcaster Channel 31. He stood up to commercial television executives who argued that tonight shows didn't work in this country and, even if they did, he was too young to host one. He worked hard and is talented, but this doesn't necessarily guarantee success in the television industry. "I know that I am a very lucky person. I am an example of what can happen, not an example of what does happen."

Mc Manus, two older sisters and a younger brother grew up in the Perth suburb of Willetton. His father was a hotel broker ("an estate agent that sells hotels"). Why his parents chose the name Rove, given that they christened his siblings Catherine, Julie and Luke, remains a mystery, but he has promised to ask his mum about it. It was an inspired tough of serendipity; a name like Rove Mc Manus is destined to be up in lights.

The young Rove's journey to stardom started with an astute primary school teacher, who suggested theatre classes run by a man called Gerry Atkinson. "Gerry became a mentor. Over the years a lot of people have attributed themselves with putting me where I am today. But if anyone can claim that, it will be Gerry."

Though he discovered a "love of performing" after successfully auditioning for school plays in years 11 and 12, Mc Manus decided he wanted to be a cartoonist. He took a year off after high school, worked in a hotel bottle shop by day and as a barman by night. "I had a lot of friends that leapt straight into Uni. but I always said to myself that I would take a year off. I worked in the pub as a glassie, cleaning up ashtrays, dirty glasses and other people's vomit. I loved it" Not. "I worked my way up"

During quiet times in the bottle shop, mates would drop by and they would start working on a few ideas with the thought of getting something onto the local community radio station. They sent a demo tape, the station played a few sketches and a young comedian was born. Still believing he needed a real job, Mc Manus enrolled for a fine arts degree at the Claremont School of art, but the stage beckoned. "It was like working in the pub but this time I was student by day, comedian by night. I was living the Batman lifestyle."

Buoyed by their radio success, Mc Manus and his friends took their material to Perth's biggest stand-up comedy room. "We dies a horrible horrible death. Stunk it up big time. It is the worst feeling in the world. We performed a sketch in a stand up room to an audience used to being performed to and interacted with. We effectively put up a wall and ignored them. The audience started talking, which is worse than silence. At least when they're silent, they're still paying attention. "

Shaken but not stirred, McManus and his mates wrote a comedy rap sketch and performed it at a university review. "I got my first really big laugh and I thought, this feels good. It became addictive after that." It took a while to build up courage to return to the scene of his big flop, but with only two real comedy rooms in town, Mc Manus eventually had to face up to it. He was 19 and "did great"

When he finished his degree, Mc Manus had to make a decision, Comedy or art. "Going into cartooning then would have meant starting over again on the bottom rung. The comedy was going well and I was getting better so I thought to myself that I'd give it a go." That meant leaving Perth. At 21, Mc Manus told his parents that he was shifting out of home, sold his car and flew to the East Coast. "I knew one person here and I crashed on their floor for a month or so. Then I found a shoebox of a flat and thus my illustrious TV and comedy career began in Melbourne."

As is the way of such things, a guy in Perth mentioned Mc Manus's name to a guy in Melbourne and he started working the local comedy circuit. "I was swept off my feet. I'm on the bill with people like Tony Martin, Judith Lucy, Jimeoin, and I'm sitting there going, wow. These are people that I'd admired for years and that's my name on the running order. Granted I am at the very end." Not for long.

Mc Manus's first TV gig was a guest spot on a very short-lived ABC series, Something Hot before Bed. "It was meant to be the next Big Gig, but it wasn't. It was good experience. And it was still something I could ring mum and dad and tell them to watch." But it was a gust appearance on a pilot for a tonight-style show called The Loft on Channel 31 that gave Mc Manus his entree into the commercial networks.

The people at 31 who make such decisions loved the pilot, not the host, and offered the position to Mc Manus. The Loft was a full on, host-behind-the-desk-two-chairs-for-guests show in the David Letterman, Jay Leno mould. "We actually got into trouble for being too slick and too professional." What was the attraction for the tonight show format for a cool, up-and-coming young comic in his early 20's? It is a genre dominated by middle aged Americans. In Australia, when we think tonight show, we think Graeme Kennedy, Bert Newton, Don Lane. Mc Manus was-still is- a bit, well, young, wasn't he? "So I've been told." Over and over and over again apparently. "And they (the commercial networks) said they don't work in this country. But I said, why not? We had a show on community television and we had people writing into the TV guides saying they liked the show. That said to me that we were doing something right."

One thing led to another and Mc Manus produced a pilot for the Nine Network in March 1999. For possibly the first serious time in his life, luck wasn't on his side. Nine signed comic Mick Molloy mid-year and it was his show that went to air. Although he denies it strenuously, it's hard to believe that Mc Manus wasn't just a little bit pleased when Molloy's show crashed and burned; Mc Manus may be a nice guy, but he is human, after all.

Proud of it's position as the home of variety television and, perhaps hoping to regain some credibility after the failure of the Molloy venture, nine put Rove to air. After a ten week run, ratings in the low to mid teens- excellent for an 11pm Wednesday timeslot-and lots of publicity hype about Mc Manus being the new Daryl Somers, Graeme Kennedy, Bert Newton etc, Nine dropped the show. "I still have no idea what happened. If I could read the mind of TV executives I would never have to worry about my job again. When it all came crashing down, I went 'Okay, maybe that's all I was meant to do, maybe that was my big foray into television, maybe it was too much, too soon. ' It was a huge reality check and I came down with a little bit of a thud. I wasn't getting mobbed in the street or anything, but my profile had lifted and I was just starting to enjoy it and then it finished. But at least I had the chance, not many people even have that."

A few months later, Mc Manus found a new home at Network Ten, an arrangement that is working very well for both parties. Over the past couple of years, Ten has successfully repositioned itself for the magical 18-35 demographic, an audience drawn to shows such as X Files, The Simpsons, Beverly Hills 90210 and The Panel. It is also the home of Bert (he has achieved such cult status that, to Australia's youth, no surname is necessary) Bert was Mc Manus's first guest on the opening night of Rove[live]. It was a classic television moment, the master and his protege. "I want to be Bert" Mc Manus says, only half joking. "He's a legend. He's very funny, very sharp. He's still irreverent and that's why he's still going. He's fresh, he's not jaded and he isn't bored. And he's very naughty: sometimes the things he says at ten in the morning- you can't say that sort of stuff"

There's no doubt that a few years experience on the tough stand-up comedy circuit is a boon for live television. Mc Manus has the gift of being bale to ad-lib, a huge bonus when things go wrong, as they inevitable do, or when guests are not very forthcoming. "If I could go back and choose a different path, I wouldn't. I have benefited the most by going through those avenues. It's the perfect gig for a comedian. I get to write material every week, I get to be myself and be spontaneous with my humour and I get to meet people 12 times more famous than myself and chat to them" wow.

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