Fiona Byrne: Mick Molloy talks about life as a dad and what the future holds
Radio and TV funnyman Mick Molloy has opened up about life as a father, the future of The Front Bar and the mystery surrounding his controversial, headline-making beard.
Fiona Byrne
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Fatherhood has made radio and TV funny guy, Mick Molloy, a better man.
Molloy, 52, is finding plenty of laughs as dad to six-year-old twins, Fred and Lenny, admitting his sons have made him more responsible and less “the centre of my own universe”.
Molloy is kicking plenty of goals at the moment. His national Triple M Drive show, KennedyMolloy, which he co-hosts with longtime friend Jane Kennedy, is powering ahead and his Channel 7 show The Front Bar, which was the TV footy story of last year, and looks set to continue to be a ratings winner when it returns for 2019 on Wednesday.
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Family, footy and friends have proved to be a winning combination for the clever comic who after more than 30 years in the entertainment business continues to find the funny side of life. He tells Fiona Byrne why:
FB: Hello Mick, how’s life?
MM: I am as happy as I have ever been, to tell you the truth. I am in a very good place. I love both my jobs, which are a great footy show (The Front Bar) and a great radio show (Triple M’s KennedyMolloy with Jane Kennedy). I do both shows with really good friends and I have two six and a half year old boys (Fred and Lenny) who all of a sudden think I am OK. So every aspect of my life is up and running, touch wood.
FB: Has becoming a dad changed you?
MM: Absolutely, totally. They have changed me. What I love is that I am no longer the centre of my own universe, which is quite liberating because it means I make decisions for reasons other than just myself, and that is a great change. As my mum said, ‘you have had it too good for too long, it is about time you took responsibility for something other than yourself,’ that was what I got back across the table when I told her I was having children and she was 100 per cent right of course. People said (when the boys were born that) the time would fly and I always thought, ‘that is interesting because six hours can be a long haul,’ but it is true. I remember announcing it live on The Hot Breakfast to the most shocked audience of all time. It was Ed (McGuire) and Darce (Luke Darcy) and I was playing a game with them. I said guess which high profile Melbourne celebrity is about to have a child. It took them about 10 guesses before they said, ‘it is not you, is it?’ And then there was stony silence followed by outrageous laughter and disbelief. And I said, ‘by the way, there is two of them.’ To think that is six and a half years ago is incredible. It puts everything in context.
FB: Do they keep you on the run?
MM: Early days it was tougher but now as they get older they have each other and they become easier to manage than just one. I can’t take all the credit because I don’t have them all the time. The only time you need to worry is when it goes too quiet. Your ear is tuned into the idea of that silence being damning; something big is going down, you need to get on this.
FB: Do any moments of that silence spring to mind?
MM: They stole my golf cart, crashed it and did a runner. They were four and a half. I hear bang and go out the front (of my house) and there is my golf cart crashed into the garage and them not to be seen.
FB: You are a huge supporter of the Richmond Football Club. Are yoursons following in your footsteps?
MM: They are little Richmond fans, they go every week with me.
The first questions they are ask every weekend is did the Tigers win and did the Pies lose. I am so proud. They are little Tigers and I love it.
FB: I am surprised one of them was not called Dusty (after Dustin Martin).
MM: I would have if I could have. I suggested it (but) it was knocked back at the time, quite quickly and without negotiation.
FB: How are you enjoying the national Triple M Drive shift compared to the breakfast shift, which you used to host in Melbourne.
MM: I loved the people (on The Hot Breakfast), I could work with that crew until the end of time, but it is no secret that I am not a morning person. I do my best work in the afternoon around about knock off time and I think most people who know me agree that it suits my lifestyle much better with my other responsibilities. There is also the fact that I wanted the opportunity to work with Jane again after all these years. She was as keen as mustard to get back involved (in radio). She had been on a different journey, which had involved her raising five children. I think her motivation was to get out of the house. I was doing it to spend more time with my boys, whereas she was doing it to get away from her children. It was the perfect project for both of us.
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FB: The show had a great survey last week lifting by 1.9 ratings
points in Melbourne.
MM: The more flying hours we get together the better it is. National Drive is probably the most competitive timeslot with a number of bloody good shows floating around. People have their favourites and changing people’s listening habits is not easy. Put it this way, it is easy to get rid of them (listeners), it is hard to attract them, so when you come on (with a new show) you will lose everyone who does not want to listen to you well before you can draw in those people who want to find you. We are a year into the show now and I feel the show sounds better than it ever has and it feels to me like we are starting to grow an audience. It was a great survey for us but there might be a correction. I am hopeful that we are about to see a trend. It was a great result for our team and we were all really rapt.
FB: Your other show The Front Bar was the TV footy hit of last year. Did its success surprise you?
MM: We never had any design in place, we just wanted to make a footy show were we could do as we wanted. Initially that was online because no one was really that keen (on putting the show to air) then we got CUB involved and that made it more attractive to a network and from there we have done the grounds. We have gone from online to way after the game (on Channel 7) to just after the game, to 8.30pm last year.
There was a time when we were pretty vulnerable. There was a week where we rated about 60,000 and I really credit Channel 7 because they said, ‘you know what, let’s just have a go’. We never designed it to go head to head with The Footy Show. Seven put it in (against it) and it just kicked straight away. We were just as excited and surprised as everyone, but we have never looked back from there.
FB: Nine is putting a new look Footy Show up against The Front Barthis year. Are you worried?
MM: We never worried about who we were going up against (when the show was starting) and I don’t think we care again. We (his Front Bar co-hosts Sam Pang and Andy Maher) just go to work and say, ‘what is making us laugh?’ It has got us this far. I still think there are people who are going to be drawn to us. We haven’t peaked. In my time I have had the pleasure of working on some very good shows and a couple of not so good shows so I am pretty good at interpreting people’s genuine reactions and people genuinely seem to like this program and go out of their way to say so.
FB: You mentioned not so good TV shows. What has been your biggest failure?
MM: I learnt the most off The Mick Molloy Show (which ran for eight episodes on Channel 9 in 1999) because I went into that with all guns blazing. I honestly thought I was bulletproof. I was coming off The Late Show and I learned pretty quickly from 9 that the clock was ticking on us. I had a very good entertainment lawyer, who I still have, who had a far more sober understanding of where we were at and I was crushed because I did not see it coming. The show was a lot better than it is remembered however it was a folly. I bit off too much too soon. I just did not question that it would not work. But I would not change it because all of a sudden I had nothing to do and so I did something I had not planned to do which was write a movie, Crackerjack. Had the TV show kicked I would never have written it. Crackerjack came out of the rubble of The Mick Molloy Show.
FB: So failure can be positive?
MM: I have learnt more from my failures than I have learnt from my successes and anyone who never takes a risk or never takes a punt is robbing themselves of possible life changing scenarios. I learnt more about where I want to go, I learnt more about who is really on my side, who were the good guys, who were the bad guys, what you did right, what you did wrong, how you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep coming. I can sit here before you now and tell you that you will see a couple more spectacular failures before I am done and if not I don’t think I am doing my job.
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FB: Have you had mentors along the way?
MM: You always remember people who gave you time when you were on the way up. The people like John Clarke I will never forget. We (his production company) shared an office with John Clarke for a while. He script edited Crackerjack with us. He was upstairs and we were downstairs. Whenever we had a problem we would just run upstairs and go ‘Oh John’ and he would come down and go, ‘look I was not slated for this meeting,’ but for the price of a good sandwich he would sit down and give you an hour of his time and I will never forget it. It was one of the most great mentoring teachable moments.
FB: I believe The D-Generation gave you your start after seeing you ina Uni Review and that you had been inspired to pursue comedy afterseeing them in an earlier Uni Review.
MM: I saw them when I was at school. I went to see a Uni Review and went back home and said that (comedy) is what I want to do. It is a long process when you are working with that group of people to earn
your stripes and feel like you are part of the team and consider them peers and friends. I have learnt more off that group of people than anyone else in the business.
FB: You co-wrote and starred in the films Crackerjack and Boytown. Will you write another movie?
MM: Movies take about three or four years of your life, they are very hard work, they are going to be on the shelf forever and it is very hard to get them to work and pay their way. I am not sure I can take a massive risk like that; a big slab out of my life. If I did not have any responsibilities I’d write one tomorrow but looking at what is ahead of me I need to calm the farm.
FB: Did you always know you were funny?
MM: No. My first memory of trying to make people laugh was writing letters to my grandfather. My grandfather was a journalist/photographer from the Courier Mail. He use to write me letters all the time trying to make me laugh and so I use to write him back trying to make him laugh. I still have a shoebox full of letters. That was my first effort as a writer and my first effort trying to make someone laugh. I reckon I would have been 8 or 9.
FB: What goals have you set for this year?
MM: I am pretty lucky to have two shows that I love and I just want to keep working on them and to nurture them. And I want to be a good dad. That is all I want to achieve his year.
FB: What advice would you give people starting out?
MM: Just back yourself, be prepared to fail and learn from it. Give it a go. Don’t die wondering.
FB: You have been an entertainment fixture for more than 30 years. Is being true to yourself a key to longevity?
MM: I can do 10 degrees either side of Mick Molloy and that is it for me, that is my magnificent range, that is all I have got going for me. It is too late (to change) now, isn’t it. No-one would buy it and there is no point. I am as happy as I have ever been to tell you the truth.
FB: Finally, you are currently sporting the most controversial set of whiskers on Australian TV. What is the future for the headline-making beard?
MM: The jury is out. I am thinking of going rogue. But I might also shave it on the actual show.
KennedyMolloy with Mick Molloy and Jane Kennedy can be heard on Triple
M from 4pm-6pm weekdays.
The Front Bar returns on Wednesday, March 20 at 9pm on Channel 7.
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